What does impact your premium?

If you have spend some time on comparing auto insurance quotes, you have probably realized that the rates you see aren't the same for everyone, and there are certain factors that affect the amount of money you will pay for insuring your vehicle. In fact, even when insuring the same car, you will get different rates from different companies. Why is that so? And which factors affect the final premium you will have to pay your auto insurance company? Here they are:

Age

All auto insurance companies have their claims statistics according to age groups. And if you're a young driver with not much experience, you're quite unfortunate – you will get much higher rates than older drivers. This is due to the fact that young and teen drivers file claims more often and tend to be involved in serious accidents more frequently than older people. Each age group has respective risk grades according to providers' classification, and depending on which group you fall into, you'll get corresponding rates.

Car

Depending on which car make and model you drive, your insurance company will charge you with corresponding rates. The main elements at which the insurer pays attention is the safety of the car, it's power, engine volume, repair costs and theft rates. Each company has it's individual rating chart according to which each car make and model are assigned with a risk rating, and charged accordingly. In general, fast sports cars, performance vehicles, convertibles, big SUVs, luxury and rare cars tend to cost more to insure that mid class family cars and smaller slower vehicles.

Driver's record

Auto insurance companies tend to charge less for having a clean record, and more for having a lot of tickets or accidents written on you. Your driver's record is a direct display of how risky you are as a driver, and insurance companies prefer dealing with low risk drivers, stimulating them with lower rates.

Credit rating

Not all companies take the credit rating in consideration when calculating your premiums, however there is a large part of those that do it. There is a statistical link between the credit score of a driver and the probability of filing a claim. It is said that drivers with poor credit scores tend to get in accidents and file claims more often than those with better ratings. And insurance companies act correspondingly by charging higher premiums for drivers who have problems with their credit records.