Cheap full coverage car insurance companies in 2024

Nationwide and Travelers are among the cheapest companies for full coverage car insurance with rates coming in at around $130 per month. But members of military families who are eligible for USAA insurance can do even better, at about $115 per month.

Indeed, it pays to shop around for the best deal on car insurance these days.

Drivers were hit with sharp increases to their car insurance premiums in 2023 and should brace for further increases in the year ahead. That makes shopping for the cheapest full coverage car insurance more important than ever.

“We anticipate average double-digit auto insurance premiums increases will be the norm across the country in 2024,” says Mark Freidlander, director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute (III), an organization that provides research and education on the insurance industry.

“Escalating loss costs continue to plague many auto insurers, with the industry reporting a very poor underwriting result in 2023 for the second consecutive year,” he says.

The sharp increases are due to several factors, including more expensive repair costs, rising litigated accident claims and a continuing rash of vehicle thefts.

That means drivers need to be extra diligent to make sure they’re getting the best rates possible and taking advantage of any discounts that might be available.

Key highlights

• USAA offers the cheapest full coverage car insurance rates at about $115 per month, followed by Nationwide and Travelers. USAA, however, is only available to military families.
• Residents of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont pay the lowest full coverage insurance rates on average – less than $115 per month.
• Residents of Louisiana, Florida and California pay the most for full coverage car insurance – an average of more than $200 per month.

What is full coverage car insurance and why is it important?

First, it’s important to understand the difference between full coverage car insurance and liability-only coverage.

Liability-only insurance coverage is required as a minimum in most states and only pays for damages you cause to other vehicles or injuries to other people if you’re at-fault in an accident. 

Full coverage insurance not only covers damage you cause to others; it also helps you repair or replace your own vehicle in an accident.

Which companies offer the cheapest full coverage auto insurance?

So, which companies offer cheap full coverage car insurance? 

USAA, according to rate data from Quadrant Information Services, which maintains insurance pricing information, had the cheapest full coverage car insurance among major national insurers, averaging about $115 per month. 

USAA, however, is only offered to active and retired military members and their families. If you don’t happen to be part of a military family, Nationwide and Travelers are your next best bets at around $130 per month. 

Auto-Owners Insurance and Erie Insurance also offer rates for less than $130 per month for full coverage, but they only offer insurance in certain states. Erie is available in 12 states while Auto-Owners covers 26 states.

For comparison, the national average for full coverage car insurance is $158 per month or $1,895 per year.

To find these rates, we gathered quotes from major insurers for full coverage policies with $100,000 of bodily injury coverage per person, $300,000 of bodily injury protection per incident, and $100,000 of property damage coverage with $500 deductibles. The quotes were for drivers 40 years of age driving a Honda Accord LX.

The rates below were collected from auto insurance comparison site CarInsurance.com and its data partner Quadrant Information Services for single, 40-year-old male and female drivers of a 2023 Honda Accord LX with a good insurance score and no violations on their record for full coverage insurance policy with liability limits of 100/300/100 and a $500 comprehensive and collision deductible. Your coverage needs and specific driver profile will impact rates, so your premium may be higher or lower.

Our recommendations

• Shop around for full coverage car insurance. National carriers Travelers and offer low rates, but there may be other options as well.
• If you’re an active or retired military member or a family member, take advantage of USAA. USAA offers full coverage for about $115 per month.
• You may find the best prices with a regional insurer. Auto-Owners Insurance and Erie Insurance offer rates for less than $130 per month.

Cheapest full coverage car insurance by state

Where you live can play a big factor in how much you’ll pay for insurance, with less densely populated states generally having much lower rates than more populous ones such as California and Florida. Other factors also come into play, such as how prevalent hailstorms, hurricanes or flooding are in your area.

What can affect my insurance premiums?

Where you live isn’t the only thing that can affect your insurance premiums. Carriers will factor in a wide range of other items to determine your rates, including whether you’re a young or first-time driver, have bad credit, have long daily commutes or have a history of getting speeding tickets. If you’ve been charged with driving under the influence, expect to pay as much as 130% more for insurance.

