Crime & Traffic

You can pay your Chicago traffic ticket online, by mail, or in person.

You can request a copy of your traffic ticket by calling the City of Chicago’s Ticket Helpline at (312)744-7275 or writing to the City of Chicago’s Department of Finance.

If you cannot pay your traffic tickets, you can set up a payment plan. A payment plan will stop the city from booting your car. It also lets you make payments over a longer period.

You can include parking tickets, automated speed camera tickets, and red-light camera tickets in your payment plan. 

To set up a payment plan, you will need:

• Your driver's license number
• Your license plate number
• An email address you can access

The city has different payment plans you can set up online, including early, standard, and hardship plans. Each plan has its own set of eligibility requirements you must meet before enrolling.

The city can boot your car if you have 3 or more unpaid traffic tickets. The city can also boot your car if you have 2 or more unpaid traffic tickets that are more than a year old.

If your car gets booted, you have 24 hours to either pay in full or ask for a payment plan. If you do not, your car will be towed. You can also call the City of Chicago's Ticket Helpline at (312)744-7275 to ask for an extra 24 hours to make payment before your car is towed.

Here is how the City of Chicago has broken up its deadlines for contesting your tickets:

• You have 7 days from when you get your ticket to contest it. If you don’t contest it within those 7 days, the city will send you a Notice of Violation in the mail.
• Once you receive that notice, you have 21 days to request a hearing. If you do not request a hearing within those 21 days, the city will send you a Notice of Determination saying you’re automatically guilty.
• After that, you get one final chance: you have 21 days to ask a judge to overturn the guilty decision.
• If you miss this last deadline, you cannot contest your ticket anymore and will have to pay the full fine.

For more information on contesting a ticket, visit the City of Chicago’s FAQ page.

When you contest a traffic ticket, you are challenging whether it is valid and whether you are responsible for paying it. Contesting your ticket will likely not give you more time to pay if you are found at fault. Instead, if you lose, the City may bill you more quickly. At that point, you can set up a payment plan.

Missing payments can result in default fees, collection costs, and booting. The specific consequences depend on your payment plan.

For more information, visit:

• Relocated & Towed Vehicle Information
• Booted Vehicle Information
• Find Your Relocated & Towed Vehicle
  • Enter your license plate information to find the vehicle
• Parking, Red Light, and Automated Speed Enforcement Ticket Payment Plans