• Inflation
• Your age
• Your gender
• Location
• Driving history
• Credit score
• And more

In this article, we’ll explain why car insurance has gotten so much more expensive over the last few decades, as well as why it might be more costly for you. This important info can help you discover strategies to significantly reduce the cost of your car insurance:

Inflation
In 2020, the price of car insurance was over 375 percent higher across the board than in 1985. Why has car insurance increased in price over the years? From 1985 to 2020, inflation in the cost of car insurance measured an average of 4.85 percent per year. 

This means that, for example, car insurance that cost only $500 per year in 1985 would cost $2,393.55 annually in 2020. If you’re shocked that your car insurance costs way more now than it did a decade (or three!) ago, inflation is likely the most important reason why.

Your Age
Being a young driver can massively increase the cost of car insurance. In fact, age is probably the most common and significant reason for expensive car insurance. 

Why? The data shows that young drivers (under the age of 25) are more likely to get in car accidents than more mature, experienced drivers (typically considered to be those in their thirties and above). When insuring youthful drivers, insurance companies have to account for the higher likelihood that they’ll have to pay for the expensive consequences of a car accident.
On the bright side, once you surpass the age of 25, your car insurance will almost certainly get more affordable. So if this is a factor for you, rest assured that you can look forward to cheaper insurance in the future.

Your Gender
Men almost always pay more for car insurance than women. That’s because men are more likely to have DUIs and to get into accidents, especially very dangerous accidents. 

This is particularly true for young men—past the age of 30, the gender divide in car insurance rates is less consistent.

Location
If your location has a record of many/costly car insurance claims, you’ll be forced to pay more for car insurance. Once again, insurance companies are trying to maintain profitability, so they’re accounting for the higher probability that they’ll have to pay you more for future insurance claims.
Note that your location isn’t necessarily determined by your city or town. It’s frequently chosen based on your zip code. So if you’re wondering why your friend who lives in a different neighborhood has more affordable car insurance, that may be why. People living in cities also pay more for car insurance than those in small towns and in the country.

Driving History
Drivers who don’t violate traffic laws typically pay less for car insurance. As long as you pay them on time, parking tickets aren’t a concern. What will really increase the cost of your car insurance are moving violations, especially more than one. Car insurance companies are accounting for the fact that drivers with many moving violations and unpaid parking tickets are more likely to file insurance claims.  Furthermore, an additional factor is your driving history. At-fault accidents will significantly raise the insurance rate. Insurance companies check the number of at-fault accidents in the 3 previous years.

Credit Score
Even if you have a history of being a good, safe driver, a low credit score can contribute significantly to your insurance rates.
This depends on your state, however. Some states prohibit insurance companies from using credit scores to determine your insurance rate: Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California. 

Other Factors
These factors also contribute to high car insurance rates:

• The type of car you drive
• A gap in insurance coverage
• A history of costly past claims
• Getting off of your parents’ auto policy (being on your parents’ insurance can make it 66% cheaper)
• Costly coverage options (optional coverages can add $1,000+ per year)

Now that you understand the causes of high car insurance rates—from systemic economic factors like inflation, to personal factors like your age, gender, credit score, and more—you have the crucial info needed to locate more affordable car insurance. 

The post Why Do Car Insurance Rates Get Expensive? appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: There are times that people fake injuries after a minor car accident, but more often than not injuries, even in a minor accident, are valid. Our cars are built to protect us from major injuries and death, but there is little they can do about the sudden jolts our bodies get when our vehicles get hit. Even with everyone wearing a seat belt, the sudden jolting that happens in a minor car accident can lead to neck and back injuries. These soft tissue injuries can be very painful and can lead to physical therapy treatment for the person you hit.

So more likely than not, the person you hit did sustain some form of injury during your accident, even if the damage to your vehicles don’t look like there should be any after your minor car accident.

The post Injuries From a Minor Car Accident? appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

Can you please help me I appreciate beening a Geico customer.
I cant afford 2173.50
This came from

LexisNexis Consumer Center.
Bureau of Records.

Thank You.

A: There are a number of ways to correct your car insurance records.

First, contact LexisNexis. Find out where each of the records are coming from. They generate the reports only, the information does not come from them.  Tell them you dispute the information. If they can’t help you,  get a copy of the report.

Second, make sure the information on the report is correctly referencing you and not someone that has almost similar information. If there is information that is not correctly referencing you, contact LexisNexis and tell them they are pulling incorrect information.

Third, if the information is referencing you correctly but the information itself is just not correct you will need to go to the source.  Contact the DMV for incorrect driving information and each insurance company that has listed an incorrect entry on your CLUE report.

It will take a lot of work on your part, but it is the only way to get your car insurance record correct in order to get your premiums back down.

The post Changing Your Car Insurance Records appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: Actually, yes, most insurance companies require you to list ALL residents in your household, including your roommate, on your car insurance policy regardless if you are related or not. Why? Because they have access to your vehicle and to your insurance company that increases the risk the vehicle will be in a car accident.

