insuraviz.com was founded by a licensed insurance agent who saw a need for a better way to compare the cost of car insurance.
From conversations with both agency clients and company underwriters, it was clear that most consumers have minimal understanding of how car insurance works. They buy it because they have to, either because of state law or loan/lease requirements.
Our goal is to help people understand WHY car insurance is important, and also educate and inform them so they can make smart decisions that have a positive impact on their insurance rates.
While there are many websites that discuss car insurance rates, most of these sites neglect the fact that car insurance rates are fluid and have a tremendous amount of variability.
Driving our mission home
Our mission is to remove as much variability as possible to create a level playing field for comparing the expected cost of car insurance. Additionally, we want to show how policyholder decisions, such as the choice of policy deductibles, driving habits, the type of vehicle driven, and numerous other factors, directly impact policy premium, in both positive and negative ways.
After spending many years working with dozens of personal and commercial lines property and casualty insurance companies, we recognized that there needed to be a better way to educate consumers and simplify a very complicated concept.
Through the use of data visualizations and relatable examples, our aim is to present data in a way that makes car insurance more understandable to the average driver.
Accelerating our focus and methodology
Auto insurance rates are calculated differently by each insurer, as no two companies use identical rate factors for generating premiums.
We extensively researched the primary and secondary factors that affect policy premiums and built a model that uses these factors to create a homogenous environment for rate comparisons.
This allows us to remove extraneous rate factors such as an insurer’s appetite for business or company-specific factors such as gains or losses on investment portfolios or underwriting changes.
Our primary issue with other rate comparison data found online was the fact that many generalizations were being made and presented as fact. Vehicle trim level, driver age, and policy deductible level all have a significant influence on car insurance premiums, and generalizing these factors results in misinformation and flawed comparisons.
Auto insurance companies use dozens of factors to generate a policy premium. If just one of these factors is different between rate quotes, the premium can be vastly different.
We focus on giving consumers a way to see how expected rates compare between multiple vehicles to aid in their purchase decisions, or how life changes such as adding a teen driver to a policy or simply getting older can impact rates.
Our rate algorithm allows us to adjust one factor, keeping all others identical. This allows us to show how differences in driver risk, driving behavior, coverages, or many other factors can impact the cost of car insurance.
As we mentioned earlier, car insurance rates are fluid which simply means they constantly change. Companies frequently file rate changes with state regulators in order to maintain their profitability or to reflect changes in the car insurance market.
We keep a close eye on the constantly-changing insurance market and publish rate updates frequently. For this reason, the rates you see on our site today may be different tomorrow, next week, or next month.
Included with every chart or table on our site is a data details popup that explains the primary rating factors used in the rate calculations, as well as the date when rates were last updated.
Constantly tuning up our performance
insuraviz.com began as simply an idea to better educate consumers about car insurance. From those roots, we are always looking for better ways to communicate our mission and inform our readers.
We have lots of “aha!” moments where an innovative visualization or a better way to explain a concept is conceptualized.
New tools and technology are always emerging that make our work more enjoyable and productive, and we don’t hesitate to test them.
One of those technologies is generative artificial intelligence (or AI), which in full disclosure, we use to create some of the images that are featured on our site, and honestly, it is quite entertaining due to some of the oddities that AI creates.
License restrictions and the costs associated with automotive photography limit its use, plus, our vision for an image does not always correlate with commercially available images. AI allows us to be much more creative and tailor an image to convey a specific look, environment, or concept.
But as good as AI is, it doesn’t always get it perfect. For that reason, some vehicle images may have subtle differences when compared to actual production models.
The goal is to present an image that is recognizable as the model at hand, but also to place it in an environment that is both relatable, eye-catching, and topically-relevant.
Unbiased transmission of information
There is so much car insurance information on the web that it can be difficult to sort through the clutter. We take a different approach, by ensuring that the information we present is transparent and unbiased. Here are our values as they pertain to our editorial standards:
- Commitment to Accuracy – We uphold the highest standards in ensuring that all data presented is verified and sourced from reliable entities.
- Objective Analysis – We believe in the power of neutrality. Our writing reflects an unbiased viewpoint, fostering informed decisions free from prejudice or slant.
- Education through Accuracy – Our goal is to educate, and we believe this is only possible when information is presented without distortion or bias.
- No Conflict of Interest – We maintain a strict policy to prevent any conflicts of interest that could compromise our objectivity or the accuracy of our data.
- User-Centric Approach – We prioritize the needs and rights of our users, ensuring that content accuracy and impartiality serve their best interests.
Roadmap to the future
As our site evolves and we make improvements and changes, one thing will always stay constant: Our commitment to providing unbiased data with a focus on engaging visuals.
We strive to build the best car insurance reference on the web, and our due to our high editorial standards, this takes time. Publishing large amounts frivolous content is not our thing, but rather continually crafting and improving our existing content, in our opinion, is more useful to our site visitors.
Suggestions are always welcome and if a new topic or clarification of any topic is needed, please contact us anytime.
Meet our founder and chief gearhead
His experience as an independent insurance agent and a knack for computer programming laid the foundation for creating insuraviz.com.
He has a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Certified Insurance Counselor training in both personal and commercial insurance lines.
When he’s not coding, writing, or getting greasy with a wrench in hand, he enjoys time with his wife, three kids, and two dogs.