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These factors mentioned below are basically out of your control. Is there something we can do about them to lower your auto insurance premiums? It definitely pays to know what variables insurance companies are looking at when calculating your risk.

Let’s take a look.

The Auto Insurance Premium Factors that are Out of your Control

Insurance companies are master statisticians and they have calculated the risk to have you as a customer for just about everything down to what color shoes you wear. These are traits or characteristics that you mostly don’t have control over, but are often used to calculate your auto insurance premium.

• Your Age: The age band below is only an estimate as it differs for different insurers.

18 to 21 yrs old -- Most Costly

22 to 25 yrs old -- Pretty Costly

26 to 30 yrs old -- Moderate

31 to 65 yrs old -- Least Costly

beyond 65 yrs old -- Moderate

• Your Gender: Women are statistically safer drivers and so the premium is lower for females.

• Your past driving record: Some insurers look back three years, others look back five years or longer. Depending on the company that is quoting you and how recently you had a major traffic violation or accident, this can have a huge impact on your premium. Don’t worry about parking infringements as they do not impact your driving record and premiums.

• Driving Experience: This is calculated from the day you passed your driving test, not your actual driving experience (on the road).

0 to 1 yrs -- Most costly, currently only NTUC can insure

1 to 2 yrs -- Costly

2 to 4 yrs -- Moderate

4 yrs & above -- Least Costly

• No Claims Discount (NCD): You get an additional 10% discount each year if you haven't made any claims during your policy year.

• Your marital status: Married drivers can pay less than single drivers.

• Occupation: Doctors tend to get in less accidents on average than ice cream truck drivers. Go figure.

• Nature of Vehicle: This includes the type of vehicle (i.e. Salon, Sports, Turbo, High-Performance, MPV, etc.), engine capacity and the year of manufacture. Most insurers offer 5% discount for off-peak cars.

• Business use of vehicle: If using your vehicle as part of your job, you are at risk of a higher premium (and probably rightly so)

• Certificate of Merit Discount: This is offered to you if you've kept on the right side of the traffic laws. Insurers will reward you with 5% discount if you're eligible

• Multiple Vehicles: Are you insuring multiple cars on the same plan? If so, it could result in lower premiums for each vehicle.

Now that you know what you can and cannot control, what can you do about it?

The answer is simple. Shop around. Frequently.

It’s true that you may not have control over a lot of what your premium is based on, but your saving grace is that the auto insurance companies don’t all agree on how to precisely calculate your risk. Until they do, it pays to shop around.

There is no auto insurer who offers the lowest rates to everyone. But there is an auto insurer who offers the lowest rate to you specifically. You just need to find them. And it might be a different insurer six months or a year from now than it is today. That’s why it pays to know what the insurance companies look at, what discounts you might be able to swing, and to shop around frequently.