Auto Insurance
How Your Auto Insurance Rates Are Determined
Insurance Rates Are Determined
Your Auto
Insurance rates are determined by a number of factors:
- driving record
- usage, how you are using the vehicle, work, pleasure, business
- how many drivers you have and their ages
- how many vehicles you have
- what kind of coverage limits you want
- what area you live in
- your payment history
- what color car you drive
- your insurance credit score
- your claims history
- your occupation and how many years you have lived at your current residence
- your daily, weekly, annual mileage
There is a lot of information about you that is used to determine your rates.
You are grouped or pooled together with similar drives of the same background
that way you are not paying for drivers that are much worse than you.
Similar risks will pay similar rates.
Your usage affects your rates because if you are driving to and from work or
school 5 days a week, 15 miles one way you have a higher chance of getting in a
accident than someone who only drives 1 mile 1 way 3 days a week or someone who
works from home and only drives to get groceries. So business, work, and school
usage is higher than pleasure usage.
The area you live in affects your rates due to the fact that one area or town
may have a higher incidence of claims than another area. One area may have
higher lawsuit payouts or higher theft rates than another area. Even if you live
in a affulent area your rates may be higher due to the higher value vehicles in
your area cost more to fix than in an area with lower value vehicles.
Although you may have heard that if you drive a red car you will pay higher
rates but this is not true. It is a myth. GEICO, USAA (For Military Only), and
Allstate, to name a few, don't even ask what color car you drive when you apply
for a quote. And your VIN number doesn't give this info either.
If you have one car and three drivers you will pay more because that car will
get used alot more than if you had only 1 driver and 1 car.
If you have had a poor payment history or your policy has cancelled due to
non payment you will have higher rates when you try to reapply for insurance.
The higher your insurance credit score the better. The insurance credit score
is similar to your FICO credit score such that the higher your FICO score the
lower your interest rate and the higher your insurance credit score the lower
your insurance premium.
Your claims history will affect you for a minimum of 3 years. If you have
filed a claimed or if you even mentioned a claim to your insurance company it
can and most likely will affect your rates.