Learn How to Compare Auto Insurance Rates

If you want to save money on vehicle insurance, comparison searching is essential. This is why: When it comes to calculating prices, insurers consider comparable elements, but each has its own “secret sauce.” That is why two businesses can charge such disparities for the same driver.

 

Car insurance quotes should be compared.

Each insurance company assesses personal characteristics in its own way, and they keep their techniques as covert as possible — which is why we can’t tell you which company places a higher value on location or a clean driving history than others. However, we can show you average annual costs for basic and full coverage auto insurance to get you started. To help narrow it down even further, we’ve provided average prices for drivers with varying driving and credit histories in every state and for every major auto insurance provider. Liberty Mutual, although being one of the largest insurers in the country, is not included in our pricing research due to a lack of publicly available information.

Why you should believe NerdWallet: To ensure fairness and accuracy in our writing and data analyses, our writers and editors adhere to strict editorial guidelines. Our data analysts take stringent procedures to eliminate outliers and inaccuracies in pricing data, which includes rates from every location in the country where coverage is accessible and data is available. We modify only one variable at a time when comparing rates for different coverage quantities, ages, and backgrounds, so you can simply observe how each aspect influences pricing. Examine our methods.

Compare vehicle insurance quotes for DUI drivers.

After a DUI, your auto insurance rate will rise by 75 percent or more. Your insurance company, on the other hand, is something you can influence the most. A DUI can have a long-term impact on vehicle insurance premiums, so it’s wise to search around for the best deal after receiving one.

Compare business averages for 35-year-olds before and after a DUI in the table below. Remember that not all of these businesses are available in every state.

 

While your insurance rate will go up after a DUI, the amount depends on where you live. In Maine, the average premium for drivers with a recent DUI is 34% higher than for similar drivers with no offenses, amounting to $369 more per year. In our analysis, a DUI in Hawaii nearly tripled typical rates, adding more than $3,000 to the annual cost of full coverage vehicle insurance for 35-year-old drivers.