It often feels like insurance companies pull numbers out of a hat, doesn’t it? You see the premium, but you don’t see the math.

While I can’t see your specific credit score or private data, I can usually tell a lot about your insurance history just by looking at your premium.

The Invisible Factors

The cost is based on a few obvious things, like the value of your vehicle. The higher the value, the more risk the carrier takes, so the premium goes up. But the second level is all about you.

• Marital Status: Believe it or not, if you are married, you typically get a lower rate .
• Gender: Women generally have lower rates than men because the data suggests men crash more often .
• Credit and Insurance Scores: If you have a high credit score and a clean insurance track record, your premium drops significantly.

The Tale of Two Cars

I have seen situations where a client comes in with a $20,000 Toyota but ends up paying $3,000 for six months. That tells me immediately that there is a bad claims history or liability issues there. Conversely, I have seen someone with a $100,000 luxury car paying only $2,500 because their score is pristine.

Even the car brand matters. I remember when my wife drove a BMW; the premiums were typically higher than when we looked at a Mercedes, simply based on the cost statistics for those brands.

It is a mix of man and machine that determines that final number.