The sad truth about motorists and their car insurance knowledge

How much do you know about car insurance? If you answered “not much,” then, sadly, you’re like most American drivers who can’t respond to basic questions about their insurance coverage.

This is according to a multiple-choice survey of 500 drivers conducted by Insurance.com. The average score was a dismal 32 percent, and even when accounting for the drivers’ gender, age, and location, no group scored higher than 39 percent.

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“We were shocked at the results,” Michelle Megna, managing editor at Insurance.com, told The Los Angeles Times. “People spend an average of $800 to $2,000 in annual premiums, but they know very little about what they have bought,” she explained.

The quiz asked 10 questions about car insurance basics. Drivers scored lowest in questions that deal with:

• Comprehensive coverage (only 2 percent got the right answer);
• Typical discounts available for motorists; and
• Factors that insurance companies use to set rates.

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Although the staff at Insurance.com were not expecting perfect scores, the fact that people who said they read their entire policy scored the lowest (average score is 28 percent) is an indication that most motorists do not understand their policy. And this can lead some drivers to make significant mistakes when it is time for them to sign their insurance coverage.

Insurance experts thus advise drivers to carefully read and fully understand the policy before signing on the dotted line. And in this day and age where information about insurance coverage is easily accessible online, experts suggest that drivers seek guidance from well-versed agents, like those from Insurance.com and FreewayInsurance.com.

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