Saturday, November 10, 2007

Average Insurance Costs - average cost of auto, home, health & life insurance

As we all know, costs of insurance premiums differ depending on dozens of different factors. I will remind you that this is not concrete data, the figures below are what estimate to be average costs of auto, health, life and homeowners insurance premiums. How do we get our estimates? We take average cars, average home costs, average family size and ages to determine what we feel are sound averages.

So insurance costs differ and some of the reasons insurance premiums differ are related to ones location, ones age and even the frequency of payment can fluctuate an insurance premium. Yes, in some instances if you agree to pay for the whole year in advance you can get a discount on your insurance premium. Those that pay monthly will likely miss out on the discounts provided by paying less frequently. Location seems to play a big role in how actuaries and underwriters determine insurance premiums. This makes sense in certain instances such as a home insured in a coastal state where damage from catastrophes such as hurricanes and earthquakes are more common than inland states. In fact there are many reasons why ones homeowners insurance premium may differ. Health and Life insurance premiums differ depending mostly on one's age and current health state while auto insurance rates are determined mostly on vehicle type, drivers age and driving history.

So now we have the basic reasons why insurance costs differ lets look at some averages.

Average cost of Homeowners Insurance - $1000 per year
Average cost of Auto Insurance - $800 per year
Average cost of Health Insurance - $1800 per year for adult individually and $4800 per year for a family.
Average cost of Life Insurance - $500 per year

One thing we didn't mention above was the different types of insurance products one can purchase that effect an insurance premium. For example, Term Life Insurance is less expensive than Whole Life Insurance policies. An HMO or PPO is less expensive than an Indemnity Health Insurance policy.

Of course, your cost for insurance policies will not be the exact averages we've listed above so be sure to receive your own free insurance quotes.

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