Factos Influencing Car Insurance Rates

If your current rates seem particularly high (or low), you might want to know why. Indeed, if your rates (or quotes) are high, altering your lifestyle or vehicle choice can have a big effect on the rates you pay.

While criteria may vary slightly from carrier to carrier, according to State Farm's Luedke, the major determining factors fall into four basic areas:

You. Your age, gender, marital status, driving record and record of prior claims play a major role in determining your risk level and therefore the premium you will pay. Traditionally, males under 25 years of age represent the highest risk, while married, middle-aged, non-smoking mothers represent the lowest.

Where you live. Living in an urban area typically triggers higher rates due to increased incidence of theft and accident claims -- both of which are statistically higher in and around cities.

Your vehicle. The type of vehicle you drive greatly affects the rates you pay. Vehicles that have a high frequency of claims (sports cars) or are expensive to repair (luxury cars, SUVs) are prone to higher premiums. However, larger vehicles tend to be safer in collisions, which sometimes offsets costs.

How you use your vehicle. It is true that the more miles you drive, the greater chance you have of being involved in a crash. High annual mileage will result in higher premiums.

Another way to reduce your premium is to increase the amount you self-insure by increasing the deductible amounts on the property damage coverage for your own vehicle. These deductible amounts on your comprehensive and collision coverages may be limited if you have the vehicle leased or financed, so check your financing contract before raising your deductibles too high.

source msn autos