How Your Auto Insurance Coverage History Matters

How Your Auto Insurance Coverage History Matters

One of the things that can influence the availability and cost of auto insurance is your history of maintaining a policy. If you have car insurance on a consistent basis, chances are good you are a responsible driver. If your past isn’t so smooth, though, you could face difficulty getting a new plan. Why does this matter? Here’s how it could be influencing your costs.

Why Does Continuous Coverage Matter?

If you have a long history of unbroken insurance coverage, you could qualify for lower auto insurance rates. Companies see this as a good thing because it offers several benefits.

For example, if you have continuous coverage, the insurance company can look back and see how many claims you filed in the last five or more years. They can see what types of moving violations impacted your rates. If they see few of these, they are more likely to consider you a low-risk driver.

Having continuous coverage also means insurers see you as a responsible driver. You continue to pay for and maintain coverage because it is valuable to you. That also implies that if an accident happened, you generally would file a claim with your car insurance company for it. There are few “hidden” incidents in which you caused damage to others, but didn’t file a claim.

What to Do If You Don’t Have Continuous Coverage

You can often easily avoid having your policy dropped because of nonpayment. All you have to do is make your payments consistently. Do this without fail to avoid any type of lapse in coverage. If you do have a lapse in coverage previously, let the agent know what happened and why. They can often verify information like this on your motor vehicle record as well. Sometimes, they won’t penalize you because you had a policy lapse.

There are times when you may not have true ownership in a car insurance policy. For example, students are typically on their parents’ policy until they move out. You may have a bundled policy with others you live with. If this is the case, and why you have gaps in your coverage, let the agent know that, too. They can verify the information and help ensure you get any discounts you qualify for.

Maintaining auto insurance provides your insurer with peace of mind. You show them that there are no instances when you did not have coverage. That might even mean fewer instances of people filing claims against you. Work with your car insurance agent to make sure your needs are always accurately considered.