; ; How much you drive per year. ; ; Your profession. (More dangerous or stressful jobs often lead to higher premiums, as does a job that requires a lot of driving.) ; ; If you’re married. (Married couples tend to pay less.) ; ; How likely your car is to be stolen or vandalized. ; ; The limits and deductibles you choose. Higher limits mean an increase in coverage costs, and higher deductibles mean a decrease in premium costs. Let’s take a look at these factors in a closer-to-real-life situation. We’ll use two imaginary families: the Smiths and the Joneses. Each family has two parents who are all the same age and a 17-year- oldwho drives. All the parents work. They live next door to each other in a typical suburb, and each family has three cars. Their state has a law against charging one gender more than the other. Seems like they should have roughly the same insurance, right? Wrong. (Although you probably knew that since you’ve been reading this book.) Check out the chart on the next page. Bolded items tend to cost more. I want to point out that there are reasons I’m using more versus less rather than actual figures for this chart and not declaring which family would pay more. First, this exact same scenario would almost definitely cost different amounts depending on which insurance company is used. Do you remember why? It all has to do with how the company does its underwriting. Secondly, while most married couples combine insurance, some may choose to have separate coverage. For example, the Smiths might consider this due to parent 2’s low credit score.
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