You have most likely seen the captivating commercials from car insurance companies like GEICO, Progressive, and The General that promise the cheapest rates, so drivers should just pick the one with the catchiest commercial, right?
That is not the case, however, as there are a whole bunch of unknown elements like if your vehicle is used for personal use or work, if you have a coverage lapse, and if you are married, that all have an effect on the price. The information below covers the best ways to pay less and will hopefully give you a good beginning to your quest for cheaper car insurance in Arkansas.
When shopping for the cheapest insurance for teen drivers, one of the many things that help set the cost of insurance is your address in Arkansas. Areas with high crime rates or more dense population like El Dorado, Pine Bluff, and Hot Springs are more likely to have higher rates, whereas areas with less people or fewer weather incidents receive better rates.
The table below lists the most expensive places in Arkansas for teenagers to buy an auto insurance policy in.
Rank | City | Premium Per Year |
---|---|---|
1 | El Dorado | $1,542 |
2 | Little Rock | $1,533 |
3 | Pine Bluff | $1,474 |
4 | West Memphis | $1,462 |
5 | Hot Springs | $1,457 |
6 | Maumelle | $1,452 |
7 | Texarkana | $1,447 |
8 | North Little Rock | $1,429 |
9 | Cabot | $1,425 |
10 | Jonesboro | $1,424 |
11 | Jacksonville | $1,421 |
12 | Sherwood | $1,419 |
13 | Bryant | $1,414 |
14 | Benton | $1,401 |
15 | Paragould | $1,398 |
16 | Russellville | $1,356 |
17 | Searcy | $1,353 |
18 | Conway | $1,352 |
19 | Fayetteville | $1,316 |
20 | Springdale | $1,314 |
21 | Van Buren | $1,308 |
22 | Fort Smith | $1,303 |
23 | Rogers | $1,281 |
24 | Bentonville | $1,239 |
25 | Bella Vista | $1,236 |
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Premium costs are comparative as the garaging address in Arkansas can lower or raise insurance rates greatly.
Trying to buy reasonably-priced auto insurance is not most people’s favorite thing to do, and finding out which companies offer the best auto insurance rates for teenagers calls for even more perseverance. Policy prices may be quite a bit greater than the average price in Arkansas due to the extra risk associated with selling insurance for teen drivers, but reasonably-priced insurance should be possible if you carefully shop around.
Each auto insurance company uses their own formula to set their prices, so we need to take a look at the most competitive auto insurance companies in Arkansas.
Cheap Insurance Rates for Teens
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Rank | Company | Cost Per Year |
---|---|---|
1 | USAA | $981 |
2 | Auto Club | $1,005 |
3 | Travelers | $1,104 |
4 | Southern Farm Bureau | $1,177 |
5 | State Farm | $1,261 |
6 | Safeco | $1,265 |
7 | Columbia Insurance | $1,272 |
8 | Farmers | $1,290 |
9 | State Auto | $1,336 |
10 | Cameron Mutual | $1,355 |
11 | Auto-Owners | $1,429 |
12 | Shelter | $1,521 |
13 | Progressive | $1,626 |
14 | GEICO | $1,871 |
15 | Liberty Mutual | $2,121 |
16 | Nationwide | $2,134 |
17 | MetLife | $2,465 |
18 | ALFA | $2,529 |
19 | Allstate | $2,565 |
20 | Home State | $2,691 |
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USAA normally has some of the cheapest car insurance rates in Arkansas at around $981 per year. Auto Club, Travelers, Southern Farm Bureau, and State Farm would also be considered some of the most economical Arkansas insurance companies.
In the above example, if you are currently insured with Auto Club and switched to USAA, you could realize savings of in the vicinity of $24. Policyholders with Travelers might save as much as $123 a year, and Southern Farm Bureau insureds might reduce rates by $196 a year.
If you want to find out if you’re overpaying, click here to get a free quote or visit several of the following companies.
These estimates are averaged for all insureds and vehicles and and are not calculated with a price surcharge for teenagers. So the car insurance company that has the cheapest rates for you may not even be in the rate chart shown above. That’s why you need to compare as many prices as possible using your own individual information.
The illustration below illustrates how your deductible choice can influence insurance premiums when quoting cheap insurance for teenagers. The prices are based on a married male driver, full coverage, and no discounts are applied to the premium.
google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawDfdqcibChart);function drawDfdqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Age of Insured’, ‘$100 Deductible’,’$250 Deductible’,’$500 Deductible’,’$1,000 Deductible’],[‘Age 20’, 3871,3529,3153,2799],[‘Age 30’, 2009,1831,1625,1429],[‘Age 40’, 1929,1763,1577,1397],[‘Age 50’, 1765,1615,1447,1285],[‘Age 60’, 1737,1589,1421,1263],[‘Age 70’, 2003,1841,1661,1495]]);var options = {title: ‘Impact of Deductible Levels on Insurance Premiums in Arkansas’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’,fontSize: 17,bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 700,’chartArea’: {left:100,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’,’height’: ‘80%’},legend: {position: ‘bottom’,textStyle: {fontSize: 12}},bar: {groupWidth: ‘80%’},colors: [‘#6791b9′,’#75a8d8′,’#98bee2′,’#bad4ec’],hAxis: {title: ‘Annual Auto Insurance Cost for Average Vehicle’,minValue: 0,format: ‘$###,###’},vAxis: {title: ‘Age of Insured’}};var formatter = new google.visualization.NumberFormat({fractionDigits: 0,prefix: ‘$’});formatter.format(data,1);formatter.format(data,2);formatter.format(data,3);formatter.format(data,4);var chart = new google.visualization.BarChart(document.getElementById(‘qcibdfd’));chart.draw(data, options);}
As shown above, a 50-year-old driver could lower rates by $318 a year by changing from a $100 deductible up to a $500 deductible, or save $480 by choosing a $1,000 deductible. Youthful drivers, like the 20-year-old category, could save $1,072 every year by choosing a larger deductible amount. If you do make the decision to raise your deductibles, it is a good idea to have enough savings to be able to pay the extra out-of-pocket expense that deters many people from opting for higher deductibles.
