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Why some drivers pay more for car insurance
Craig Patrick reports
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - While the cost of car insurance is soaring across the board, some drivers are paying more for reasons you may not expect. Consumer watchdogs claim some of Florida's safest drivers like Danny Williams are getting unfairly punished.
Williams lives in New Port Richey and has worked as a professional driver, driving clients and business executives in vans and limousines for the past 40 years.
He said he’s never had an accident.
Meanwhile, Augie Mauser did have a serious accident as a young driver and said he had some minor fender benders after that.
They had comparable insurance coverage and owned the same type of vehicles. However, FOX 13 found Mauser got a break on his car insurance, while Williams took a hit-- $92 a month for Mauser, versus $160 a month for Williams.
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Like many drivers, Williams has something working against him. He did not graduate from college and has a blue-collar job. That can drive up the price of automobile insurance even with a spotless record.
"It's very wrong and it’s hurting me tremendously," he said. "The system is broken."
FOX 13 met with Williams and Mauser 10 years ago and found Williams is still paying more for car insurance.
Meanwhile, Mauser has a doctorate and ran a cigar business, and with no recent accidents, he got a better deal.
"I think it’s unfair," Mauser said when he saw how his rates compared to Williams.
Years ago, a state investigation compared rates for white-collar workers like doctors and engineers with blue-collar workers like mechanics. It found that a typical mechanic is paid three times more, and the Consumer Federation of America found a similar gap in their more recent research.
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"This distorts the market. It's not an accurate measure of how risky someone is to insure," said Michael Delong, a researcher with the Consumer Federation of America.
The rates noted above for Williams and Mauser are not current.
FOX 13 first interviewed them ten years ago, and the $92 per month price for Mauser and the $160 per month price for Williams were from 2014.
Since that time, Williams has remained accident-free, while Mauser had one auto insurance claim from a tree branch scraping the top of his vehicle.
Williams pays more per month for car insurance than Mauser who has a worse driving record.
Yet, the disparity in their auto insurance rates has continued since 2014-- with Williams consistently paying at least 70 dollars more per month. Williams paid at least $8,400 more and counting.
Mauser’s doctorate in psychology paid off more than he thought, and he says more than it should have when it comes to insurance.
The insurance industry says companies tend to charge drivers like Williams more based on data and statistics.
"The insurance companies claim they have done studies and tests and have found education level is linked to how risky you are to insure," DeLong explained. "But when we asked can you show us the evidence and data for that they usually clam up and say we don’t want to share that, because it's proprietary information."
Mauser said Williams could have used an extra $8,400 toward the education of his children.
Ironically, Williams took out a loan for $8,400 to help put his son through school, accruing thousands in interest in the course of paying it off.
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