Do You Know What's Affecting Your California Car Insurance Rates?

Do You Know What's Affecting Your California Car Insurance Rates?

When you're shopping around for a good deal on your California car insurance, what's the first thing you look for? Right. The lowest rates you can find. But do you know what goes into those rates?

There are a number of things that your California car insurance provider will use to determine how much you're going to pay for your insurance coverage, and while the discounts you'll qualify for will vary from company to company (why no one has ever bothered to come up with some kind of standard discount system, nobody really knows) the factors that go into the complicated algorithms that decide how much they're going to charge you are almost universal.

What's Affecting Your California Car Insurance Rates?

I. You. Yes, believe it or not you haven't been exclusively reduced to a nameless, faceless number in some government database (yet). Any California car insurance provider worth their salt is going to take who you are outside of your social security number into consideration when determining your car insurance rates.

Believe it or not, things like your credit score, your job, where you live, where you work and how old you are have a tremendous impact on your car insurance premiums. Most car insurance companies assume that if you're responsible enough to have a respectable credit score you're responsible enough to insure on the highways. If you live or work in an urban area like, say, Los Angeles or San Diego you're more likely to have an accident than if you're living like a hermit up in the mountains. (Even assuming you're a good driver there's no way to predict whether or not the other 2,000 drivers on the road have your level of expertise-or resilience to road rage.)

Statistically speaking, teachers and engineers are less likely to have an accident than just about any other profession. Yes, your insurance provider keeps a list! And if you're younger than 25 you can almost guarantee you're going to be paying more for your car insurance. It's as simple as that.

II. Your car. How old is your car? What kind is it? More importantly, how much is it going to cost to replace? Every California car insurance provider you're going to work with when you're collecting car insurance quotes is going to want to know the details about your four wheels. Expensive cars cost more to replace, so they cost more to insure. Your car's Kelley Blue Book value is going to have a huge impact on your car insurance rates.

III. Your driving history. You knew it was coming sooner or later. If you've been responsible for one accident insurance companies assume you have a better chance of being involved in another, and they're going to charge you for it accordingly. The same rule goes for speeding tickets and other moving violations. (No, your car insurance provider probably isn't going to care about your parking tickets. Just in case you were interested.)

Regardless of where you decide to buy your car insurance policy, keep in mind that the best thing you can do for your car insurance rates is keep your driving record clean. That 5 Year Good Driver discount can shave up to 10% off your California car insurance rates, and between that and the magical disappearance of past tickets and accidents (almost nothing stays on your driving record longer than 5 years) it shouldn't be long at all until you're kicking back enjoying the cheap car insurance rates you deserve.

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