On the plus side, carriers will also give you credit for certain things, such as being a young driver who has taken a driver training course, a daily commute less than 5 miles each way, or if you’re married.

Here are some of the items insurance companies will factor in to determine your individual premium rate and whether they will have a negative or positive impact.

Negative Factors

Positive Factors

What impact does age have on insurance rates?

Another big factor that will play a key role in determining your car insurance rates is age. Insurance carriers base their rates on risk, and the simple fact is that younger, newer drivers have a much higher accident rate than older adults. 

Male teenage drivers get hit particularly hard, as, once again, they have a higher rate of accidents than females. The crash death rate in 2020 for male drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 was triple the death rate for female drivers in the same age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Drivers can expect their insurance rates to get cheaper as they age—rates start to normalize around age 25. Factors like getting married and buying a family-friendly vehicle will also positively affect insurance rates.

Here’s how age influences your insurance premiums:

Eco-friendly car choices and saving some green

Did you recently purchase an electric car and think your insurance company would reward you for being environmentally responsible? Prepare to be disappointed.

Carriers will charge you more for owning an electric vehicle because they are more expensive to repair, both labor-wise and in terms of parts.

Electric cars require specialized skills, which are still being developed within the repair industry. Replacement parts are sometimes more expensive because they are not yet mass-produced in the same numbers as conventional cars. Stick to a small-engine gas-powered SUV, and you have the best chance of getting the cheapest rates.

Here are the average monthly premiums for different vehicle types:

Military members and veterans get some of the cheapest rates

If you’re one of the more than 2 million members of the U.S. armed forces or a veteran, you and your family qualify to become USAA members. 

As noted above, USAA offers some of the cheapest rates around, with full coverage car insurance rates at about $115 per month. 

Interestingly, USAA was started in 1922 by 25 U.S. Army officers because they couldn’t get affordable car insurance. At the time, carriers considered military officers to be a high-risk group.

Additional considerations for getting affordable full coverage insurance

Aside from your driving history and personal factors, there are a number of strategies you should consider to lower your rates.

Kevin Lynch, a recently retired assistant professor of insurance at The American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Penn., says carriers will offer drivers a wide range of discounts. Still, you must let them know you qualify.

“Most carriers have half a dozen or more discounts like a loyalty discount, an auto-home bundle, safe driver and good student discounts and many more,” he says. “The model of car you drive can also make a big difference, particularly when combined with your age.”

Discounts you should ask about (and the possible premium reductions you might see):

Professional discounts for such affiliations as being an engineer, teacher, firefighter, lawyer, medical professional or alumni of a university (10% to 13% premium reductions)

• Professional discounts for such affiliations as being an engineer, teacher, firefighter, lawyer, medical professional or alumni of a university (10% to 13% premium reductions)
• Safe/good driver discount (10% to 30% reductions)
• Good student discount (14%)
• Away from home student discount (16%)
• Education discounts (7% to 8%)
• Being married (8%)
• Pleasure-use only discounts (6%)
• Paid-in-full reductions (9%)
• Electronic billing/autopay (4%)
• Going paperless (4%)

The other strategy Lynch said drivers don’t do nearly enough is comparison shop.

“Although it can be irritating and time-consuming, drivers should comparison shop on an annual basis,” he says. “With the ease of the Internet these days, it’s not difficult to do.”

Also, Lynch says to get quotes from national and regional carriers, such as Erie in the Northeast.

Leveraging technology to find better rates

As Lynch notes, the Internet has revolutionized how drivers shop for insurance rates.

Most major insurance carriers now allow you to ask for a quote by filling out a questionnaire online. In addition, a number of rate comparison sites will do the shopping for you. These tools are very easy to use.

The search engines are sophisticated enough to provide you with insurance rates right down to individual ZIP codes.

