Why Car Insurance is so Expensive

MSN Money goes into the details of what can make car insurance more (or less) expensive. Their thoughts:

Negative impacts on a driving history -- Things that put you in an auto insurance company's high-risk category include recent or multiple car accidents, driving while intoxicated or tickets for reckless driving. If you are issued a speeding ticket, the speed recorded on the ticket will make a difference.

What you drive is as important as how you drive - The type of vehicle you are driving can cause you to be categorized as a high-risk driver based on the potential for damage and the expense of repair or replacement. Expensive high-powered sports cars are considered high risk and often come with expensive premiums.

Age and experience factors - Younger drivers who have very little experience behind the wheel are also considered high risk by insurance companies.

More severe high-risk coverage options - Some driving history problems are more expensive to cover than others are. If a driver has been convicted of driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he or she will need to find an insurance agency that specializes in covering severe high-risk individuals. This type of auto insurance will cost more than a standard policy, but it will keep you on the right side of the law as far as your car insurance is concerned.

Cost differences with nonstandard drivers - Everyone who has a short driving history, has been found at fault for an accident or has received a serious traffic ticket is considered a nonstandard driver by auto insurance companies. These drivers will have to pay higher rates than standard drivers do. In general, high-risk drivers pay between 10% and 15% more annually than standard drivers do.

Ha! I'm about two years from having a "nonstandard driver" on my car insurance -- and four years from having two of them (AKA, my kids.) I'm sure you'll hear the screams from here when I see the insurance costs. ;-)

Thankfully we haven't had any accidents, don't have expensive cars, and aren't high-risk or non-standard drivers, so we're probably doing ok cost-wise. We also have a good credit score which I'm sure has helped our car insurance rates -- it has with our homeowner's insurance. That said, I do need to price out our car insurance to get some competitive bids, to make sure our costs aren't too high. We haven't done this in a few years and need to get to it.

Comments

[Josh Stein]

It's so expensive because people legally have to have it.

[Stewart]

It's more expensive than it has to be for the policy holder because you end up paying for your own repair costs for damages caused by an uninsured driver, or at least I have. Am I unreasonable that this should be criminal on the part of insurance companies? If they insure you, your policy is in good standing and an uninsured driver causes damages to your vehicle, it should be a no-brainer that they pay for those damages. I'd appreciate others' thoughts.

[Old Limey]

I don't find our State Farm car insurance at all expensive.

For a 1998 Mercedes C230W we pay $216 for 6 months.

These are our premium reductions:
Multiple line ...................... $61.10
Multi-car ............................ $52.91
Vehicle Safety .................... $2.18
Driving Safety Record ... $270.44
California Good Driver .... $54.16
Loyalty ............................... $47.55

Other factors are:
Driven 7,500 miles or less annually (in our case 3,000)
Principal driver has 52 years experience
No chargeable accidents in last 6 years
Pleasure use

[jbhk]

One factor affects the rate is the year of the model. The newer the higher rate. It is because the insurance company doesn't have a history record of the new car, so usually they will charge more.

State Farm is going to introduce a new program called Drive Safe & Save in California in February. Currently they rate based on either you drive less than 7,500 miles annually or more. In the future, they will cut this into 39 mileage segments, each segment is 500 miles. It will save approx. 1 to 2 percent per every 500 miles drop. I think this program makes more sense and hope it will roll out to every state.

http://www.statefarm.com/aboutus/_pressreleases/2010/sf-innovation-mileage-rating-program-approved-by-california-doi.asp

[Todd]

I agree with Old Limey. I've never been able to find a better deal than State Farm. Their loyalty discount is much higher in my state, and makes them more competitive than anything else I was able to get from Geico, Esurance, Progressive, etc. When I got a ticket a few years ago in my sports car, classified as an "H" category, the only close quote was Erie Insurance, which is an annual premium, and did not offer as much multi-line or multi-car discounts. Again, the loyalty discount made it better to stick with State Farm.

[Jim]

Old Limey, is that just liability or do yo have comprehensive? I'm guessing liability only.

Thats another factor in the cost. If you pay for only liability its much cheaper than comprehensive coverage for your car.

I pay about $170 a year for full coverage on my classic car. Thats due to it being a classic and I only drive it a few hundred miles a year at most and the specialty insurer knows I"ll garage it and baby it.

[jeffinwesternwa]

I pay only $400~ a YEAR for 300K/500K liability, comprehensive and collision on a new 2010 Jeep. ($1K deductible). When combined with my full homeowners policy and a $2M personal liability policy the total insurance bill is only $1K a year for all policies. Who? USAA! Another great co (if you are former military) is Armed forces Insurance of Lvenworth, KS

[Old Limey]

Jim:
I have the complete coverage that State Farm offers since collision and comprehensive repairs can be very costly.

[MBTN]

@Jeffwesternwa: Totally agree with you about USAA. They routinely are among the tops in customer service among insurance and financial companies, as well as offering reasonable rates.

One thing that people don't take into consideration is customer service. Most people shop for car insurance based upon price, but they don't consider how easy or difficult it is to deal with the company when you have a claim. USAA has been amazing in that respect. Somebody rear-ended me a few years back (not my fault) and USAA not only paid the claim, but they went after the other driver's insurance company to have them reimburse my deductible. I didn't have to lift a finger. Another time, my wife was in an accident and the other woman sued her. USAA got her a lawyer who represented her in the case. The judge ended up throwing out what was a frivolous lawsuit. Again, we didn't have to pay a dime. USAA took care of anything. When you call them up, you always get a real person on the phone without any hassles, and they always are friendly and, more importantly, competent. Even if Geico/Progressive/State Farm were to save me money (which I doubt) I would still stick with USAA.

@Stewart

My policy specifically has "Uninsured Motorist Coverage" which pays me if I get into an accident with somebody who doesnt have insurance. You may want to add it to your policy if it is available.

[Adrienne]

I would like to add that a person's location can make auto insurance more expensive. When we PCS'd to San Antonio from Omaha our auto insurance did go up a bit. (Same cars, no tickets, exc credit score and the same company, USAA.) Prefer USAA for most of their services...except mortgage.

[JimL]

We previously had State Farm insurance, but the rates increased significantly when we moved. We then shopped around and found that most were less expensive. We went back to our State Farm agent to find out why the cost was higher and they did not have an explanation. As I work for a very large employer, we are able to get an even better rate with a couple preferred vendor companies and can pay through payroll deductions.

[Georgia]

I pay $280 a year for my car insurance. I have no comp and collision because my car is 11 years old and I could replace it with cash. However, I may keep it a little longer on the next car, or not. I had a small accident this summer - $650 to replace a car door I had damaged in my carport. My home owners would have paid, except I was the driver. It only pays when someone else damages your home with a car. Since I had no comp or collision, I paid it all. But, in three years, I would have paid more than that in premiums. So I feel I am ahead.

I am hoping my car lasts another 4-5 years. Right now, it has cost me an average of $93 a month for maintenance and repair. I always keep the car if this figure is $120 or more. This started when I had to borrow to buy another car and you could not get another car for $120 a month. Currently the car has 186k miles on it. Several of my cars have lasted over 300k miles and I hope this one does the same.

[Eric]

@MBTN

Actually it's not that unique that your carrier went after the other liable insurance company for your deductible. Most if not all will do it since it's part of their "subrogation" process. I've been in the insurance industry and spent time in underwriting and actuary as well. There are a multitude of factors that go into a premium calculation. So of course shop around and shop often.

@Stewart

If you don't have collision coverage you should definitely look into UMPD/UMBI coverage at the very least. These things protect you from uninsured motorists.