Now, you can swear up and down to your car insurance company that your roommate doesn’t drive your vehicle, but it won’t matter. You both are in the same household and they look at who has access to the car when determining risk and premium.  The only way around it would be to have them excluded from your policy, to prevent having to have them listed on your policy as a driver and potentially have them drive up your premium.

You could also not say anything about your roommate to your car insurance company. But if they do borrow your vehicle and get into and accident, there could be severe consequences for not listing your roommate on your car insurance policy.

The post Roommate on Your Car Insurance Policy? appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: It used to be that my answer to these types of questions was a flat no. Didn’t even have to think about it or look up the policy, just no.

Car insurance was created to help you if you had an accident. Something that was out of your control and you couldn’t predict would happen. It was not intended to cover day-to-day issues that happen with vehicles or things that can go wrong with cars if there is a lack of maintenance.

Car insurance has never has covered any type of car maintenance……..until recently.

In the last few years, there has been an introduction of car maintenance policies to the market that will cover the cost of work for things that may happen to your car that are not accident related. These types of policies were first introduced by smaller companies already in the field that were offering unique types of policies (like pet and appliance insurance) not usually available through the larger insurance companies. There were also some new companies that started up specifically to offer car maintenance insurance.

Recently, in the quest to stand out from their competitors, larger companies have also started getting into the market of offering car maintenance policies. To find a car maintenance policy, talk to your mechanic or your car insurance agent to see if they can help you in the right direction.

The post Car Maintenance Insurance Claim appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: Normally, insurance companies have to give you a certain number of days warning before they can legally process a car insurance cancellation. The number of days they are required to give and how they give it depends on the state you are in. There are states where the cancellation information is located on your bill and in other cases a separate notice is sent.

If you do not believe you were given notice, there could be a number of different reasons. One, you could have missed the fine print on your bill with the cancellation information. Two, you may have missed the cancellation notice in the mail.

Three, if you did not pay your renewal payment your company can process a car insurance cancellation for your policy without notice. However, this would also have been in fine print on your renewal bill that your policy would cancel if you did not pay by the renewal date.

Four, you have a brand new policy and lied on your application. Insurance companies are under no obligation to give you notice of cancellation for fraud.

The best thing to do is to call your insurance company and ask why a car insurance cancellation was processed on your policy.

The post No Car Insurance Cancellation Warning appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: You should probably ask your claims adjuster or their supervisor that question.

Stolen vehicles are always thoroughly investigated because of the high amount of fraud associated with them, so you can thank those people for the delay in your payment. However, 2 months does seem a bit long for an investigation. Like I stated immediately, ask your claims adjusted or their manager as to why no insurance payment has been made yet.

Are they waiting on a document? Are they questioning your coverage? Are they waiting for a police report? Is there anything you can do to assist them in getting your claim processed?

If you can’t get an answer out of either your claims adjuster or their supervisor, go back to your agent and tell them what is going on. Agents will usually step in on your behalf and get to the bottom of why things are going as they should be with a claim for their client.

If your agent is not able to get anywhere, then it is time to contact your state insurance commissioner to file a complaint against your insurance company for no insurance payment being made for your stolen vehicle.

The post Stolen Car and No Insurance Payment appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: I am not a licensed claims adjuster and this is just my opinion. So I’m going to call bologna on Uhaul right from the start. Uhaul doesn’t want you to pursue this because of the faulty brakes, which are their responsibility to maintain.

Now, there are several items here that can affect this claim:

1. Did you purchase insurance through Uhaul?
2. What type of insurance did you purchase through Uhaul?

If you purchased physical damage coverage only, then no, there is no coverage for your vehicle under the Uhaul policy. That is something that would need to be filed under your own personal insurance to see if there was coverage.  You basically hit yourself, that has nothing to do with Uhaul…they are correct in that aspect. You can’t be liable to yourself.

Now, the good thing is that if you file under your own insurance policy, your adjuster may go after their commercial insurance coverage to get your deductible back through subrogation, due to faulty equipment that you had no duty to maintain. Uhaul is hoping you don’t do this.

If it was me, I would talk to my insurance agent for the best course of action after this car accident with a rental truck.

The post Car Accident with a Rental Truck appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: That is actually harder done than you would think. Because of the nature of GAP coverage, there are a lot of restrictions on the availability of it. The biggest criteria is that your vehicle has to be under a certain age.

So, if your vehicle is older than a year or two, you are going to be better off staying where you are at if GAP coverage is that important to you.

Also, GAP is never a stand-alone product unless you purchase it through your finance company when you take out your loan. You will need to ask the carrier you are switching to if new GAP coverage is available to you.

The post Need New GAP Coverage appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.

A: Time out of service is the time period the rental car cannot be rented out because it is damaged or being repaired. Car rental agencies lose money when they can’t rent out one of their cars, so they pass the amount of their loss to you. For each day the car cannot be rented, they charge you the rate they would have received.

For example, if a car rents for $20 a day and it takes 10 days to be repaired, they will send you a bill for $200.

Unfortunately, there is no coverage for this time out of service and only the cost of repairs are covered by your insurance if you have a car accident in a rental car.

The post Car Accident in a Rental Car appeared first on Car Insurance Guidebook.