How One Drivers Record Affects The Other In Joint Car Insurance Policies
Affordable car insurance premiums are easy to find when there are no blemishes on your driving record. If you have incidents on your record that may raise your risk of being insured it will also increase the price that you will pay for the same amount of coverage. If you have never had a speeding ticket, fine, or been involved in a car accident you can still pay high premiums. This is due to the fact that in a joint policy what one insurer does affects the other. Your car insurance premium will rise if there are negative driving actions in their driving history.
Insurance companies use a points based system to determine how risky a potential customer will be. More points are given for car accidents, and speeding tickets. The higher the amount the person was driving over the legal limit increases the number of points assigned. Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol will also impact your driving record negatively. Young or inexperienced drivers will raise rates as well.
People that use a joint policy are affected by the actions of the other people that are on the policy. The plan is determined by the total number of points per policy not per person. If you have a perfect record with no points and the other person has too many it will average between the two customers to provide one rate.
The rule of thumb is that anything that has occurred in the past three years can be used towards the amount of the car insurance premium. So you can lower your rates by being a safe driver for the next few years until the current infractions are dropped off. Your current provider may lower the rates but still has the history in their calculation of your risk, so you might need to change insurance providers for a better car insurance premium.
Parents that add teenagers or young adults on their policies will see a large premium requested for coverage. This is because statistics have shown that new drivers and those with no driving experience have more accidents as they are still learning how to drive. They may have been approved by the state, but their interaction with other drivers is an unknown variable which creates a high risk.
The other person on your joint policy is usually a family member or significant other. If you have more than one vehicle it is possible to get different car insurance. However, it is assumed that the other person will still drive your car as you both live at the same address. The best action is to improve driving habits of everyone on the joint policy to lower rates.
