Before heading out on a summer road trip, drivers should prepare by getting their cars serviced and heeding advice from Credit One Bank on how credit can affect car insurance rates.

About 95 percent of auto insurers use a numerical point system to assess a driver's risk based on his or her credit score. Auto insurers use statistical data to calculate the potential risk of those they insure—known as an "insurance risk score"—and stats indicate that drivers with good to excellent credit scores are less likely to be involved in accidents and file insurance claims than those with lower credit scores. This typically translates to lower rates for drivers with higher credit scores.

Credit One Bank suggests the following tips on how to increase your credit and insurance risk scores to potentially lower your car insurance premiums:

• Ensure payments to all accounts are made on time, every time. Timely payments should help build and/or improve your credit history over time.
• Strive to keep your credit utilization ratio under control—30% or less, as suggested by many experts. A lower ratio demonstrates healthy credit habits and suggests a lower risk of missing payments.
• Actively monitor credit accounts daily to mitigate any suspicious activity.

This advice on car insurance and other credit basics can be found online at Credit One Central, a unique financial resource that provides insight, tools, and other resources for a variety of consumer needs.