Car accidents, no matter how minor they may seem at first, are always serious business. Even when it involves just two cars, the effects ripple far beyond the people involved in the actual accident. Accidents affect the families and loved ones of the people involved, the onlookers and all the other support people that go into processing and rectifying the matter. Once all the mandatory paperwork and insurance details are sorted out, chances are, those directly involved want the opportunity to walk away, forgetting it ever happened. But it is difficult to do this—an accident stays with you, no matter how small. It doesn’t just affect the memories of the injured or offending parties—car accidents affect your car insurance premium. Even if you’ve looked up insurance rates online and sourced the cheap insurance rates to match your budget, once there’s an accident, your life and wallet are changed. The average consumer is aware that certain things can happen to impact a raise in insurance rates. Some of the more popular or well-known catalysts include car accidents, speeding tickets and even the inclusion of a young driver. But when the time comes to open that car insurance bill, you might see a much higher premium than anticipated facing you on the paper. By all honest estimations, you’re a carful driver, you have no teenagers grabbing for your keys…what’s going on? Here are a couple reasons that your bill may be higher than you thought:
Turning 50 may be a milestone for you personally, but many insurance companies look at this birthday as a liability. In their eyes, you’re older and more prone to accidents. Now, we must state again with clarity: not EVERY car insurance company feels this way, particularly since some of them feel that this age group, and older, is less prone to drinking and driving and will more likely wear their seat belts. Time to shop around for car insurance? We think so…
Your credit rating is not something you can hide from. An inability to meet your credit card payments on time, speaks to car insurance companies as an inability to make premium payments on time. Many don’t often care WHY you have a low credit score, just the fact that you do is enough for them to mark you as a high risk. The important thing to do while you’re shopping for car insurance is to find out if the company takes your credit score into consideration, BEFORE you sign up with them.
If for some reason you start driving more miles, this hike in rate should come as no surprise. The more miles you accrue, means more time on the road, more wear and tear on both you and your car, thus making you a liability. If you’re driving for work, however, there are comprehensive plans that will take this into consideration. Let your insurance company know in case you’re entitled to concessions.
source: insurancequotesfast.com
