Is Where You Live Affecting Your Car Insurance?

In most car insurance policies there are a number of factors that the insurance company will consider before they give you a quote for insuring your car. Some factors will apply to all drivers, for example your estimated mileage, the type of car you drive and how long you have been driving.

Other factors that will impact on how much you pay to insure your vehicle are gender, age and the area in which you live.

It is a sad truth but drivers who can afford to live in the better neighbourhoods of a town or city and who could perhaps afford to pay more on their insurance payments, may actually end up with cheaper car insurance than someone with less money who lives in a less salubrious part of town. Some areas are regarded by insurers as black spots, either because there is a concentration of road accidents in that area, or because there is a perception that a car is more likely to be stolen in some neighbourhoods than in others.

You may do very well on most of the factors that insurers use to assess how much premium you should pay, but then your premium takes an upward hike when the insurer notes your address. Insurance companies do differ when it comes to certain neighbourhoods as their perception of an area may put it down as more of an insurance risk than it actually is.

The problem is that insurance is based on risk and if an insurance company spots anything that might increase the risk of something happening to your vehicle, then it could well affect your chances of getting cheap car insurance.

Insurance companies used different types of data to assess whether you live in an area that they regard as an insurance risk. Some companies will look at accident and crime statistics in a given area and base their calculations on that alone, while others will make their decision depending on the number of policy holders in your area who may have made an insurance claim.

If you have a garage in which you can keep your car, especially in an area where cars left outside residences are likely to be damaged or stolen, then this could have a beneficial effect on your insurance premiums. Even in areas that are not considered very high risk by insurers, you will pay more on your premium if your vehicle is parked outside your home each nigh rather than in a securely locked garage.

If you live in a rural area then insurers are more likely to regard that area as a lower risk than if you lived in an inner city neighbourhood. However, even if you do live in a rural area where the chances that your car will be damaged or stolen is much lower, if there is a high incidence of accident claims in your area, you could find that insurance companies treat it as an insurance black spot and you won’t get cheap car insurance! So when it comes to car insurance it really is a postcode lottery!

About the author

Distributed by Content Crooner