Car insurance rates are high enough, especially if you happen to be a motorist age 25 or under. Car insurance rates are based on risk assessment performed by auto insurance companies. The actuaries crunch the numbers and determine the amount of risk the automobile insurance companies are taking on before assigning rates, especially with auto insurance high risk.

A foolish mistake made by some, and perhaps the biggest risk of all is not having insurance coverage on your car to begin with. For starters, your vehicle can be impounded on the spot. You’ll also pay some pretty stiff fines levied by the court and you will have to pay the inevitable tickets that most assuredly will be written.

Your drivers license will be suspended and in order to get your car back you will have to show proof of insurance when you appear before the judge, which is mandatory. So as you can see, not having auto insurance is a very foolish proposition indeed.

While they can vary greatly depending upon a great many different factors, the average auto insurance premium today is right around $75 per month. If you have one or more auto insurance claims and you can bet that you’ll be paying much more.

That is why before making an auto insurance claim you need to determine whether it’s worth filing to begin with. If it is only minor damage then sometimes the long-term cost of filing a claim will outweigh the short-term benefit of having your auto insurance company pay for the repairs.

Of course, if you want to pay for the repairs yourself you had better be prepared to dig deep into your pockets because getting your car fixed can be a very expensive proposition. Every situation is different of course, so you must decide for yourself what the best course of action should be before making any auto insurance claims.

You must also bear in mind that the more automobile insurance claims that you submit, the more money you’ll end up paying in premiums. So sometimes if the repair work is something that you can actually do yourself or have someone else do for you, you may just be better off financially. It may be a wise move to check on your area for references of affordable body shops.