How to Compare Car Insurance Rates (2023) - Insurify

Comparing car insurance quotes is an excellent way to ensure you’ve secured the best and cheapest auto insurance quotes available to your unique driver profile. Car insurance companies weigh rating factors differently, so quotes may vary from different insurance providers.

What’s the difference between a car insurance quote and a car insurance rate? A car insurance quote is an estimate of how much an insurer will charge you on a monthly or annual basis based on your own self-reported information. A car insurance rate comes later after the car insurance company has verified your driver profile and vehicle identification number (VIN). Car insurance rates are also known as car insurance premiums.

When you compare quotes, you’ll be able to do a real-time side-by-side comparison of coverage limits, car insurance discounts, and premiums to help you choose the policy with the best price and coverage for you. Insurify takes the legwork out of car insurance quotes comparison – just answer some questions, select your coverage limits, and pick your perfect policy.

Compare auto insurance from America’s best car insurance companies on Insurify, the all-in-one insurance marketplace.

Factors That Affect Your Car Insurance

Before you start comparing car insurance quotes, it’s best to get an understanding of all the factors that can affect your car insurance quote:

• Your Location

Your location, from the state you reside in down to the zip code you live in, heavily affects your car insurance quotes. Typically city-dwellers have to pay a higher car insurance rate than those living in rural or suburban areas due to the higher incidence of crime and the amount of traffic on the road.

On the state-level, drivers residing in states prone to natural disasters and states with higher requirements for car insurance coverage pay higher car insurance premiums.

• Your Credit Score

Drivers with poor credit scores typically pay 45 percent more for car insurance than those with a good credit score and 54 percent more than those with an excellent credit score.

• Your Driving Record

Needless to say, drivers with a clean driving record can expect a cheaper car insurance quote than those with an infraction, such as a DUI or at-fault accident, on their driving record.

• Your Marital Status

Believe it or not, married couples pay 8 percent less for car insurance than singles. This is likely due to the plethora of discounts available to couples, such as the multi-vehicle discount.

• Your Age

Drivers under 25, and teen drivers in particular, typically pay the highest car insurance rates in the nation due to their relative inexperience on the road. Car insurance rates generally get cheaper between the ages of 25-60, and start to rise again once drivers turn 70.

How to Find and Compare Car Insurance Quotes

The first step to comparing car insurance quotes is to find a trustworthy comparison website that allows you to view quotes from various providers side-by-side. Alternatively, you could go to each insurance provider’s website, key in all your information for each, and then compare quotes.

However, this would be time-consuming and inaccurate, unless you remember to set the same coverage options and limits for each form. Needless to say, if you’re comparing car insurance quotes, the best way to do that is to use an insurance comparison platform like Insurify. With Insurify, you just have to fill out basic information about you and your car to view a list of quotes from top national and regional car insurance companies.

Before embarking on your quote comparison journey, make sure you understand your coverage options so you can set reasonable liability limits and deductibles. Read on to figure out how! If you’re not ready to commit to a quote, use our car insurance estimator to get an idea of how much you should expect to pay for proper insurance coverage.

Step 1: Decide On Your Car Insurance Coverage

Car insurance quotes can vary widely based on the type of coverages you select when you’re getting a quote. For example, one company may throw in Roadside Assistance for an extra $15 a month, while another charges an extra $25. Before you begin comparing quotes, make sure you have an idea of the kind of coverage you need, and how much you’re willing to pay for it.

To help you figure out what kind of car insurance coverage is best for you, we’ve put together a list of essentials and add-ons.

Liability Coverage

Liability coverage helps you pay for damages you cause to another person or property in the event of a car accident in which you are at fault. There are two types of liability car insurance: property damage liability coverage and bodily injury liability coverage.

Property damage liability kicks in when you cause damage to another person’s property in an at-fault car accident. For example, if you accidentally rear-end another person’s car, this coverage will cover repairs to that person’s car.

Bodily injury liability kicks in when you cause injuries to another person in the course of an at-fault car accident. For example, if you accidentally rear-end another person’s car and they get whiplash, this coverage will cover that person’s ensuing hospital bills.

Here’s a list of the cheapest liability car insurance quotes, according to Insurify’s internal database of over 40 million car insurance quotes:

Bear in mind, your personal liability car insurance quote may differ due to your location and your state’s minimum required liability limits, as well as personal factors such as your driving record and age. Compare personalized car insurance quotes with Insurify today, to check out how much top insurance companies would charge you.

Liability Limits and State Minimum Car Insurance Requirements

Liability coverage is required in most states, and you may be subject to hefty penalties and fines if you’re caught driving without it. Check out the minimum car insurance required in your state to make sure you’re adequately covered while on the road.

When viewing your liability coverage options, you’ll usually see the minimum liability limits required by your state. These limits are typically expressed in the form XX/XX/XX. These numbers, in thousands, represent the maximum payout your insurance company will provide for one person injured in a car accident, the maximum payout for all injuries in an accident, and the maximum payout for property damage in an accident, respectively.

When picking your car insurance policy, you have the option to go with the minimum liability limits required by your state, or you have the option to purchase higher liability limits. Higher liability limits will increase the payout your insurance company will be responsible for and lower your financial burden in the event of an accident. However, higher liability limits will increase your monthly auto insurance rates.

Check out the cheapest car insurance provider in your state:

Car Insurance Coverage Required in Some States

In addition to basic liability coverage, some states may require you to also have personal injury protection and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

Personal Injury Protection

Personal Injury Protection is a type of auto insurance coverage that covers any bodily injury you and your family members sustain in an accident, regardless of who is at fault and regardless of whose vehicle you’re occupying. This coverage kicks in before your health insurance does.

