Car Insurance Rates
A number of factors influence the car insurance rates that a company will offer a consumer. The first and most obvious is driving history. Depending on where you live and how many and what kind of charges are against your driving record (and how long ago), your rates can increase by more than several hundred percent.
Almost all consumers also realize that some vehicles cost more to insure than others, depending upon how often that type of vehicle is stolen, the likelihood of injury while driving that particular model, and how likely you are to be involved in an accident if you drive a particular vehicle. Purchasing an SUV, since it is a common target for theives, will cause your rates to increase, for example.
Other factors influence your insurance rates, such as age, gender, marital status, and even credit history. The tricky part that you may not realize is that some companies use not just your simple credit score, but track other kinds of financial behavior (such as using alternative sources of financing) in order to justify raising your rates.
While you probably can’t even find out which companies penalize you for what behavior, the best way to keep your rates as low as possible is to compare the offers from various companies, so that if one particular company does penalize you for taking out a cash advance loan, for example, you can at least see the rates from another company that may not hold that against you.
So compare rates, and take every opportunity to educate yourself about the factors that influence your insurance rate in order to pay the lowest premium possible.
Entry Filed under: Insurance