What’s Driving Up the Cost of Your Auto Insurance?

Are you sick and tired of paying a fortune for your auto insurance? A lot of drivers are complaining about the cost of their auto insurance without bothering to find out why their premiums are high-and how much of that is their own fault!

If you happen to live in, say, Washington D.C. you already know why most drivers are paying through the teeth for their auto insurance policies (the fact that they use I-95 as a bumper bowling lane could have something to do with it) but if you live in an area where mass chaos and confusion isn’t the norm and most drivers drive like they actually passed their driving exam it might be a mystery.

There are many, many factors that drive up the cost of auto insurance. Some of these you can control, some have absolutely nothing to do with you-and you might be surprised by which is which! When your auto insurance company calculates your rate they take several factors into consideration, including:

The average car owner pays approximately $900 a year for their insurance policy. By comparison, a full coverage insurance policy for 1.5 million dollar Lamborghini costs an average of $300,000 a year.

· The number of accidents you’ve had in the last five years.

· The safety features (or lack thereof) on your car.

· The age of your car.

· The make and model of your car.

· The color of your car.

· The number of miles you drive every year.

· The mileage on your vehicle.

· The number of vehicles you drive.

· The number of drivers on your policy.

· Your age, and the age of the other drivers included on your policy.

· Your job.

· Your level of education.

· Where you live, and where you drive.

· Your credit score.

Before you say it, no, not all of these are fair. The bottom line is that insurance companies want to be able to quickly identify drivers who are more likely to have an accident (and therefore more likely to require the insurance agent to take the duct tape off their checkbook and write them a check for an insurance claim) when determining the cost of auto insurance. If you’re going to cost them money, they’re going to cost you money.

What can you do about it?

1) Keep your driving record clean, and improve your credit score. Both of these will almost immediately lower the cost of auto insurance.

2) Stay away from sports cars, red cars, motorcycles and other “high risk” vehicles.

3) Minimize your commute to spend as little time as possible on the highway.

4) Buy a clunker. Seriously. If it’s going to cost your insurance company less money to replace it it’s going to cost you less money to insure it.

Lowering the cost of auto insurance isn’t hard once you figure out what’s jackhammering it up. Remember, the first step is admitting you have a problem. Everything else flows pretty smoothly after that.

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