In recent years there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people searching for car insurance online. Because of the ease that price comparison websites offer, and their time-saving potential, they have become very popular. However, many people have got too carried away with this, and still seem to ignore the basic principles of buying auto insurance, whether online or offline. They are failing to remember how to reduce their annual premium, which can be done easily by doing just a few small things:
Firstly, we must become educated. What you can measure you can manage – remember that. So we need to know which factors insurance companies measure and look for when they are determining the cost of our premiums. Thankfully, this is fairly similar nationwide, and applies to most areas.
When an insurance company gives you an online quote, they are assessing you as a person, and the possible risk that you might crash or cause them to payout – The higher that likelihood, the higher your premium. The biggest thing that affects this is your driving history. Insurance companies look at the last 3 years (the most recent) of your record, and look for any ‘black marks’ against your name. These include speeding tickets, DUIs, previous crashes, etc. If you have a clean record, you’re one big step to getting the cheapest car insurance you can.
Many of these can be easily avoided, as long as you’re careful. However, if you do happen to slip up, don’t worry too much, as car insurance companies only look at your most recent 3 years of your history. Building up years of not making a claim is called a ‘no claims’ bonus.
The second major factor that affects your policy price is your age, sex and location. If you’re a young male, then you can expected to pay a high policy price, no-matter what. Unfortunately we don’t have much control over this. Also, each location in Peoria is assessed, based on the number of incidents each area receives. More incidents mean that the area is more risky, meaning that if you live there you’ll have to pay more for your car insurance in Peoria.
