Have you recently asked a friend or family member how much they are paying for car insurance? If so, you may be shocked to see how different insurance rates can be from one person to the other. There are many factors at play which determine how much someone is charged for auto insurance, which is why insurance providers collect so much information from you before issuing a price quote. Here are the things that are considered when determining your premium.
Your Personal Risk
The main thing that insurance companies try to determine when assessing you as a customer is your personal risk as a driver. High risk customers are more likely to make a claim with the insurance provider and cost them money, so they want to offset this risk by charging them a higher premium.
Risk can be assessed in many different ways, but the main one they use is your driving history. Insurance providers look at how many accidents you have been in, how many tickets you have received, and how serious those tickets were. Moving violations are considered much worse than parking tickets, and play into how risky of a driver you are viewed as.
There are also factors that are out of your control, which are used to assess your risk, such as statistical information. Young drivers are viewed as being less experienced and more likely to get into an accident, so you can expect higher premiums due to your age. Even things such as your marital status and gender are considered. If insurance companies can find a correlation between a statistic and risk, they will use that to assess your premiums.
Your Household Members
If you are living with other people in your household that will be driving the vehicle, know that their information will also be factored into the insurance premiums. Even if you are a good driver, this can cause premiums to go up if you live with someone that is considered a bad driver and more likely to get into an accident.
The solution would be to make it clear that your vehicle is only going to be used by you, and that other risky drivers will be using another vehicle. Keep in mind that you cannot simply say this to the insurance provider and let another person drive your car, since the insurance company won't pay for a claim if an uninsured driver is using the vehicle.
For more information, you will want to check out a website such as http://www.wyattinsuranceca.com/.