Car Insurance Factors

High-Risk Drivers and Auto Insurance

When an insurance company calculates your car insurance quote, they use a number of factors. The most important of these is your risk as a driver. Being a “high risk” driver can make getting cheap car insurance more difficult. If the following factors apply to you, you may be seen as a high risk driver by insurance providers:

• You are under the age of 25
• You are a novice driver
• You are male
• You have had repeat moving violations
• You have had multiple speeding tickets

DUI/DWI and Auto Insurance

No matter what state you live in, driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is both illegal and extremely dangerous. Each year, drunk driving takes the lives of countless drivers, many of them young. That’s why groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have made headlines in the past few years, raising awareness in the media. This has helped some in curbing the frightening statistics associated with young drivers and drunk driving.

Credit Rating and Car Insurance

There are a number of factors that car insurance companies take into account when calculating your car insurance quote, including age, driving history, gender, location and vehicle year and make. Your credit history is just another one of these factors, but it is an important one.

In recent years, insurance companies have become more and more reliant on a consumer’s credit history to gauge their risk factor as a client. To protect their business, insurance companies will take the following factors into account:

Driving History and Auto Insurance

Although car insurance companies take many factors into account when issuing an auto insurance quote, a person’s driving history is one of the most important ones. If you have a history of claims and traffic violations, an insurance company will see you as a high risk, and this may make getting cheap car insurance more difficult.

Accidents and Insurance Factors

No one wants to be involved in an auto collision, but sometimes the unthinkable happens when we are least expecting it. That’s why it is so important to have a car insurance policy in place. Unfortunately, being involved in an accident can make it harder to find cheap car insurance, since how many claims you file can impact your premiums.

Premium hikes due to accidents are not inevitable, however. There are many factors that go into your insurance quotes. Here are a few:

How Age and Gender Affect Insurance Rates

There’s an old saying, “youth is wasted on the young.” However, when it comes to car insurance rates, the young pay much higher premiums than those in older age brackets. It seems that when it comes to age, wisdom and cheap car insurance go hand in hand.

Car Insurance and Theft Risk

No matter how clean your driving record, or how reliable your insurance history has been, if you live in an area with a high risk of theft or vandalism, you are much more likely to be subjected to higher rates for your comprehensive insurance policy.

Location and Car Insurance

There are a lot of factors that influence your insurance rates, but most of them boil down to the likelihood that you'll file a claim and cost the insurance company money.

Car Insurance for New and Used Cars

Because of their value, new and expensive cars cost more to insure than older or previously owned vehicles. Repairs and the cost of replacement will cost more for newer vehicles and higher-priced vehicles such as luxury cars and collectibles, thereby increasing the risk for insurance companies and raising the rates for policies.