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There are many factors the auto insurance companies take into consideration when determining how much you will be paying as a premium. The car you drive, your age, your gender, and many other factors are taken into consideration. One of the most influential of these factors is your driving record. To calculate the premium you pay, the car insurance company must evaluate the financial risk of insuring you. Knowing this, you can see why your driver history plays such a big role in the process.

When performing your evaluation, the auto insurance company is going to look at your driving record for the state you are currently licensed in as well, as any previous driving records from other states. Now they aren’t going to judge you on how you were driving when you first got your license at the ripe age of 16, this would be unfair. It varies from company to company, but they will typically look at your driving record for the last 3-10 years.

Each offense is graded based on severity. Someone with a few traffic violations is going to pay less than somebody with a few speeding tickets. If you’ve gotten in a few accidents, expect your premium to be even higher. On the same note, somebody with a DUI or similar offense on their driving record, is likely to pay for more than the previous scenarios.

This can all seem pretty confusing, almost as if there is no determining exactly what you’ll be paying. In fact, there is no way to know exactly what you’ll be paying but there are a couple tools and methods you can utilize to get a general idea of your premium. Looking at your violation points is a simple way to estimate your premium. Every state in the US utilizes the points system. The severity of your violation will determine how many points you receive. Each violation will earn you anywhere from 0 to 4 points, and sometimes more for things such as a DUI. Typically every year, the state will remove one point from your record. The more points you have, the more you are going to pay. This method is a fairly reliable for determining how much your driving record will weigh in on your premium. However, in no way will this method give you an exact, or even an estimate number.

The only way to get an accurate estimation of your premium is to apply for free quotes from the insurance company. They will likely ask you about your driving record, which they are likely to double check against your driving record before approval. These tool are generally pretty easy to use, and don’t take much more than 10 minutes. This is the only way to get an estimation of your premium, and is by far the most accurate.