Between auto insurance and homeowners insurance there are roughly 70-100 factors that impact your policy rate. Some factors have more of an impact than others, but the reality is that each insurance company takes a slightly different approach to these policies and coverage options. This results in sometimes wildly different insurance quotes when you’re shopping for rates.
The factors that have the greatest impact on your rate are some of the more obvious ones like credit factors, insurance score, where you live and your claim history. There are then other factors specific to each type of insurance to consider. For instance, the vehicle you drive and the amount you drive it will have an impact. With homeowners, the age of the home and the style or type of home construction can have an impact.
The challenging part is that insurance companies might weight certain factors more heavily one year, than they do the next year which is why rates tend to change from year to year during renewals. Either way, it is important to understand the factors that are in your control, or at least the ones you can have an impact on in order to help you get the lowest rate with the best coverage possible. In addition, working with an independent insurance broker will allow you to shop multiple rates to find the best one for your particular situation.
Key Factors That Impact Your Insurance Rates – St. Clair Shores, MI
Video Transcription
“I would say between auto and home, there are likely 70 to 100 different rating factors, okay? The big ones, or the most heavily weighted are going to be location, where you live, credit factors which are calculated into an insurance score, we’re not pulling credit, we’re not looking at a credit report, but your insurance score. Those are the big ones, your driving record is pretty heavily weighted as well, too. So the part that makes this very confusing is that these things change all the time. So where you live from one year to another may not be weighted as heavily or be may be weighted more heavily, year to year. So it’s constantly going up and down, right? And that’s where we see changes in our rates at every renewal because all these things are happening in the background and we don’t see it but we see it when we get our renewal and the prices change. Sometimes it’s good sometimes it’s not so good.”
10 Common Factors that Impact Auto Insurance Rates
As you shop auto insurance quotes, you’ll likely get a large variation in quote amounts. This is because each company approaches coverages and policies very differently and use their own data and formulas to determine risk and the cost to insure someone. This only makes the importance of getting quotes that much greater, especially in Michigan where auto policy and reform have started to impact rates. Here are just a few factors that impact your auto insurance rates (for more click here):
- Age
- Gender
- Marital Status
- Education
- Address
- Job
- Credit History
- Homeownership
- Driving Record
- How Often You Drive
10 Common Factors that Impact Homeowners Insurance Rates
When it comes to homeowners insurance, each insurance company see risk differently and therefore coverage and rates can vary from company to company. This makes shopping rates extremely important as you look to protect the insight and outside of your home. Here are a few of the factors that will impact your homeowners policy rates:
- Location/Address
- Type of Home Construction
- Condition
- Credit History
- Claims History
- Cost to Replace Home
- Marital Status
- Age of Home
- Roof Condition
- Nearness to Body of Water
