Auto Insurance - Factors That Affect Your Premium

There’s nothing miserly about wanting to save as much money as possible. Affordable auto insurance can be difficult to find if you don’t know how to shop around for it, and it’s very common for residents of Traverse City, MI to find themselves settling for quotes that exceed the amount of money that they’d be comfortable shelling out. We all have to make sacrifices, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to make things exponentially more convenient. If you’re one of those people who feel their auto insurance is too expensive as it is, then it’s important to understand a few of the factors that might affect your premium.

Unfortunately, some of the things that work to increase or decrease your auto insurance premium are things that you can’t change on your own. Your age and gender, for example, are two of the most significant factors that come into play when it’s time to look for the right coverage. To be more specific, teenagers tend to have much higher auto insurance premiums than adults—so if you’re underage, waiting until you’re older is the only surefire way to decrease your insurance rate by a considerable margin. As for the issue of gender, women tend to have greater access to discounts than men do.

If you’re wondering why age is such an important thing to consider when deciding a driver’s auto insurance premium, the answer is simply that teenagers are statistically more likely to get into accidents than adults are. On average, teens tend to be considerably more reckless behind the wheel, and so they pose a greater threat to other people on the road. In order to complement this fact, it’s necessary for teenagers to pay higher premiums until they’re of age. However, depending on the circumstances, there may be ways to mitigate this problem; for example, if you’re a student with decent academic records, then you may be eligible for discounts.

There’s a similar reason that women don’t usually have to pay as much as men. On average, women have lower auto insurance premiums because they are statistically less likely to be involved in traffic accidents. Women tend to drive considerably less often than men, and when they do drive, they usually don’t cover as much distance. This means that if you’re a woman living in Traverse City, MI, your coverage probably won’t cost you quite as much.

If you’re in what you consider to be an unfavorable situation, you can still lower your premium by purchasing cars that are more difficult to break into, and also by keeping your driving record as clean as possible.