Before you get started using an online tool, you’ll want to gather up some basic information, such as:

• Name, birthdate and driver’s license numbers of all drivers to be covered.
• Make and model of each car to be covered.
• Driving history, including accidents and driving violations, of all drivers to be covered by the policy.

You’ll also want to be sure to list any possible discounts you might be eligible to apply.

Expert tips on how to shop for the cheapest full coverage policy

The Insurance Information Institute industry group provides tips on how to get the best rates possible. Perhaps the biggest money-saving strategy is to tap into that long list of discounts that car insurance companies offer.

“Auto insurance is a very competitive market and carriers want your business,” the III’s Freidlander says. “Many national and regional companies offer a wide range of discounts that could trim your premium bills by 40% or more.”

Other tips for getting the cheapest rates possible include:

• Adjusting your collision and comprehensive deductibles. While paying a higher deductible will lower your premiums, you will have higher out-of-pocket costs if you file a claim. Be sure you have the deductible amount in savings.
• Sign up for a usage-based telematics program. Devices installed in cars or on phone apps that monitor your driving mileage and behavior can lead to lower rates if you demonstrate good driving patterns. “Insurers could ding you with a rate increase if they detect poor driving habits,” Freidlander says.
• Maintain a good credit history. Insurance carriers have plenty of data showing that drivers with poor credit reports also have worse accident records than average drivers.
• Reduce optional insurance on an older car. As a rule of thumb, if your older car is worth less than 10 times the insurance premium, having collision and/or comprehensive coverage may not be cost-effective. To determine the value of your vehicle, use online resources like Kelley Blue Book and the National Association of Auto Dealers (NADA).
• Add your teenage driver to your existing insurance policy rather than having them buy their own policy. Teenage drivers will be faced with paying the most expensive car insurance rates of their driving years. A parent can help their new driver pay as much as 31% less by adding them to their existing policy. Of course, if the teen gets in an accident, it will likely impact the parents’ rates, but it is a way to help your teen get behind the wheel.

The chart below shows the different rates a teenage driver will pay when being added to their parent’s policy versus being on their own:

Which states have the most expensive full coverage insurance?

Living in a state like California, which has a large population and some of the busiest freeways in the nation, can be a recipe for accidents. And that’s one of the reasons why Californians pay some of the steepest insurance rates in the country.

But that’s not all that goes into determining insurance rates for individual ZIP codes or regions. Insurers will also look at a number of other factors such as whether your area is prone to flooding, hurricanes or severe storms. Increasingly, areas that have experienced a series of bad storms with dent-causing hailstones have seen a spike in claims and rates.

Here are states where drivers pay the highest rates across the nation for full coverage insurance:

Which states have the least expensive full coverage insurance?

Conversely, living in a less-populated state like Maine, which has fewer drivers on the road and fewer accident claims, will be priced more favorably by carriers.

Here are the five states that seem to be in the sweet spots for getting the lowest insurance rates:

Bottom line

Insurance rates took a big jump last year and are expected to climb further in 2024. So, while it may be easier to renew your policy with your current carrier, it can pay to shop around and ensure you’re getting the best deal possible.

Resources & Methodology

Sources

• III. "Insurance Information Institute." Accessed August 2024.
• CDC. "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Accessed August 2024.
• KBB. "Kelley Blue Book." Accessed August 2024.

Methodology

Editors collected rate information from auto insurance comparison site CarInsurance.com and its data partner Quadrant Information Services for single, 40-year-old male and female drivers of a 2023 Honda Accord LX with a good insurance score and no violations on their record for full coverage insurance policy with liability limits of 100/300/100 and a $500 comprehensive and collision deductible. 

We analyzed more than 53 million quotes, more than 34,000 ZIP codes and 170 insurance companies nationwide. 

Note: 100/300/100 means up to $100,000 for the medical bills of those you injure, up to $300,000 per accident for bodily injury liability for all persons injured in one accident, and $100,000 to repair other drivers’ cars and property that you damage.