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Finding Automobile Insurance – Information Insurers Will Need From You

Automobile Insurance can be a bit of a minefield. Everyone will tell you to shop around to get the best deal (including me) but what sort of thing will the insurance companies want to know about you before they can give you a price? One thing which is important is that you give the same information to all of the companies, otherwise you won’t be comparing “like” for “like” will you? Of course, many online comparison websites only need you to give them the information one time and they’ll do the rest, but what sort of information does an insurance company use to decide on how much you’ll have to pay for your car insurance?

• Driving Record – this is a big factor which insurance companies use when setting a price for your car insurance. Think about it, if you’ve been driving for five years and been involved in as many accidents you’re pretty high risk, but if you’ve managed to maintain a clean driving license for the past 40 years, then you’ll be classed as low risk. If you can manage to avoid accidents for 40 years, hopefully you can manage to avoid them for 41! Lower risk equals lower prices.
• Location – quite remarkably, insurance companies have loads of statistics about which zip codes have the most claims. If your car is garaged every night then there’s a good chance that it will still be there in the morning, if, however, it is parked on the public road then it might have moved or been involved in an accident or act of vandalism. Some areas are higher risk than others in many things, and car insurance claims are no different.
• Age and Gender – this can make a BIG difference to the prices quoted for your car insurance. Younger drivers pose much more risk, they have less experience and more testosterone (well, the boys have anyway, which is why they often have to pay that little bit more than girls).
• Marital Status – now you might think that they’re just getting nosey and will be wanting your inside leg measurement next, but statistics show (I told you that they’ve got lots of statistics) that married people have a lower rate of car insurance claims. Maybe people are just that little bit more careful once they are married and “settled down”.
• Previous Insurance Cover – is of great interest to any insurance companies you approach, particularly if your previous insurance policy was canceled due to non payment or some such thing. They’ll also want to know whether you made any claims on your previous car insurance cover.
• Vehicle Use – automobile insurance companies are also interested in how far you intend to drive your car. It stands to reason that the less time your car spends driving down the road, the less chance there is of you being involved in an accident.
• Vehicle – make and model in particular. Some vehicles just cost more to fix (often the foreign or more obscure models) and that means that the insurance company will ask you to pay more for your car insurance. Interestingly, some makes and models of car are involved in accidents more than others too . . . I wonder which they are.
• Other Drives in your Household – is also of interest to insurance companies. How many people in the household have a drivers license?
• Claim History – you will be asked about any car insurance claims you or members of your household have made over a number of years. It might be in the last 3 years, it might be in the last 5 years . . . who knows? It all depends on the specific insurance company you’re dealing with.
• Credit History – this also affects the premium which an automobile insurance company will decide to charge. If you have a poor credit history you’ll possibly have to pay more. It’s not really fair is it, I mean, I know some people are just naughty in the “paying department”, but very often people want to pay but just don’t have the cash . . . the ones with less money end up paying more . . . it just doesn’t seem right to me.

Just a note to finish on – if you don’t tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in order to wangle some cheaper insurance premiums then it can be classed as fraud, so don’t give any false, misleading or incomplete information when you ask around for car insurance deals.  If you do try to defraud a car insurance company you might find yourself being denied insurance benefits at best, and at worst could be subject to a hefty fine or even imprisonment. Don’t sign on any dotted lines until you’re sure that all of the information is correct.