Christmas Wish: Cheap(er) Car insurance
December 22nd, 2008 by Jeb Foster
If you’re asking Santa for a lower car insurance premium this year, get ready for old Saint Nick to reply with a few questions.
For a guy who pilots a reindeer-powered sleigh through the sky, Santa is remarkably risk averse; if he’s going to give you a better rate on your auto insurance, he’s going to need answers to the following questions:
» How old are you?
» Are you male or female?
» Had any traffic violations lately?
» What’s your credit score?
» Where do you park your car at night?
» How far have you gone in school?
The above factors (plus a few others) contribute to your insurance premium. In aggregate, they give insurance companies an estimate of your “claims risk,” which is insurance-speak for the statistical likelihood that you’ll file a claim sometime in the future. For example, according to traffic statistics, men under the age of 30 are much more likely than any other demographic group to get into an accident and file a claim; they have a high statistical claims risk.
Insurers (including Santa) take this stuff seriously, because if they didn’t, they could reach the point where they were paying more in claims than they collected in premiums. When that happens, the insurer dials the treasury and asks for a bailout goes bankrupt.
While we hate to boast, we think we’ve got an edge on Santa in the insurance department. (Just don’t ask us to rappel down your chimney.)
Click here to read the full insurance article from Insureme.