Auto insurance is all about risk. The more likely a driver is to have an accident, the greater risk they are to insurance companies and the cost of insurance is reflected in these risks.

But does your occupation affect your car insurance rate? In short, yes it can. If statistics show that occupations such as doctors and lawyers tend to be in fewer accidents, they will correspondingly pay lower rates. However, a variety of factors impact rates even with the best car insurance companies, particularly driving history and the value of the vehicle. Occupation is just one piece of the equation.

Why is Occupation a Factor?

Awareness of who uses your employment history or current occupation to evaluate your credit or insurance worthiness will help with understanding the reasons for an evaluation based on occupation. Credit card companies, mortgage and auto-loan lenders, and even debt collectors take your occupation into account when assessing your credit worthiness.

Your occupation is one component of a scoring rubric purposed to give an outlook on your steadiness as consumer. In the credit industry the perusal of your employment history and occupational status is more straight forward, as it determines availability of funds.

Offensive or not, your occupation and employment history are also used, even within the credit and loan industry, to determine your level of personal responsibility or propensity to take risk. The basis of evaluation on responsibility figures in with the idea of financial risk equating to driving risk.

Minimized Risk Equals Maximized Profit

Insurance companies are in business to make money. Any successful business will minimize expenditure while increasing profit. This is simple math. The sure-fire way for any insurance company to profit is to minimize risk as much as possible.

If your occupation as a garbage collector doesn’t reflect the potential you had as the son of a wealthy business tycoon then you may be considered careless and therefore a risk. But it’s not all about the money or personal patterns of irresponsibility.

There are differing opinions on that question. While some experts support using occupation as an evaluating factor on the premise that it is brutal but fair, other experts are expressing that other factors, such as uncontrollable circumstances, should be given more credence in the rate evaluation process.