If you’ve been looking for auto insurance quotes in Illinois and you’ve noticed that your insurance rate has changed after receiving one or more of those quotes, you’re likely wondering why this happened. The truth is, your insurance rate may change for a variety of reasons after you receive an auto insurance quote in Illinois. In some cases, it may be hard to figure out exactly why this is, but there are several scenarios that can cause insurance rates to change.
To help you figure out why your insurance rate may have changed—either by going higher or lower—we’ll review why insurance rates change and a few of the specific factors that lead to this after you’ve received an auto insurance quote in Illinois.
Understanding Insurance Rate Changes
As mentioned, insurance rates change for a variety of reasons, but the fundamental reason is actually always the same. That is, if something—such as your age, the model of your car, the neighborhood in which you live—increases the chance that a covered loss will occur, your insurance rate will go up.
In other words, anything that makes your insurance company more likely to have to pay to cover an expense related to your vehicle, it will cause your insurance rates to go up. This is because insurance companies charge rates based on how likely you are to need them to pay for something. The greater the likelihood, the higher the rate. Ideally, your insurance company never wants to pay a claim but, statistically, they know they’re going to have to cover some claims. To make up for that expense, they charge premiums.
Therefore, insurance companies base their pricing on the likelihood that a driver is going to have their car damaged by accident, vandalism, or theft. So when your ability of filing a claim goes up—which may be due to a variety of factors—you’ll have to pay more.
Factors that Affect Insurance Rates
Age: Statistically speaking, very young and elderly drivers are the segments of the population that are most likely to get into a car accident. If you get an auto insurance quote in Illinois, then go back to get another quote and notice your rates have changed, it could be that you aged up into an age bracket that your insurance company deems riskier.
This could happen, for example, if the insurance company that quoted you quotes higher premium rates for drivers aged 70 and above. If this was the case and you were 69 when you originally received your quote, then went back to get another quote when you were 70, your insurance rates may have gone up because you aged into what the insurance company has classified as a higher (riskier) age group.
Location: As you know, crime rates vary significantly from neighborhood to neighborhood and from city to city. Insurance companies know this as well and since they’ll have to pay if your car if it’s damaged by someone breaking into it or simply vandalizing it, they will charge higher rates for people who live in more dangerous cities.
Because of this, if you moved since you last got your insurance quote and the rate has gone up, it may be because you moved into a neighborhood with higher crime rates than your last neighborhood.
Type of Vehicle: Another factor that affects insurance rates is the type of car being insured. The reason for this is that repair and replacement costs vary significantly depending on the vehicle. A high-end vehicle could have a minor problem that costs thousands of dollars whereas an average car could have the same damage, but the repair costs would only be a few hundred dollars. Since your insurance company will be on the hook for some of those repairs if they’re covered, they adjust their rates based on the type of vehicle.
Internet Cookies: You may not be aware of it, but when you go to an insurance company’s website, usually they store what’s called a “cookie” on your web browser. Often times, they can adjust what prices appear based on whether or not you’ve been to the site before.
Since a cookie gives them the ability to see if your browser has been to their site before, they can adjust the prices higher once they see that you’ve visited the site and expressed an interest in their products. To avoid this happening to you, turn your browser into incognito or private browsing mode so the websites you visit can’t store any cookies on your device.
Sometimes, but not often, certain insurance websites may simply have glitches and you may be shown a price that was not accurate. If you think the insurance rate you received went up as you were looking for auto insurance quotes in Illinois, your best bet is to make sure you’ve gotten quotes from reputable insurance companies.
If you have questions regarding insurance quotes, contact Accurate Insurance today and we will be happy to help you!