In addition to covering any resulting medical bills, PIP also covers any income you lost because of the accident and funeral expenses in case the accident proves fatal. If you sustain injuries that prevent you from performing day-to-day tasks like mowing your lawn or cleaning your house, PIP coverage will also cover the expenses incurred for hiring someone like a gardener or a housekeeper.

PIP coverage is required in the following states: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Washington D.C.

Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Uninsured or Underinsured motorist coverage kicks in when you get into an accident with a driver who is at fault but doesn’t have car insurance or doesn’t have enough liability coverage to cover your medical bills or repairs to your vehicle. This type of coverage also kicks in when you’re the victim of a hit-and-run accident.

For example, if you get into a car accident where the other driver is at fault but doesn’t have liability limits that are high enough to cover the resulting property damage or medical bills, your insurance company will take care of that financial burden instead.

Several states require drivers to carry uninsured motorist coverage, including Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington D.C..

In addition to the states listed above, Virginia, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire also require drivers to purchase uninsured motorist coverage, but only under certain circumstances.

The cost of uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage depends on the percentage of uninsured motorists in your state. As a result, the cost of adding this coverage to your policy can vary from state to state.

Optional Car Insurance Coverages

Here are some optional car insurance coverages you may choose to add to your basic car insurance policy for more robust coverage:

Medical Payments Coverage

Medical Payments Coverage, or Med Pay, is an optional insurance coverage similar to Personal Injury Protection. Med Pay typically covers all medical bills resulting from an accident you’re involved in, regardless of who was at fault.

Med Pay kicks in before your health insurance does, which can be very beneficial if you have a high co-pay or deductible for your health insurance. However, your Med Pay coverage is by no means a substitute for health insurance, as the coverage wouldn’t be enough to cover significant medical expenses.

For example, if you have to have surgery as a result of injuries from a car accident, your health insurance may require you to pay a $3,000 deductible before it kicks in to cover the rest. In this case, you could use your Med Pay coverage to help pay the deductible.

Unlike Personal Injury Protection, Med Pay doesn’t cover lost wages or expenses related to hiring help for tasks you can no longer perform due to an accident. For example, if you hired a gardener to mow your lawn because injuries from a car accident render you unable to do so yourself, PIP would cover that expense, but Med Pay would not.

Collision Coverage

Collision coverage covers property damage in any instance where your car collides with another vehicle or object (such as a fence or a tree). While liability coverage covers property damage you cause to other parties, collision coverage covers damage to your own vehicle in an at-fault accident.

Additionally, collision coverage also covers damages your vehicle sustains in a single-vehicle accident, such as rolling or falling over. Collision coverage does not, however, cover your medical expenses or damages you cause to another vehicle

Collision coverage, along with comprehensive coverage and basic liability coverage, makes up part of a full-coverage car insurance policy.

Comprehensive Coverage

Comprehensive coverage covers property damage to your vehicle in any instance that is not a collision. For this reason, comprehensive coverage is sometimes referred to as “other than collision” coverage.

Broadly, comprehensive coverage covers damages your vehicle sustains due to:

• Weather-related instances such as floods, fire, and hail

• Acts of God, such as a tree branch falling on your parked car

• Vandalism

• Theft

• Riots

• Contact with animals

Check out car insurance quotes for a full-coverage car insurance policy from America’s top car insurance companies:

Set the Same Coverage Levels When Comparing Car Insurance Quotes

Since the coverage you pick heavily affects your car insurance quote, make sure you set uniform coverage levels when comparing car insurance quotes. This can be hard to do if you’re using multiple sites to compare car insurance, especially since each insurance company has a different form.

However, if you use an insurance quote comparison website like Insurify, you can easily set uniform coverage levels to ensure an apples-to-apples comparison between different insurance companies. Insurify’s comparison tool also makes it easy to toggle between different coverage levels, so you can see in real time how your quotes change based on the coverages you pick.

Step 2: Set Your Deductible

Your car insurance deductible is the dollar amount you have to spend on any claim before your car insurance kicks in to take care of the rest. So if your deductible is $250, that’s the amount you’d have to pay when filing a claim, before your coverage kicks in.

The higher you set your deductible, the lesser your monthly car insurance payment will be. However, you have to make sure you can afford to pay your deductible in the event of a car accident.

Step 3: Gather Multiple Car Insurance Quotes and Compare

Once you’ve figured out what kind of coverage you want, the amount of coverage you want, and the deductible you’re comfortable paying, you’re ready to start your car insurance comparison journey.

To begin your comparison shopping journey, you will need the following information handy:

• Your driver’s license

• The vehicle identification number for all vehicles you want to insure

• The address where you plan to park your vehicles

• Details of your driving history, including any tickets, citations, or accidents on your record

Once you’ve got all your information handy, you can go ahead and use an insurance comparison platform like Insurify, which will return car insurance quotes from top national and regional companies within minutes.

Alternatively, you can shortlist a list of car insurance companies you’d like to buy a policy from, fill out each of their forms, and compare quotes. However, this process will take a few hours more.

The Best Way to Compare Cheap Auto Insurance Quotes

The single easiest way to compare cheap and free car insurance quotes is to use Insurify. Through Insurify’s award-winning car insurance comparison tool, you can view and compare the cheapest car insurance quotes from top companies within minutes, adjust your coverage and deductible levels, and buy a policy online, over the phone, or through secure chat within minutes.

Insurify’s patented AI-powered tool makes it easy for you to choose coverages and companies that are best suited to your driver profile and budget, factoring in your driving record, credit score, and vehicle information to provide you the biggest discounts from top insurers.

The average Insurify user saves $966 on car insurance a year—use Insurify today to see how much you could save!

Frequently Asked Questions