Auto Insurance Premium Comparisons - Why and How
Your rates are calculated based on several factors that are indicators of the amount of risk an insurer bears by insuring you. These factors include: Sex, age, location, driving history, credit rating, vehicle type, driving skill, profession and others. However, the loophole is: there is NO standard for a particular profile across all insurers. The reason is NOT far-fetched...
Insurers are in the business of managing risks. They want to help you protect stuff you cherish but they also want to turn some decent profit. And to do both effectively, they do check their claims history.
One company might have specialized so well in offering services to a particular profile that they've learned to group them a lot better. This results in a lower claims ratio. Such a company would be able to offer cheaper rates for that particular profile.
But since NOT all insurers can specialize in all segments of the market, they are somewhat restricted. But does that mean they'll NOT offer auto insurance to the entire market? Most do. Only a few specialize.
This means that although they all consider the same factors, but since the data against which each gives relevancy to each of the those factors differ, differences in rates are unavoidable.
This is NOT a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing if you know how to ride it (Which brings us to doing auto insurance rate comparisons well)...
First and foremost, go to insurers who specialize in offering services to your particular profile. They have a better understanding and should favor you if you're a preferred driver. But if you know you've a worse status, you might actually be better off with an insurer who'll just lump you into a more general "group."
How would one know which is which without spending weeks on end on this alone? Simple! Visit a good number of reputable insurance quotes sites. Get and compare rate quotes returned - That's the first step. Then, make sure you're provided adequate coverage for the estimate. Thereafter, check the rating of your insurer.
If you do this well you'll cut down a hundred or several hundred dollars!
Here are great pages for auto insurance quotes...