Friday, November 1, 2013



Someone once said that worry is interest paid on a loan that never comes due. Auto insurance can feel that way, too. Every month, we owe our insurers money whether or not we have need of their services. Worse, should something unfortunate occur, our rates will likely jump up. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but it might go down a trifle easier if we had a clearer picture of just how those premiums are calculated.
Fundamentally, insurance is a set of wagers laid by insurance companies using their clients' pooled money. Like a Las Vegas casino, insurance companies never stand much of a chance of losing across the board, since they have piles of actuarial tables that lay out the odds and because they hedge their bets by raising or lowering our premiums according to their exposure, the risk that they'll have to pay -- and how much. We can also pony-up some extra cash to increase our coverage if we're feeling fairly flush or risk-averse.

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