Posts from — January 2010

Naturally, your driving record has a huge impact on your car insurance rates. Any driving violations are bound to make you pay more. This may refer to a moving violation — i.e., a DUI, DWI, a speeding ticket, a reckless driving charge, and so on — or an accident. Anything like this will put you into a high risk category, and that results in higher premiums. You can be penalized for up to five years with certain companies.

The type of vehicle you drive also affects your premiums. Naturally a cheaper car will cost less to insure than an expensive sports car.

As well, your credit rating plays a big part. If your credit rating is poor or if it is nonexistent, it can put you into a high risk group.

Even your occupation and education can play a part in what you pay.

Next up, let’s talk about marriage. No matter what your particular feelings might be about that, the fact of the matter is that if you are married, your car insurance rates will be less expensive than they would be if you are single. A married driver can have the exact same driving record as a single driver, and still pay less. And unlike your age or your gender, your marital status is actually something you can change.

So, too, is your geographical status. See, where you live can seriously affect your car insurance rates. Specifically, let’s say you live in a town or even a neighborhood where the traffic is very light. In that case, your car insurance rates will be less expensive than those for a person who lives in a city that is very congested.

There are many factors that affect what you pay for car insurance. Amazingly enough, many drivers are not aware of all of them. When trying to understand your rates, however, it is absolutely vital that you know the reasons you pay the rates you pay.

For example, your age plays a significant role in the rates you will pay. It is a universal and statistical fact that people who are younger than twenty five tend to be more at risk for accidents. Believe it or not, the age group ranging between fifty and sixty five is generally believed to be the safest one.

So, let’s strike all those stereotypes about older drivers, huh?

We also need to scrap all those jokes about female drivers, because they are statistically seen as safer than male drivers.

We have covered cost savings and studies, now let’s go ahead and cover some of the basics that you need to know when you are adding your teenager onto your car insurance policy.  There are a few things that you want to know before you add them – so keep these tips in mind.

One of the first things that you need to know is that your child can only be on your car insurance policy if they are not the main driver of the car.  It is not possible for them to buy a brand new or used car and then still be under their parent’s car insurance.

The reason for this is because it can actually ruin their parent’s car insurance record if they get into an accident while on their parent’s policy still.  That is definitely something to keep in mind when adding your child.

Now that we have talked a little bit about the study that involves teenagers and young adults staying on their parent’s car insurance policies, let’s go ahead and dive into some of the reasons why a teen would want to stay on their parent’s policy.  One of the first reasons is to have cost savings.

Face it, car insurance is something that is very, very expensive and I can tell you when I was on my parent’s car insurance, I was not paying nearly what I am paying now for my car insurance.

Although cost savings is by far the biggest reasons teenagers stay on their parent’s car insurance, there are a couple other reasons that we will go over in the next blog!