Do Not Pay More Than You Should For Auto Insurance
Apr 16, 2007
If you are one of the many drivers who simply accept their insurance renewal quote without checking if it is still the best value, you could be throwing money away each year in insurance premiums. It's always so much easier to renew the insurance with your existing provider. In fact if you have paid by credit card you often don't have to do anything to renew, it's all taken care of automatically and we tell ourselves that anyway we took a lot of trouble finding a good deal in the first place and if it was good then it probably still is. Well in most cases you couldn't be more wrong.
Auto insurance companies know that people will often behave in this way so, they don't have to try too hard to keep the customers they have already signed up but because of strong competition for new business they do have to try harder and offer better deals to get new customers.. Such offers may include discounts or extra benefits and cover for the first year and in many cases it will be worth changing insurers regularly, simply to get these better deals but that is not the only reason you should check out the market at renewal time. There are other differences between insurers which you can benefit from.
There are many reasons why rates vary between insurance providers. Each company assesses the risks involved in every area of cover and will have different views of the level of risk associated with each activity. These risk assessments will be based on the experience of those companies in the past and the plans they have for the future but they will change over time to reflect changes in internal and external factors. For example some companies regard young drivers as too high risk and premiums will reflect this while others are prepared to accept a certain proportion of higher risk customers in this category in the hope that they will stay with the company as they get older and become less of a risk in insurance terms.
Some will be actively targeting certain types of policy or drivers and will therefore discount the price for new customers but will not necessarily carry this forward to later years. Others may continue these discounts but vary the amount from year to year depending on what proportion of their business they want to have in that particular sector.
New offers may be made by other insurance companies which were not available when you last renewed your car insurance and you may have become a better risk by not having made a claim or by coming within a higher age bracket. No claim reductions will vary in amount and the length of time in which they can be earned and motor insurance companies will have different loading for age. Some companies even specialize in insuring older drivers allowing them to pass on the benefit of the lower claims record of this group, to all policy holders.
The insurance world is not a static one because it has to keep pace with changes in the way we live and behave and the cars we drive and because of the complexity of calculating risks and costs there will always be a different views about the appropriate rate for any car insurance policy.
It is now so easy to check out the market using Internet insurance sites that a few minutes spent online can result in major savings on premiums and if you sign up online you will often qualify for an additional discount. Those few minutes could turn out to be some of the most profitable minutes of the year!
By: Michael Masters
Michael Masters writes for kwikfindcarinsurance.com where you can find information on car insurance issues and compare the cost of motor insurance from different providers through a quotation finding service for UK and US residents.
If you are one of the many drivers who simply accept their insurance renewal quote without checking if it is still the best value, you could be throwing money away each year in insurance premiums. It's always so much easier to renew the insurance with your existing provider. In fact if you have paid by credit card you often don't have to do anything to renew, it's all taken care of automatically and we tell ourselves that anyway we took a lot of trouble finding a good deal in the first place and if it was good then it probably still is. Well in most cases you couldn't be more wrong.
Auto insurance companies know that people will often behave in this way so, they don't have to try too hard to keep the customers they have already signed up but because of strong competition for new business they do have to try harder and offer better deals to get new customers.. Such offers may include discounts or extra benefits and cover for the first year and in many cases it will be worth changing insurers regularly, simply to get these better deals but that is not the only reason you should check out the market at renewal time. There are other differences between insurers which you can benefit from.
There are many reasons why rates vary between insurance providers. Each company assesses the risks involved in every area of cover and will have different views of the level of risk associated with each activity. These risk assessments will be based on the experience of those companies in the past and the plans they have for the future but they will change over time to reflect changes in internal and external factors. For example some companies regard young drivers as too high risk and premiums will reflect this while others are prepared to accept a certain proportion of higher risk customers in this category in the hope that they will stay with the company as they get older and become less of a risk in insurance terms.
Some will be actively targeting certain types of policy or drivers and will therefore discount the price for new customers but will not necessarily carry this forward to later years. Others may continue these discounts but vary the amount from year to year depending on what proportion of their business they want to have in that particular sector.
New offers may be made by other insurance companies which were not available when you last renewed your car insurance and you may have become a better risk by not having made a claim or by coming within a higher age bracket. No claim reductions will vary in amount and the length of time in which they can be earned and motor insurance companies will have different loading for age. Some companies even specialize in insuring older drivers allowing them to pass on the benefit of the lower claims record of this group, to all policy holders.
The insurance world is not a static one because it has to keep pace with changes in the way we live and behave and the cars we drive and because of the complexity of calculating risks and costs there will always be a different views about the appropriate rate for any car insurance policy.
It is now so easy to check out the market using Internet insurance sites that a few minutes spent online can result in major savings on premiums and if you sign up online you will often qualify for an additional discount. Those few minutes could turn out to be some of the most profitable minutes of the year!
By: Michael Masters
Michael Masters writes for kwikfindcarinsurance.com where you can find information on car insurance issues and compare the cost of motor insurance from different providers through a quotation finding service for UK and US residents.