Questions to Ask an Insurance Agent in My State

Insurance rules and rates vary from state to state and carrier to carrier. Rating factors that affect your auto insurance rate include age, car make and model, gender, marital status and driving record. You will want to ask your insurance agent questions about how dramatically these factors affect your final quote. Keep in mind the variability of the factors can also reduce the cost of your auto insurance, so be sure to ask your insurance agent about any discounts that you may be eligible for.

In terms of homeowners insurance, factors that would affect the cost include age, marital status, condition of the home, location of the home, insurance history and the age of the home. Younger people tend to receive higher rates on average because they are deemed less responsible by the insurance agent. However, married people (no matter what age) are usually treated as more responsible and thus given discounts.

If you have a certain record that you are concerned with -- say several accidents in your driving history you will want to focus your questions around this factor, in particular. Your insurance agent may be lenient about the poor record, but he or she may also be incredibly unforgiving and increase the quote dramatically for this factor alone. Even if your record is clean at the time, you will want to ask questions about how the insurance cost would change if you had been in an accident. Cover as many scenarios as possible with your questions so your insurance agent can give you a good idea of the future of the plan. This will help you avoid a situation where you may be stuck in the plan and paying higher rates than necessary.