If your credit is bad, why pay the red light ticket?

After reading this article in the Knoxville News Sentinel, I have to question why anyone who already has bad credit would ever pay one of these tickets. Considering that Tennessee is basically the bankruptcy capital of the world, that would be a lot of people.

Lasercraft turns unpaid tickets over to a collection agency after 120 days. That leaves letters and calls from bill collectors as the only penalty, at least so far.

"There are no points and no loss of license," said Michelle Hamblin, office manager for Lasercraft's automated enforcement in Knoxville. "The majority will pay, especially once they're contacted by a collection agency. They can work out a payment plan with the collection agency."

The tickets don't affect a violator's driving record, so the city can't ask the state to suspend a driver's license for failure to pay. If some state legislators get their way, unpaid camera tickets won't show up on drivers' credit ratings, either.