When it comes to car insurance, there are a few key factors that can affect your premiums. These include the type of car you drive, your driving habits, demographic factors, and the coverages, limits and deductibles you choose. Your driving history, including any traffic violations or accidents you may have been involved in, is one of the most important factors that determine your car insurance rates. Auto insurance companies review your driving record for the past three to five years, depending on your state.
Your gender, age, marital status, geographic location, and credit score can also affect your insurance rates in different ways. Fortunately, these imperfections tend to lose importance over time. So if you've had a few crazy years with a few fines or accidents in the past, making an effort to drive more slowly and carefully to avoid future problems can pay off over time. Most fines and accidents without injury stop affecting your rate after three years, and accidents involving injuries generally don't affect your rate after five years.
However, a DUI ticket can affect your premium for up to 10 years, and many companies don't insure someone who has it. The age of the car also affects insurance because insurers consider specific vehicle details when determining car insurance prices. The most important factors affecting the increase in your rates after an accident are the type and amount of the claim. There are many things that can increase your car insurance rates, such as choosing higher levels of coverage, increasing your annual mileage, buying a car whose insurance costs more, getting a fine, having an accident or a drop in your credit score.
Insurance may increase by a small amount after an accident, depending on the state, the extent of the damage, and who was at fault. Hawaii, California and Massachusetts have laws that prevent insurance companies from using age to determine a driver's premiums. Your driving record can lower or increase your premiums, although some insurance companies may even withdraw you or refuse to insure you if they think you're at too high a risk. The increase in your rate depends on several factors such as the type and amount of the claim, your insurance company, your claim history, your location and whether or not you have an accidental forgiveness.
The cost of car insurance generally falls most between the ages of 18 and 19 when rates drop by about 25% on average. But if you live in California, Massachusetts or Hawaii you're in luck; they don't allow auto insurance companies to consider your credit score when calculating car insurance rates. This may seem strange but insurance companies have found that married drivers have fewer accidents and fines so they pay lower rates than their single counterparts. On the other hand if you have good credit you can save a little money on car insurance in the other 47 states.
When it comes to car insurance it's important to make sure you're getting the coverage you need at a price that fits within your budget. Don't just buy your state's minimum requirements when you need full-coverage car insurance. Age affects the cost of car insurance by up to 389 percent on average because certain age groups are statistically more likely to be involved in accidents. However there are some states that don't allow the use of your credit score when calculating car insurance rates such as California Hawaii and Massachusetts.
