Premium Calculation

• Your car insurance premium is based on the carrier's assessment of the level of risk you pose with regard to the likelihood of your actions resulting in their need to spend money. Many facets of your life, more than just your driving history, are examined to give underwriters an indication of how proper your decision-making has been, and the chances of you failing to make monthly premium payments. Obviously, a history of bad decisions, risky behavior, and poor credit results in a more expensive auto insurance policy.
  
  

Risk Calculation

• Insurance underwriters generate a risk profile primarily based on your driving record, with additional yet minor weight held by factors like education level, occupation and marital status. They analyze your driving record and list tabulations made for each accident, violation, or related offense in your abstract. Each type of violation carries a specific weight, and underwriters put those figures into proprietary formulas that generate a result, which translates into a risk category.
  
  

Violations Affecting Your Risk Profile

• When drivers receive citations, and those citations get listed in motor vehicle abstracts, insurance carriers then have more negative factors to add to risk calculation equations. Certain violations have a more powerful affect on a driver's insurance record. Insurance companies categorize tickets and convictions as minor, major or severe, and the particular classification of an offense dictates how much higher insurance premiums must be to offset the additional risk. For example, minor violations include tailgating, failure to yield, running a stop sign or speeding. Major violations include failure to report an accident, speeding in a school zone, driving without insurance or travelling more than 60mph above the posted speed limit. Serious violations include reckless driving, driving while intoxicated, street racing, leaving the scene of an accident or driving while your license is suspended.
  
  

Parking Violations

• Insurance companies do not categorize parking tickets as minor, major, or severe, therefore they have no impact on your automobile insurance record. Simply failing to park correctly, or parking in an inappropriate location, is not necessarily an indication that your behavior while actually operating a vehicle will be riskier. The types and numbers of parking tickets you receive will not negatively affect your automobile insurance policy premium and are not reflected in your insurance record.