While I was working for a local Coeur D'Alene insurance company I learned a few things about all the variables that determine the rates a person pays for his or her auto insurance coverage.
Numbers do not usually lie and that is what insurance companies look at when they want to determine how much they are going to charge a person to insure them.
Here are the things that will affect your insurance premiums.
First, what is your driving record.
One speeding ticket will probably not affect your insurance rates too much but if you have multiple tickets or infractions in the span of a year your rates will go up.
There are certain tickets you can get that are more serious than others.
For instance your rates will skyrocket if you get caught running a red light or not stopping at a stop sign.
These tickets make you look extremely high risk on paper.
Second, your auto insurance rates are determined by what type of vehicle you drive.
The newer the vehicle the higher your costs will be.
Some vehicles, even if they are new, are considered high-risk because they have a high-theft rate.
Sports utility vehicles will also be more than passenger cars.
Sports cars like Mustangs and Corvettes will be very expensive to get insurance for.
Insurance companies know that people do not purchase these vehicles to go the speed limit on the freeway.
Third, a person's age is a HUGE determining factor in how much you pay for auto insurance.
The younger you are the higher your monthly premium will be.
Your rates will not start to go down until you are at least 25 years old and even then they will be high.
Younger drivers are high risk for insurance companies.
They are inexperienced, prone to mistakes, and many times are reckless.
They account for a large percentage of the accidents that happen and many of them are highly preventable.
Fourth, statistics show that married people are more safe on the road.
Insurance companies believe that these people have more to lose than unmarried people.
These individuals have families, a home, children, a job, etc.
They do not want to risk any of those things, especially for cheap thrills, and drive as safe as possible.
Unmarried people have less to lose and therefore, statistics show, take more unnecessary chances with their lives (not only auto insurance but in general).
Fifth, another major component in determining how much a person pays for automobile insurance is where he lives.
People who live in cities will pay more than people who live in small towns or the country.
Locations that suffer from inclement weather have higher accident rates than places with temperate weather.
It makes sense.
If you like in Idaho where it snows you will have more of a chance of skidding and getting into an accident than a person living in an area of the country where it does not snow.
At the same time a person living in a large city has a higher chance of getting into an accident because he is driving around more people everyday.
There are certain high risk areas around the US and those figures are all accounted for.
The insurance industry employs large teams of risk assessor and statistic analysis professionals to do market research and spot trends.
They accumulate tons of data that tell them which segment of the population is high risk and who is not.
Numbers do not lie and your auto insurance rates, whether you live in Coeur d'Alene, ID or somewhere else, are based off those numbers.
Understanding why you are paying what you currently are will aid you in reducing your rates in the future.
Some things you cannot control (your age, location, and marital status) and some items you can (tickets and type of vehicle).