Knowing how to handle your car insurance is one of the most important responsibilities of a car owner. A car insurance premium can be one of your bigger expenses, which is why knowing how to lower it is so important. There are a lot of factors affecting this cost and there are several things you need to know about your car insurance in order to ensure that you get the best possible deal. Here are five such factors.
Pick the right person for a named driver
Some policies have the option of adding a named driver. Now, the choice of the person that you pick as a named driver can drastically affect your premium. First of all, you need someone with years of driving experience and a clean driving record. Having a person with convictions will increase the premium. Other than this, you also need to keep in mind that insurance companies usually don’t put too much faith in young drivers. While this may not be completely justified, it’s just the way things are. One more piece of advice is that joining a defensive driving course may lower your insurance premium by as much as 5-10%.
2. Personal factors
When it comes to the cost of car insurance, there are a lot of personal characteristics that affect it. For instance, being younger than 25 and older than 65 can be bad for your car insurance cost. The majority of these personal factors are either controversial or just outright unfair. For instance, gender, marital status and education can also affect the cost of your insurance. According to some insurers, highly educated people usually file fewer claims. Whether or not there’s any truth to this is unclear but it does affect the cost.
3. Shopping around
The choice of a car insurance company can be just as important. However, when choosing insurance, you should also look at whether the company offers an insurance refund. Your previous insurance can also affect the premium, seeing as how a switch from a nonstandard issuer to mainstream insurance can be quite costly. Other than this, watch out for insurance lapses. Coverage gaps may sound like a way to save money but the truth is that it may end up costing you more, through an increased car premium. All in all, pay for your insurance regularly.
4. Choose the right car
Cars that are cheaper for maintenance will usually be great for your insurance premium. Other than this, the car of your choice needs to be estimated as safe. The safety features alone are a factor when it comes to your insurance policy. Other than this, the type of vehicle is taken into consideration. Sports cars have higher insurance fees, seeing as how their drivers are seen as more likely to speed. How popular a car is with thieves is also a ranking factor, as unbelievable as it may sound.
5. Driving mileage
Another factor worth taking into consideration is the mileage of a car. You see, the insurance of the car is affected by the total mileage that you travel per year (on average, of course). This is because every mile on the road is a potential danger, so, the more you drive, the more you’ll have to pay. This is a bit tricky and it’s quite important that you’re as accurate in your estimate as possible. Try to avoid overestimating or underestimating the real mileage.
The last thing you need to keep in mind is the importance of your own driving style. Your insurance policy is constantly getting updated and if you exceed the mileage that we’ve discussed earlier, get caught drunk driving and cause an accident, your premium will be a lot worse the next time around. In other words, you need to think about your car insurance all the time. You need to think about it while driving, when choosing a car and when making estimates. This is really the only way to get going.