Finding the best cheap car insurance for teenagers in Arkansas is probably important to most people, and one great way to reduce the cost of insurance is to not pay for full coverage. The example below shows the difference between premium costs with and without physical damage coverage, medical payments, and uninsured/under-insured motorist coverage. The data is based on no tickets, no at-fault accidents, $100 deductibles, drivers are not married, and no policy discounts are applied.
google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawFclqcibChart);function drawFclqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Age of Insured’, ‘Full Coverage with $100 Deductibles’, ‘Liability Only’],[‘Age 20’, 3331,1029],[‘Age 30’, 1733,567],[‘Age 40’, 1713,525],[‘Age 50’, 1563,493],[‘Age 60’, 1505,483],[‘Age 70’, 1825,645]]);var options = {title: ‘Rate Comparison of Full Coverage and Liability Only’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’,fontSize: 17,bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 500,’chartArea’: {left:100,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’, ‘height’: ‘70%’},legend: {position: ‘bottom’},colors: [‘#6791b9′,’#98bee2’],hAxis: {title: ‘Annual Auto Insurance Cost for Average Vehicle in Arkansas’,minValue: 0,format: ‘$###,###’},vAxis: {title: ‘Age of Insured’}};var formatter = new google.visualization.NumberFormat({fractionDigits: 0,prefix: ‘$’});formatter.format(data,1);formatter.format(data,2);var chart = new google.visualization.BarChart(document.getElementById(‘qcibfcl’));chart.draw(data, options);}
Averaged out for all age groups, comprehensive and collision coverage on your policy costs an extra $1,945 per year over and above liability only. At some point, about every driver wonders when is the right time to remove full coverage. There is no exact rule of when to phase out full coverage on your policy, but there is a general convention. If the annual cost of coverage is 10% or more of any settlement you would receive from your insurance company, then you might want to think about dropping full coverage.
For example, let’s assume your vehicle’s replacement value is $3,000 and you have $1,000 deductibles. If your vehicle is destroyed, the most your company would pay you is $2,000 after you pay the deductible. If premiums are more than $200 annually for comprehensive and collision coverage, then you might consider buying liability only.
There are some circumstances where eliminating full coverage is not recommended. If you still have a loan on your vehicle, you are required to maintain full coverage in order to prevent the bank from purchasing higher-priced coverage. Also, if you can’t afford to buy a different vehicle if your current one is totaled, you should keep full coverage.
Drivers have a lot of ways to buy auto insurance in Arkansas, but the most prevalent are through a non-exclusive or independent agent, a captive (or exclusive) agency like Allstate or Auto-Owners, or from a direct company like Geico or Progressive.
All three ways can provide auto insurance quotes, but it’s important to understand the differences in how they provide price quotes.
Independent agents work for many companies and can get rate quotes from every one. These agents do not write with just one company and can give you more rate choices, which can help you get better odds of saving money. If they quote lower rates, the business is moved internally and you do not have to find a new agent.
An exlusive, or captive, agency is able to quote prices with just one company, a couple examples are a State Farm or Liberty Mutual agent. Exclusive agents cannot provide other companys’ prices, so you will not be able to compare other companys’ rates.
The third popular method of shopping for auto insurance is direct, which means you do not use an independent or exclusive agent and buy from a direct company like Progressive. Shopping direct may be a decent choice drivers who do not need high amounts of coverage and have a good understanding of what coverage limits and deductibles they need.
Which way works best to buy the best cheap car insurance for teenagers in Arkansas? We wish we could say buying from a direct company results in the best prices since that prevents the need to pay agent commissions, but unfortunately, it’s not that cut and dried. It could also be said using an independent agent saves the most money since they have more companies to choose from, but that is not accurate either. In some circumstances, exclusive agencies have coverage prices that cannot be beaten by either independent or direct companies.
Because there is so much variation in auto insurance prices, the best method to ensure the lowest rates is to compare lots of quotes. It takes a little work, but we recommend you get rate quotes from all three to have a good selection of rates to choose from. For a list of companies with cheap rates in Arkansas, click here to view.
Lowering your rates is not difficult, and here are a few penny-pinching suggestions that can help drivers find cheap coverage.
The final tip is highly critical, as we stressed in this write-up. Car insurance prices in Arkansas can change in a short period of time, so don’t be unwilling to buy from a different company if a lower price can be found. Many drivers prefer to stick with one company, but it’s not a good idea if that loyalty results in overpaying lots of money. If you have a few minutes, now is a great time to compare prices to find cheaper car insurance for teenagers.