There are a lot of things in life that make you scratch your head and say, “Huh?” but not many of them go hand in hand with the same level of frustration as taking a look at your new car insurance rates-and seeing them go up. Nobody wants to pay too much for their insurance. You’ve got enough bills each month, you don’t need any more! It’s not enough to know that your car insurance rates are climbing, however. You’ve got to know why.
After all, if you know what’s going on you have a chance to turn it around in your favor!
There are plenty of reasons car insurance rates might go up. Some of them you have control over-for example, every time you have an accident you can expect your rates to go up by up to 40%. Speeding tickets send car insurance rates flying, and hopping behind the wheel of a Maserati Quattroporte is going to cost you a lot more than riding around town driving a rusty truck with three on a tree. If you really want to keep your car insurance rates down you’ll keep your driving record clean and choose carefully when you go shopping for a new car.
You’re also going to find that your car insurance rates are directly related to the amount of coverage you have on your car. That doesn’t mean that you want to drop your liability insurance levels or abandon comprehensive or collision insurance (despite what your lender had to say about it). You might be surprised, however, to discover exactly how much fat you have in your car insurance policy. For example, do you really need rental insurance? How about emergency roadside assistance? When you add those on to your car insurance coverage your rates go flying up.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everything that makes your car insurance rates go up is your fault. Have you noticed how much more you’re paying for milk these days? How about gas (which, coincidentally, cost $0.86 in 1979)? Inflation has sent the price of everything flying up these days, and that includes the cost of auto repairs and health care. Want to guess who that affects? Right. The car insurance industry that pays out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in car insurance claims for exactly that.
The state has certain regulations that car insurance companies have to follow when it comes to your auto insurance rates, so there’s only so high your rates can go. The key is to know exactly what’s causing your rate increase so you know what you have to do about it-if there’s anything to be done about it after all.
