Every automobile insurer has its own distinct characteristics that set it apart from its rivals. They often intentionally differentiate themselves by favoring specific types of drivers, providing their selection of discounts, prioritizing certain factors over others, focusing their operations in particular regions, and possessing unique business models, management styles, ownership structures, and decision-making processes. As a result of these factors, it is only natural that each company will offer significantly varied vehicle insurance rates compared to their competitors in the market.
Here are some of the key reasons why auto insurance rates change so much depending on the company:
- Target customer segments: If every insurer exclusively pursued the best drivers with the lowest probability of filing claims, it would result in a large number of motorists being left without insurance coverage. Moreover, insurers have the opportunity to charge higher premiums for insuring high-risk drivers. As a result, each company establishes its own preferred driver profile, target market segment, and niche car insurance policies, tailoring their prices accordingly. This approach allows auto insurance companies to cater to a broader range of customers while managing risk effectively.
- Risk assessment methodologies: Although car insurance companies may ask similar questions when obtaining quotes and consider most of the same factors when calculating premiums, each insurer employs its own unique methodology for assessing the risks associated with insuring vehicles and drivers. Each attaches more weight to certain factors than others. That means your rates will vary from one insurance company to another depending on which rating factors and what weight they place on the factors affecting you the most. For example, you are more likely to get better rates from companies placing more importance on driving records, if you have a great driving history but bad credit score.
- Proprietary pricing algorithms: They utilize highly secretive and proprietary algorithms to determine how the information provided by the applicants affects pricing, which expectedly leads to variations in the quotes offered by each premium calculation method. These algorithms can accommodate large data and still deliver quotes in seconds that allows underwriters to consider even the minute details, resulting in sharper pricing and larger discrepancies in vehicle insurance rates offered by each one of them.
- Regional considerations: Car insurance premiums can vary significantly between carriers because each rate every zip code in their own way. Actuaries gather all the relevant information and statistical data about a region and add the company’s own claim experience in a particular zip code to determine their base rates to charge every driver with this particular zip code. For example, a local insurer may be more lenient about many risks in a particular zone since they have a better knowledge of their locality, while a larger company can be put off easily, leading to higher automobile insurance rates in comparison to the local provider.
- Cost of doing business: Each company has a varying cost of doing business and that reflects on the prices they charge. These variations are more apparent now with noticeably different costs of online sales and agency networks. Having a better underwriting team would reduce the number and size of claims, reducing the pressure on the company to raise rates. Also, being owned mutually or having shareholders would influence the profit targets of each business that usually affect their pricing structure.
Auto insurance premiums can vary significantly among companies due to the weight each place on rating factors they use, the statistical information they take into account, their own claims experience and the cost of doing business. That is why it is important that drivers always get multiple vehicle insurance quotes from a range of providers to determine the company that will apply the most favorable rates to them.