San Leandro, CA Pleasanton, CA Car Insurance Discounts – What You Should Know!

Car Insurance discounts come in many shapes and sizes!  Sometimes you may feel like your privacy is invaded when providing underwriting info to get insurance quotes. We know the drill! 

Why do insurance companies have so many different options for discounting?  Well it’s basically very simple.  As technology improves, insurance companies learn to understand their data and apply it to underwriting.  Ultimately, they want to offer competitive rates, but they don’t want to have claims exceed their premiums.  When they win, the consumer wins because rates go down.

The discounts come from understanding who has claims and who doesn’t.  Many types of “scoring” prospective policyholders are not legal and for good reason, but some discounts were developed because some drivers are just safer and more defensive than others.

The most basic discount is a good driver discount which is applied when the driving record is clean (no tickets or accidents).  Another discount that is applied is a bundling discount, so when you have more than one policy with the same insurer, they give you a break on the premium. For student drivers, there is a good student discount which is derived from good students having fewer insurance claims.  These make sense!

Other similar discounts include driver training, longevity, renewal credits, how you pay (up front or installments), and what type of equipment is on your car (anti-lock breaks, alarms, etc)

Now for some of the head-scratchers – how about affinity discounts? Why would you get a discount if you are in the military or a teacher?  Are they better (safer) drivers?  That’s hard to say!  Affinity discounts were developed because of pooling of risk – if you insure enough teachers or any other group and get a good presence or “name” in the marketplace, good drivers will find you.  But some carriers discount for a college degree.  Does that make sense?  We can’t always figure out their motivation, but when you call us for quotes we are going to ask you all the right questions as it’s our job to try and get you the best insurance coverage at the lowest rate!