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Compare Car Insurance Quotes
Shopping for car insurance? Comparing car insurance rates can help you find the best price.
Comparing car insurance rates is the best way to ensure you’re getting the best price on something you’re probably required to have. But while most insurers look at the same factors to determine pricing, each one has its own “secret sauce” when it comes to setting rates. That's why two companies can charge wildly different rates for the same driver.
How to compare car insurance rates
1. Gather your information
Personal information, which includes the address, date of birth, occupation, driver’s license and marital status of everyone you want included on the policy.
Vehicle information, including the mileage, date of purchase and vehicle identification number (VIN) for each car. If you haven’t purchased the car yet, have mileage, make, model and year handy.
Driving history, including all claims, violations and tickets you’ve had over the past five years, plus any completed driving courses.
Current or previous insurer’s name for anyone on the policy or in your household. Some insurers won’t cover you without some coverage history, and if you want to exclude anyone living with you from the policy, you’ll need to prove they’re covered elsewhere.
2. Choose the right liability car insurance coverage levels
If you happen to cause this kind of wreck, the victims could sue you. And in that situation, assets such as your savings and even your home could be seized.
Liability auto insurance protects you from that worst-case scenario by providing a cushion between your assets and the amount you’re on the hook for. That’s why choosing the right liability limits is the most important part of a car insurance quote comparison. NerdWallet typically recommends having at least as much liability coverage as your net worth.
But liability coverage levels come in threes — you’ll probably see something like 50/100/50 or 250/500/250 included in most policies. You can think of these limits as individual injuries/total injuries/property damage. (Insurers are a little more technical with the names, calling them bodily injury liability/total bodily injury liability/physical damage liability.)
Liability insurance comes in thousand-dollar increments, so when you choose an auto insurance policy with 100/300/100 limits, you’ll be choosing:
Understand car insurance requirements in your state
States requiring PIP or MedPay are generally referred to as “no-fault” states. This means that when injuries occur, each driver in a crash makes a claim with their own insurance company to pay for them. Then, the at-fault driver’s liability insurance will kick in to cover any expenses beyond the PIP or MedPay limit.
3. Decide if you need full coverage car insurance
However, full coverage insurance isn’t actually a type of coverage. It typically refers to policies that include liability coverage plus comprehensive and collision coverage.
In other words, you can’t just click a “full coverage” button when comparing car insurance quotes online or buy something called a full coverage auto insurance policy. You’ll need to add collision and comprehensive coverage in the amounts you want, which will also increase the amount you’ll pay.
If you add collision or comprehensive coverage to your policy, you’ll choose deductible amounts for each. These deductibles are amounts you will pay out of pocket for each claim you make, similar to a deductible when you go to a doctor’s office or pick up a pharmacy prescription. (The difference is they tend to be significantly higher than either of those examples.)
Collision insurance pays for:
Damage to your car in an accident you cause.
Damage to your car if you hit an object such as a fence or pole.
Damage to your car if someone else hits you. Another option in this case is to make a claim against the other driver’s liability insurance.
Comprehensive insurance pays for the value of your car if it’s stolen and not recovered, and damage from:
Weather such as tornadoes or hail.
Floods.
Fire.
Falling objects.
Explosions.
Crashes with an animal, such as striking a deer.
Riots and civil disturbances.
4. Collect and compare car insurance quotes
To make sure you’re getting comparable auto insurance quotes, each should include:
The same levels of liability and uninsured/underinsured motorist protection.
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Compare car insurance rates by age
Your age can have a big impact on your car insurance rate. For example, you might already know teen drivers have some of the highest car insurance rates on average, but they aren’t the only ones. Although your rates will likely decrease once you hit your thirties, most drivers tend to see higher rates once they reach their 70s.
Below are the average costs of full coverage, by age, for drivers with good credit and a clean driving history.
Age
Average cost of full coverage
20
$4,110
30
$2,039
35
$1,982
40
$1,928
50
$1,794
60
$1,713
70
$1,852
How to choose an insurance company
The best car insurance companies offer more than just affordable rates. They also provide reliable and helpful customer service as well as a simple way to update your policy or file a claim.
Here are a few things to check before you buy a car insurance policy:
