Underwriting and Rating
Comparison shopping for car insurance is well worth the effort. Premiums are calculated on a large range of factors and could vary a great deal from one insurer to another for the same policy. The most important items in determining your rate are:

• Your age, sex, and marital status. For example, young, single male drivers usually pay more than any other group.
• Where you live. The state is divided into territories for rating purposes. Usually, people in metropolitan areas pay more than those in less crowded places.
• Your car. The year, make, and model of your car have a bearing on your premium. The less it costs to repair or replace your vehicle, the lower the cost of your premium. Sports cars and cars with high powered engines cost more to insure than cars with smaller engines.
• How you use your car. The more you drive, the more you pay.
  
• Prior insurance coverage. Insurers may ask you if you had insurance coverage beforehand. If you have previously been canceled for nonpayment of premiums, insurers want to know. If you have had insurance, the prior company can tell the new insurer a little about your claims history.

When an insurance company considers your request for auto coverage, it will take into account a number of different factors about you and your driving record. Just because you apply with a certain company does not mean you will be provided coverage by that company.

After completing the underwriting, the insurance company will place you in one of the three basic categories of drivers listed below. Each company adopts its own rating system for deciding whether to insure a person. Those with the lowest risk factors (least likely to have a claim) will receive the lowest rates.

• Preferred. This category is intended for drivers that companies consider to be the best risks, which usually means the safest drivers. These insureds are usually ones with clean driving records over the past three to five years. These are given the lowest rates.
• Standard. This category is intended for moderate risk drivers. The rates are higher than the preferred rates. These drivers are usually driving family-type cars and have a reasonably clean driving record.
• Nonstandard. This category is intended for
  drivers that companies consider to be high risk. Usually drivers in this category have the highest rates. These drivers may include under age 25 drivers with less driving experience, drivers with tickets or accidents, drivers with a poor premium payment history, and drivers with a reckless or drunk-driving history.

Your representative ought to be able to tell what categorization you fit into. The dividing lines are not always constant across insurers, but in general an applicant with chargeable accidents will be denied coverage by the lowest cost insurers in the above examples. These insurers are relatively low cost because their clientele are better than average drivers. Since you usually cannot tell from the name or promotional ads of an insurer what its underwriting criteria are, seek the help of a qualified agent to find which insurer will insure you.