It's not fun to spend time looking for affordable car insurance.
While getting quotes can speed up the process, you still need to know
what to with the quotes after you get them. If the cost is your main
criteria, you risk buying a policy that does not provide sufficient
financial protection for you and your family. That's why you should
consider the following information when you use car insurance quotes to
find a policy that meets your coverage and financial needs.
Factors Affecting Your Rates
There is a multitude of factors insurance companies use when calculating the rates. Here are the most important ones:
Age - anyone who's too young or too old is considered to be the
highest risk for insurers so these drivers end up paying more for
coverage.
Sex - male drivers are more risky while driving and get ticketed more often so their rates are higher than female drivers.
Driving record - a clean driving record always results in significant discounts for drivers older than 25 but younger than 65.
Vehicle - the model of your car will also affect your rates significantly depending on repair costs, safety and theft rates.
Marital status - single people pay more for insurance because insurers believe married drivers take fewer risks when driving.
Credit score - financially responsible car owners get better rates than drivers with low credit scores or poor credit histories.
These are the most important factors, but there are even more
variables at play. You may be able to find out which factors a
particular insurer uses by asking them. However, asking insurance agents
may be not the best source of information. They simply enter
information into the program and rates are calculated automatically.
Things To Consider
With a general understanding of how rates are calculated, you are
ready to begin comparing car insurance quotes. There are several aspects
of the quotes you need to consider to find the best deal:
Final Price - rates are only a portion of the total picture. There
are extra fees and deductibles to consider as well. If everything is
comparable, choose the policy with lower deductibles so you have less
money you will be required to pay out of your own pocket.
Coverage Extent - as long as the type of coverage is the same, review
the maximum coverage included in each quote and choose the policy with
higher policy limits.
Things Not Included - knowing what a policy does not cover is just as
important as what it does. If a particular policy has more exclusions
than the other but comes at the same cost, it's obvious that you need to
choose the one with more coverage included.
Your budget should always be the main context for reviewing car
insurance quotes. The main goal is to find a policy that offers good
coverage at a reasonable rate. Stop looking for the cheapest policy
unless that is all your budget will allow. Remember, you can get car insurance quotes any time you want to make changes to your coverage, get a new one, or switch providers.
