What is Auto Insurance?
Auto insurance helps provide financial protection for you, your family, other passengers, and your vehicles. Your car insurance consists of multiple coverages that provide protection in different situations and these coverages are not a “one size fits all”. We work with you to ensure that coverages and deductibles match your needs.
Auto Insurance Coverages
Bodily Injury Liability: Pays damages for bodily injury or death resulting from an accident for which you are at fault. Limits should be enough to cover a judgement against you in a lawsuit without jeopardizing your personal assets. You can obtain additional liability coverage through an Umbrella policy if needed.
Property Damage Liability: Pays for damages to someone else’s property resulting from an accident for which you are at fault.
Medical Payments: Medical expense coverages for treatment of injuries to driver and passengers of your car.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist: Protection to help compensate you for injuries or property damage caused by a driver without insurance or with insufficient coverage limits.
Comprehensive: Non-collision type accidents or claims causing damage to your vehicle. Examples include, but are not limited to, hail damage, hitting an animal, glass, theft, vandalism, flood, and fire. This coverage includes a deductible. The higher the deductible, the lower your premium will be.
Collision: Collision type accidents with another vehicle or object causing damage to your vehicle. This coverage includes a deductible. The higher the deductible, the lower your premium will be.
Additional Options: Most popular include rental reimbursement, roadside assistance, towing, and loan or lease gap coverage.
Company Specific Options: As an independent agency, we have multiple company options to find you the best value and features. Many companies offer options such as accident and violation forgiveness, diminishing deductibles, full glass deductibles, pay in full discounts, automatic payment discounts, paperless discounts, and more.
Factors That Can Affect Auto Premiums
Auto insurance is a significant expense of owning a car. As an independent insurance agency, we can explore a wide variety of companies to ensure that you get the best value for your money and also ensure that you receive the right “fit” based on your specific situation. Some of the factors that can affect your premiums include:
Gender: Men tend to have higher insurance rates than women.
Age: Young and less experienced drivers tend to have higher insurance rates than more seasoned drivers.
Marital Status: Insurance companies tend to look favorably upon married couples. Statistically, married people have less accidents than their single counterparts, which results in lower insurance rates.
Place of Residence: Insurance companies analyze information like population density and accident history in an area to help determine insurance rates, so where you live can impact your insurance premiums.
Credit Score: Most insurance companies factor your credit score or similar type financial stability score into consideration when calculating your rate. The higher your credit score, the lower your insurance premiums tend to be.
Occupation and Education: Some insurance companies factor your occupation type and highest level of completed education into your rates.
Vehicle Features: Year, make, model, value, safety features (blind spot warning and automatic braking), type of engine (turbo) and size or type of vehicle all have an impact on your rates.
Prior Insurance: Having prior insurance and the length of time you have been with your previous carrier can affect your insurance rates.
Driving History: Accidents, tickets, and previous claims all affect your insurance rates.
