Naturally, your driving record plays an enormous part in the rates you pay — and contrary to what some drivers out there think, you do have control over this. A speeding ticket, a DWI charge, a charge of reckless driving — these violations can cause you to be penalized for up to five years, in addition to making your rates outrageous. It just is not worth it.
Even your credit rating affects your premiums. A driver with a poor credit rating, or no credit at all, will generally have to pay higher rates.
Believe it or not, these days even your occupation will affect what you pay for car insurance. Some occupations are considered riskier than others — like someone who delivers newspapers, for instance.
Studies also show that the more education you have, the less you may have to pay.
Naturally, there is nothing you can do about your age — until you get older. And there is nothing you can do about your gender — unless … well, that is a whole different blog under a whole different category.
Anyway, some things that cause you to pay higher — or lower — rates may seriously surprise you. For instance, if you are married, you are going to pay less than a single driver.
Where you live determines what you pay as well. Drivers who live in congested cities and/or high risk areas — areas where there is a high rate of car theft — pay higher premiums. Conversely, in rural areas, areas with less traffic, and so on, car insurance rates tend to be much less expensive.
Affordable auto insurance. We all want it, right? And yet, millions of drivers — hundreds of millions of drivers, more likely — bemoan the fact that they cannot get affordable auto insurance … or so they firmly believe.
The fact of the matter is that many drivers are not even aware of the many, many factors that can have an effect on their car insurance rates. There are so many things that can make you pay more — or less. You can control some of these. Some factors, however, are beyond your control. We are going to look at those first.
To begin with, your age is a factor. It may come as a surprise that drivers between the ages of fifty and sixty five statistically have the safest driving records. Drivers under twenty five are considered the highest risk.
Your gender plays a part in your premiums as well. In spite of all the jokes about female drivers, for instance, they pay lower rates — they are considered less risky.
The tickets are a huge part of your driving record, however – how many accidents you have been in will also affect your premium big time. If you have been in five accidents in the last five years, that is like having one accident a year and the insurance company will consider you a reckless driver that is not only not safe but also a risk to them.
What this means for you is that you car insurance premium will be extremely high most of the time and it truly does not matter which car insurance company you go with. Car insurance companies like to ensure that they are insuring very safe drivers and a lot of them even give discounts to safe drivers – so if they see you as a liability, it might be difficult for you to even find car insurance in the first place!
Now that you know exactly what you need to do to keep your car insurance premiums low – make sure that you do them! Car insurance is something that you need to have and if you can save a little cash … why not do it?