How is the Cost of my Car Insurance Policy Determined?

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Have you ever wondered how your car insurance rates are calculated?  What affects that number on the bottom of the page? Here’s the answer:

1. What type of car you drive- some cars cost more to insure than others do. Your rate can be affected by how likely your car is to be stolen, its age, the cost of any future repairs, and how safe it is (or isn’t).
2. Your driving record- your driving record largely determines how well you drive (at least in the eyes of your insurance provider). The fewer incidents you’ve been involved in, the lower your premium will be. If you have a slew of accidents and driving violations on your road resume, expect to pay significantly more than if you have a clean record.
3. Where you live- Outside of your own driving ability, some areas are simply safer to drive in than others, both in terms of crime and accident statistics. Your rate can vary depending upon where you garage your car as well.
4. The number of miles you drive each year- Statistics says by the law of large numbers that the probability of an accident increases with the amount that you drive. Therefore expect a higher rate if you put hefty mileage onto your vehicle each year.
5. Your age- Young drivers (especially males) will have to pay augmented rates. Generally insurance providers divide the “steps” into drivers who have been on the road for under three years, three to six years, and more than six years.
6. Your credit- for many insurance providers, your credit score can have an impact on your insurance rates.
7. Coverage- like any other insurance rate, the price is partially determined by the coverage you already have. Make sure you shop around and get the best possible price for the coverage you need.

The good news: There are a variety of auto insurance discounts available to insureds. Here’s a video made by our agency that explains the various discounts you may be eligible for:

Corbin Foucart
Andrew G. Gordon Insurance

Accident Prevention: Defensive Driving Course

Image courtesy of the Patriot Ledger

A recent Facebook posting by a friend shows a picture of the family car on its side with the passenger side crushed.  Luckily no one was hurt in this accident which happened when their teenage son was driving to school on a snowy “spring” day that was surprisingly slick and dangerous.  Unfortunately, on the way to school accidents are quite common as new and newish drivers are on their own for the first time in conditions that as “permit” drivers they might not have encountered.

Unanticipated conditions are often met with panic and reactions that aggravate rather than help.  Here on the South Shore there is a driving school that is dedicated to helping drivers cope with realistic, emergency situations.   Unlike pre-licensed driving and class courses, this school, which is run by professional race car drivers, puts the driver into “controlled” situations like spin-outs, mock accidents, slick driving conditions and shows the driver how to deal with such encounters.

My own family members have taken advantage of this course and felt that it was invaluable as well as a lot of fun.  You can link to a 10% discount for this course from our website www.agordon.com/auto or go straight to the discounted sign-up page here: http://driveincontrol.com/agordoninsurance/

 

Kay Gordon
Andrew G. Gordon, Inc.

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Car Crashes: a word to the wise from the not-so-wise

Image via Wikipedia

Let it be stated for the record that I, Corbin Foucart, am henceforth a TERRIBLE driver. This shall be reflected in both my crushed ego and in my insurance premium. However, until 6:57 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, April 1st 2011, I considered myself a good driver. Why the transformation? Because that morning I took my cherished 1994 Honda CR-V and slammed it into a tree.

Now some explanation. I don’t have the right to make excuses; I was ENTIRELY at fault, BUT…

1. The roads were slippery. It was snowing on April 1st!!
2. The roads on which I drove were untouched by plows.
3. Another student totaled her car on the same road that morning. Misery loves company.
4. I was going around a curve
5. I was going very slowly (Less than 20 mph). The airbags didn’t go off, and there was barely an impact.

…but I know that I should have been traveling even slower.

As I rounded the curve, the Honda began to slip off the road. Threshold braking did not help at all. Under different circumstances, I would have described the “crunch” sound as very satisfying. At the moment, it sounded like the lid of my own coffin closing. I tried shifting into reverse and backing out, but the Honda had grown attached to the tree and was holding it in a twisted metal embrace. So I called home. Uh oh.

