What Affects Insurance Rates?

By Author: Norris Rios
Total Articles: 572
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If you have ever spent some time on shopping for different types of insurance you have certainly noticed that the rates may fluctuate a lot depending on what data you provide while quoting. It doesn't look much like ordinary shopping with the same prices for everyone. When you get a quote even the slightest details you think are not important may contribute to the final amount you will have to pay for insuring something. And this is especially noticeable when it comes to insuring your car.

There are a lot of factors that are taken into account by the insurance company when setting a particular rate for a particular customer. Some people think that the questions they are asked when quoting for auto insurance are used for statistics. However, each and every piece of data you enter to the form has a certain influence over the finally rate you will be charged with. So let's take a look at these factors in order to understand what exactly shapes the premiums we have to meet in order to have our cars insured.

All insurance companies use the same of factors when calculating their rates, since each of these factors is ...
... confirmed to be able to reflect the degree of risk associated with insuring a particular driver. These factors include car make, model, engine volume, top speed, repair costs, theft rates, security options, driver's record, credit rating, marital status, education, place of residence and history of previous claims. Some of these factors are more important than the others, yet every company uses a different weight for each of them when calculating their rates. Moreover, the methods of calculation may vary from company to company and this results in different rates even if you're providing identical sets of data when quoting with different providers.

Let's take a closer look at these factors in order to understand why they influence car insurance quotes. Things like engine volume, top speed, make and model significantly influence the driving style a vehicle is operated with. If the car is too powerful or fast it will provoke more risky behavior and will result in more frequent insurance claims. That's why muscle and sports cars usually have the highest car insurance quotes. Theft rates, repair costs and security options determine how likely it is that a particular car will cause a quote and how much it will cost to settle it. For example, luxury cars usually have higher theft rates and repair costs that's why their owners typically face high car insurance quotes.

Driver-related factors are also very important. Things like driving experience and credit rating can indicate how likely the person is to file an insurance claim. Education and marital status are also taken into account because it was observed that married drivers with higher education tend to file claims far less often than their single and uneducated peers.

As you see, each factor is taken into account by the insurer because they want to measure their risks and give an adequate price for covering your vehicle. That's why you're asked to provide all this information when getting car insurance quotes.