How Your Family Affects Your Auto Insurance Rates

Posted on: 23 August 2017

If you have a family, then you should know that is it not just your personal risks or data that will affect your auto insurance. The auto insurance company assumes that everyone in your household will be driving your car, so it also evaluates them before calculating your insurance premiums. Here is some of the data the insurance carrier will require of your household members and why.

Their Driving Histories

Anybody who will be driving your car (in this case all your household members with driving licenses) will be analyzed as far as their driving history is concerned. This means if your eldest son has a history of DUI convictions, then that history will drive up your insurance premiums. If your spouse went without coverage sometime in the past, then that gap in coverage may drive your premiums up. On the other side of the coin, you stand to enjoy good rates if your family members have clean driving histories.

Their Ages

Insurance companies consider age a primary factor when calculating insurance rates. Those who are young (and therefore inexperienced) attract the highest rates; even statistics show that they are more likely to get involved in accidents. Therefore, having a trio of teenage drivers in your household is likely to drive your rates up, but you will enjoy reasonable rates if the kids are all grown and everybody in the house is an experienced driver.

Their Gender

Gender is also a factor in auto insurance coverage. Available statistics show that women don't commit as many moving violations, get involved in car accidents, or drive as many miles as their male counterparts. Therefore, having many female drivers on your insurance policy will help you with the rates, but having multiple males on the policy may increase your rates slightly.

Their Jobs

It may be startling to many that a person's profession may affect auto insurance rates, but there are good reasons for this. For example, some professionals drive more than others, and this exposes them to increased road risks. Extremely stressful jobs also increase a person's risk of getting into a crash, so this is another thing the insurer is likely to consider. Therefore, if two of your kids are delivery drivers, expect their jobs to impact your auto insurance rates negatively.

As you can see, anybody who will be driving your car affects its insurance premiums. Therefore, if you have high-risk drivers in your household, it might be a good idea not to include them in your policy. Note, however, that you should only exclude them if they will not be driving your car; otherwise, complications may develop when an excluded driver causes an accident with your car.

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