My mom actually thought it was an April fool’s joke. I had to repeat myself several times before she understood that I wasn’t pulling her leg.

 I totaled the car; even though it wasn’t that bad of a crash, the undercarriage was bent.

What I find weird is that it wasn’t a stereotypical ‘bad morning’. I’d been accepted by Stanford, my dream school, the day before and that morning I was still running on a feeling of elation.  I was in no rush, and was looking forward to the day. Needless to say, the collision brought me crashing –no pun intended- back down to Earth. In the grand scheme of things, a totaled car is a small price to pay for my sister’s life and my own, but still frustrating nevertheless. The very sobering reality is that now I have no personal freedom to travel where I please. Doing things I took for granted with a car now has to be coordinated in advance.  

An interesting article by Insurance journal (which is worth having your teen read, by the way) states the a new study showed that the vast majority of teen crashes are caused by failing to scan for possible hazards, speeding, or becoming distracted. While I would argue that my personal case falls under the category of “poor weather or road conditions”, which they cite as rare, I know from the vast majority of accidents and fender-benders my peers are involved in that these three causes are legitimate. Another student I know totalled his car earlier in the year going to fast and driving into a rock wall. Another student did the exact same thing last month. Another student I know hit a tree while texting in the car. I’m sure as a reader you can think of countless similar anecdotal evidence to support the article’s conclusions.

The moral of the story to me is that accidents can happen WHENEVER you let your guard down.  Be safe, be vigilant, and as I’ve learned, BE SLOW!

The tree could not be reached for comment.

Aggressive Driving

     

nydaily.com

  

 I’ve had my license for about a year now, and I get to spend a fair amount of time in the cloth embrace of the driver’s seat, a place that has taught me that some drivers just don’t like rules. This would not be a huge issue, except that sometimes those drivers then decide to demonstrate their displeasure for the rules by violating them. Since I do the vast majority of my driving in Massachusetts, a state where the drivers traditionally bear a Scarlet Letter (A) for Aggressive Driving, I have already witnessed a wide variety of flagrant breaches in driving law and etiquette.     

Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that this pattern is not about to end. Annually, there is a roughly 35% increase in cars on the road, and a 1% increase in highway development in the US, an increase in drivers without an increase in space (“familiarity breeds contempt and poor driving”). When combined with caffeine and angry talk shows, we can all expect to see the abrupt lane changes, facial contortions, and hand gestures that we’ve unfortunately become accustomed to experiencing on the highway.         

So I scoured the internet for tips on how to handle aggressive driving; here are some good ones. Hopefully they’ll help make your day on the road safer:    

• If you accidentally do something that annoys or upsets another driver, make overly-exaggerated expressions of regret, hold hand in a prayer gesture, mouth the word “sorry,” make a silly grimace―anything that will send the message that you acknowledge an error. This works very well to diffuse a situation. Some drivers have even begun to carry a printed sign that simply says “sorry” in bold letters, to hold up if they do something that annoys another driver.
• Don’t make eye contact. Ignore any gestures and refuse to return them.
• Wear your seatbelt. It is your best protection from an aggressive driver. Your seatbelt will hold you in your seat and behind the wheel in case you need to make an abrupt driving maneuver in response to an aggressive driver.
• Resist all attempts by an aggressive driver to engage you verbally.
• If you are being tailgated and pressured to go faster, pull over to the side of the road and wait until the other car has gone by, then continue on your way. Do not engage in the power play and remove yourself from the arena, as it were. Especially if conditions are icy, never take a chance. If you have to, pull to the side of the road and let the aggressor go by. Why give him or her any further satisfaction?
• If the aggressive driver persists in following you, do not go home. Instead, continue driving and go to the nearest police station.
• If you have a cell phone and can do it safely, call the police and report the aggressive driver by providing a vehicle description, license number, location, and, if possible, direction of travel.

      

And for topical and relevant insurance resources and risk management solutions, visit our website, or get a quote now!    

Related Articles

• How road rage works (holykaw.alltop.com)