Part of Your Rising Car Insurance Bill Is Totally Out of Your Control
Enzo Davis
· 3 min read
You don't have speeding tickets and you haven't hit a parked car in a garage. You are very cautious while driving, but you still notice your insurance premiums rising. Even if you’re a cautious driver, you may wonder why your
car insurance
keeps going up whenever you renew it.Rising premium costs can seem like something you can’t avoid. It can be frustrating, but you’re not alone in feeling like your rates keep getting more expensive. Your premiums can increase because of factors that you can’t control. One of the reasons your insurance premiums might increase is because of uninsured drivers.
What makes car insurance more expensive?
There are a lot of reasons why your car insurance might get more expensive. Your driving record and demographic data can affect how much your premiums cost. Generally, the higher your driver risk, the more you’ll be charged by your insurance company.
Things like a poor credit score or distracted driving can increase your car insurance rates. Even things outside of your control, like higher speed limits or uninsured drivers on the road, can increase your premiums.
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Why do uninsured drivers lead to higher premiums?
Processing a claim under uninsured motorist coverage is expensive for insurance companies. So the expense is partly passed on to you and other policyholders.
Car owners are
required to have car insurance
. However, some people still choose to go without coverage. Even if you’re doing the right thing by being insured, not all drivers are. You’ll have to pay more for uninsured motorist coverage, so you’re protected financially if you’re involved in an accident with an uninsured driver. Uninsured drivers endanger both themselves and other drivers. In 2016, according to the
Insurance Research Council
, insured drivers spent over $13 billion to protect themselves against uninsured or underinsured drivers.As reported by
Forbes
, in 2019, more than 12% of car owners didn’t have auto insurance. That means one in eight drivers weren’t insured. The number of uninsured drivers varies from one state to another. Mississippi has the highest rate of uninsured motorists at 29.4% while New Jersey has the lowest rate at 3.1%.Some states require you to have uninsured motorist coverage. Without it, even if you’re not at fault in an accident, you'll have to cover the full cost of damages. You’ll have to pay for the car repair or replacement and the hospital bill if you get injured. The incident can also negatively impact your claim record and increase the cost of insurance further.
How to save money on car insurance
The high number of uninsured drivers means you'll be forced to pay higher premiums to balance out the financial risk they pose to insurance companies. No one wants to overpay for car insurance, especially when the rates go up because of something you can’t control.
You don’t always have to accept the rates you get. The best way you can save on insurance is by shopping around for more affordable options. Shopping around for the lowest rates doesn’t have to be time-consuming, all you need is an app like
Jerry
. The free app makes shopping for car insurance simpler than ever. Jerry will help make sure you’re getting the coverage you need for the best price.
