How Your Motor Vehicle Record Affects Car Insurance Quotes
Whenever you check into car insurance quotes, your insurance company will ask you a variety of questions regarding your vehicle as well as your individual driving and insurance history. Auto insurance rates are determined by a multitude of factors, the main one being based on each person and the risk they pose on the road. When you get car insurance quotes, or at the time of policy issue, your insurance agent will request an MVR, or a motor vehicle record from the local registry office. Each driver, once issued a driver's license, will have their driving information documented on this motor vehicle record, even if they have only obtained their license the day before.
An MVR contains important information that an insurance company requires in order to properly assess your risk factor. It contains any traffic infraction you have collected, such as speeding tickets, making an unsafe left turn, failing to stop at an intersection, etc. This report also lists any suspensions you may have for dangerous driving or driving while impaired. Each traffic violation is assigned a code of severity. The higher and more serious the violation is, the more it will impact your rates. If you have been suspended for certain actions or if you have accumulated too many tickets, you will be considered a high risk driver and you will be forced to pay extremely expensive yearly premiums. MVRs can go back as far as 3, 5, or 10 years. If a driver has moved from one state to another, the insurance company may request that they bring in an updated MVR from that state if they cannot access this information on their system.
If a driver has just obtained his or her driver's license, the MVR will, of course, not have any information listed. No information means, no tickets or suspensions, so there will be no surcharges or penalties for this on the policy. For new drivers, it shows lack of experience, depending when they received their license. No experience means that they pose a high risk on the road. They have not been driving long enough to learn how to react in certain situations and may be more likely to be involved in an accident.
Always ensure that you obey the laws of the road; don't speed, run red lights or stop signs, and definitely don't drive your vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. All of these actions can affect the premiums that you are charged on your insurance company. If you do have traffic violations, do not accumulate any more. Once the set time limit has passed, anything on our record will no longer contribute to high insurance premiums.
