Auto Insurance Companies - What Are The Most Expensive And Cheapest States To Get Auto Insurance in the United States?
According to the Insurance Information Institute auto insurance companies have been continually increasing the average cost of auto insurance for many years now.
In 2001 the average cost of auto insurance in the United States was $718, but by 2004 that had risen to $898 and by 2011 that had skyrocketed to the cheapest place in the United States to buy auto insurance (Vermont) costing $995 on average, and the most expensive (Michigan) costing a whopping $2,541 on average to insure a car.
This is a really quite dramatic difference that illustrates
that the location you live in the United States can affect your
insurance premium by upwards of 150%! And these rising costs are not just limited to auto insurance unfortunately. You can also see that the average cost of motorcycle insurance in the United States and the average cost of homeowners insurance in the United States have also both risen over the years, so it is not just car owners that are bearing the brunt of these rises.
Of those moneys that go to pay the
insurance companies the Insurance Information Institute
estimated that 75% went on claims, 23% on expenses such as commissions
to brokers etc and 1% each on Tax and Profits. It is also sobering
to realize that out of the total money paid to auto insurance companies
in premiums that $13 out of every $100 is spent on Lawyers fees.
So it is well worth considering what effects a car accident could
have on your bank balance if the other party decided to sue for
damages and you weren't properly covered.
Whether or not these figures are totally accurate is debatable, because large insurance companies are by their very nature designed to minimise tax liabilities, and one great way of doing that is by showing as few profits as possible, even when to all intents and purposes the business appears to be considerably more successful than a 1% profit margin. But nevertheless, the rise in the proportion of legal fees as a percentage of the total cost of auto insurance premiums is not in doubt.
The sad fact is that it used to be the case that the bulk of insurance premiums were concerned with hospital bills, and because the insurance companies could strike deals with hospitals and control the costs (at least to a greater extent), there was not the same upward pressure on premiums. These days however, because of the increasingly litigious culture in the United States, there is increasing pressure for the average price of auto insurance in the United States to rise, even though some states still represent relatively good value.
We consider the different aspects of what you should be
considering with your auto insurance throughout this site, and also present some good auto insurance companies that
you might want to consider for a quote, if you would like to get an above average auto insurance quote from a selection of auto insurance companies right now, by putting in your zip code at the top of the page.
There is a wide gap between auto insurance companies in the US based on location, and for further details on how these change specifically in your state you should also be sure to check out your specific state in our state guides, which you can access on the right hand menu.