With the recent high cost of living, everyone wants to keep their costs and expenses as reasonable as possible.

At Colley Insurance, we understand the need for maximizing the coverage while providing the best auto rates for our customers.

However, if you have a car, you might have realized that your insurance rates keep on changing. Perhaps you’ve realized that some of your friends, colleagues, or family members are paying lower car insurance premiums than you, yet you seem to share similar circumstances. You’re now wondering why your rates go up.

We’ll here are some of the possible reasons:

1.  High-end car model

So, if you recently upgraded to a bigger ‘machine’ or one that is more popular among thieves you may experience in increase in your auto insurance premiums.
High-end cars with big price tags are not only more susceptible to theft than budget vehicles but are also expensive to repair and replace. Considering that car parts prices have increased by 44% from 2013 to 2021, insurance companies are incurring increasing costs of repairing these expensive vehicles. Not all of the top stolen vehicles are high-end.  Here is a list of the Economical Insurance company’s most stolen vehicles of 2020.  The higher the vehicle’s risk and cost of repair/replacement, usually the higher the insurance premium for the car.

2.  Your location

How secure is your location? If you live in a place with lots of crime incidences or in general higher crime rates, it means that your vehicle is facing a high risk of theft or vandalism.

This risk gets factored in your insurance premium calculation.

In addition to higher crime, there may be some locations, cities and municipalities that incur more accidents or collisions over time than other ones.  This increased risk which is associated with your location could also result in frequent auto accidents.

Urban areas do tend to have higher personal injuries vs. rural areas (roughly 3x more) as the chart from Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics from 2019 will show.

So your location has two criteria that may be contributing to higher insurance premiums for; crime rates and or the number of traffic collision statistics.

Image Source: Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics: 2019

3.  Bad driving track record

Accidents have always impacted the premium you pay but these days even one ticket can have an effect on your insurance rates. If your track record portrays you as an aggressive or inattentive driver your insurance rate will be high compared to the premiums that a careful driver will pay.

So, keeping your record clean. Staying safe on the road is not only good for your health, but good for your wallet.

4.  Insurance fraud

Some insured car owners tend to use deceptive tactics to make exaggerated claims or lodge claims for damages that don’t exist. Faking injuries or car damages and inflating repair costs are some of the things that can make you culpable of insurance fraud.

Unfortunately, even where the ‘gains’ of insurance fraud are not much, the repercussions are always amplified.

Everyone shares in the cost of these deceptive practices through increased premiums.  If you are aware of someone committing insurance fraud you can report them anonymously at https://www.equiteassociation.com/contact

5.  Changing marital status

Research shows that drivers who are married are more careful and responsible drivers than their single counterparts. That’s why, according to the study, a married 20-year-old is likely to pay a significantly lower insurance premium compared to a single 20-year-old driver.

So if you have recently married don’t forget to tell us. We’d like to congratulate you and you just may find your insurance premium goes down also.

Wrapping It Up…

Your auto insurance rate depends on various factors related to your external environment and personal decisions that seem to affect your integrity and accountability.

It really comes down to driver data (which is tied to points 3, 4 & 5 above), location (point number 2), and vehicle data (point number 1).

Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that you make the right choices when it comes to your driving behaviours and the environment you live in to keep your rates within reasonable levels.

Thoughts on this?  We would love hear your thoughts or reason you feel insurance premiums go up. Write to us at customerservice@tgcolley.com or simply comment below.