Can NJ insurance rates vary by car color? This color clashes the most

Politics has been described as the art of the possible. Perhaps even setting car insurance rates should be described this way.

Actuaries sitting around crunching numbers about the likelihood of collisions has led to some very strange practices by insurance companies.

In New Jersey and many other states, insurance companies are allowed to charge you more just because your credit score is lower. They claimed to have seen the data and there is a correlation with the accidents.

Really?

If there is a correlation, it is much more likely that the truth is that there is a correlation in accidents in which it costs money to those insurance companies from people who decide to file a claim. People who are in financial trouble are the ones who will have a lower credit rating. It probably doesn’t mean they have more accidents than their neighbor who is richer. This likely means that the wealthy neighbor will absorb the cost of a fender bender out of pocket rather than risk making a claim that could raise their insurance rates. And so let’s call this what it really is on the part of the insurance companies. Greed.

Here is another one. By the time you get a divorce, insurance companies have decided that you are a more dangerous driver. Again, are you suddenly driving worse because you’re single? Very suspicious. It probably comes back to the same reason. Finances.

Divorce sets people back. Divorce is expensive. If you come out of this financially unscathed, you are the rare case. Again, when you are hurting financially, you may have no choice but to file a claim for small damages compared to when you were married and better off financially and probably would have absorbed that cost and not have passed through insurance.

So let’s put to rest the myth that New Jersey insurance companies really are at risk of going bust. They’re just looking at the risk of having to shell out some dough. God forbid someone files a claim and ends up using the insurance they’ve been paying for for years. What a racket.

So I started thinking about what other weird ways insurance companies can think of to set rates? If they want to claim it’s just about crash risk, have they looked at whether hair color is associated with crashing more? We tend to accept the unfair status quo of setting rates for things like credit ratings. But imagine the public outrage if they suddenly paid redheads more money and blondes less.

What about the color of your car? There is actual data to support this. In one study, it was found that certain colors of cars are less and less likely to be involved in accidents.

Who would pay more under that half-baked scheme?

Owners of black cars. The study shows that black cars have a 47% higher chance of being involved in a crash. There is a backup copy of the current data. So why aren’t insurance companies tracking the color of cars?

I’ll tell you why.

See examples of credit evaluation and divorce. Because the color of the car will have nothing to do with whether someone is more or less likely to make a claim. Money is all they care about.

Here’s how the study reveals which car colors are more and less likely to be involved in an accident.

Most accidents:

1. Black

A study reported in Money Super Market found that black cars are 47% more likely to be involved in crashes than cars of any other color.

2. Gray

The second most dangerous car color. Gray cars pose an 11% higher risk than the safest car color, which we’ll get to.

3. Silver

10% risk greater than the safest.

4. Blue

This popular color represents a 7% higher risk.

Fewer accidents:

1. White

This is the safest color car you can drive. It has a 12% lower chance of being in an accident than a black car. And this is in all weather and lighting conditions.

2. Yellow

Your banana car will be the second safest on the list. If you don’t mind driving a car that looks like a banana.

3. Orange

Orange is NOT the new black. It is one of the safest colors from a statistical point of view.

4. Gold

It’s not a popular choice, but the theory behind why this is the fourth safest car color is simply that it stands out so much.

The opinions expressed in the above post are solely those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski.

You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle – upon request! Listen to New Jersey’s favorite afternoon radio show every day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, in our free app, or listen now.

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New Jersey license plate designs over the years

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