Monday, May 11, 2009

Affects Of A Claim On Your Car Insurance Premiums

By Graham McKenzie

After a claim you can normally expect your car insurance premiums to go up. This is because you have become more of a liability to the insurance company. They lose a lot of money every time you get into an accident, and they want to make sure that your payments are enough to cover those bills and profit from.

How much your car insurance will be affected is hard to say. One of the main factors is by how many claims you have had total. If you have had an accident before your premiums will go up even more. If you have had several different accidents you are a high risk driver and will be expected to pay dearly for it.

Your insurance is also affected by how often the car accidents occurred. If you get into two car accidents within a year of each other you can expect your rates to go up much higher. No matter where you look, your insurance premiums will be affected by your driving record this way, although you may be able to find a better deal by searching around.

The highest premiums are saved for young male drivers. Although it is a bit of a stereotype, insurance companies have done research to find the drivers that are most likely to get into an accident. Since their driving record is fairly new, young drivers are instantly more of a liability. If they get into a car accident the premiums will skyrocket until several years afterward with having a clean record.

In certain cases your insurance may not be affected as much. This is usually if the accident was not your fault or if you have had a long standing clean record. Of course, some insurance companies will still up your rates regardless, even if the accident wasn?t your fault.

To know the process of rating cars, you must know a few things regarding the ISO symbols. ISO is the short form of Insurance Services Offices, Inc. and their duty is to assign a certain mark or number to every car. This symbol tells about the worth of the car. This system makes the insurance companies assign just rates for everyone. If you have a high ISO rating then it implies that you vehicle worth more and its fixing costs would be high too. Cars that take more money to get fixed generally have higher premium rates. Regardless of what your ISO rating is, your premiums will escalate if you get involved in an accident.

Your car insurance will not be taken away after an accident, but it may go up so high that you will have to cancel it. Don?t worry, even if you cancel your insurance after an accident the insurance will still have to cover your claim. The exact time of the accident is very important. If your accident occurred even a minute after your insurance expired, you will have to pay the damages yourself.

Now you know how much your claims influence your premium rates. You may thus find it needless to file claims for light accidents, to avoid paying higher premiums in future. It is recommended that you avoid filing a claim if the expenses are below $750 dollars. You may even avoid claiming for insurance second time if you face another accident on your driving record in one year.

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