Cheapest Car Insurance for Good Drivers in California

Wouldn’t life be great if we could look into our crystal ball and tell you the single best company in California that has the most affordable coverage for good drivers? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple as there are a whole bunch of unknown factors like if you have a clean driving record, what deductibles to use for physical damage coverage, and whether you have good or poor credit, that all factor into the price you pay. The content below will cover the best ways to find cheap auto insurance and will hopefully give you a good start in finding the cheapest car insurance.

Performance level and cost of the vehicle you are insuring is a large consideration when comparison shopping for the best coverage for good drivers. Vehicles with high performance engines, poor passenger safety features, or a track record of large liability claims will cost quite a bit more to insure than safer, lower-performance models.

The tables below shows insurance rates for a handful of the cheaper automobiles to buy insurance for.

Table data assumes married male driver age 50, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1000 deductibles, and California minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include multi-vehicle, homeowner, multi-policy, claim-free, and safe-driver. Rate quotes do not factor in vehicle location which can lower or raise premium rates considerably.

Data based on married male driver age 50, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1000 deductibles, and California minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include safe-driver, claim-free, homeowner, multi-policy, and multi-vehicle. Price estimates do not factor in specific location information which can decrease or increase prices noticeably.

Data based on married male driver age 50, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1000 deductibles, and California minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include multi-policy, multi-vehicle, safe-driver, homeowner, and claim-free. Rate quotes do not factor in your specific California location which can raise or lower insurance rates noticeably.

When shopping for the cheapest car insurance for safe drivers, one of the many components that helps car insurance companies calculate the amount you pay for auto insurance is your zip code in California. Cities that have higher claim levels or more people like Glendale, Oakland, and San Francisco tend to have higher auto insurance costs, whereas cities that are not as densely populated have the gratification of the cheapest auto insurance for good drivers in California.

The following table sorts the most expensive areas in California for good drivers to buy auto insurance in.

Price information shown is comparative as the garaging address in California can modify price quotes significantly.

Deciding which insurers offer the cheapest car insurance rates for good drivers will involve a little more sweat than just getting one or two price quotes. Every insurance company has their own unique process to set premium rates, so let’s look at the rankings for the car insurance companies with the overall best prices in California.

It’s important that readers know that California car insurance rates are impacted by many things that will increase or decrease the price you pay. Improving your credit score, having a teen driver, or getting caught speeding can produce rate changes that may make certain companies cheaper in comparison to the competition.

Find the Cheapest Car Insurance for Good Drivers

Compare Rates Now

USAA normally has some of the best car insurance rates in California at around $1,155 each year. Century National, Wawanesa, Nationwide, and CSAA are also some of the more affordable California car insurance companies.

As the example above demonstrates, if you currently have coverage with Wawanesa and switched to USAA, you could earn yearly savings of upwards of $37. Customers with Nationwide might save as much as $58 a year, and CSAA insureds might reduce prices by as much as $79 a year.

To get a fast rate comparison, click here to start a quote or click several companies below for low rates.

It’s important to note that these rates are averages for all types of drivers and the different vehicles they drive and do not take into consideration a price discount for good drivers. So the car insurance company that is best suited for you may not even be in the list above. That is why you need to get rate quotes using your own personal information and vehicle type.

Full coverage rates vs. liability-only in California

Finding the cheapest auto insurance for good drivers in California is probably important to the majority of drivers, and one of the best ways to lower the cost of insurance is to not buy full coverage. The diagram below visualizes the comparison of insurance costs with full coverage and liability only. The premiums are based on a clean driving record, no at-fault accidents, $500 deductibles, drivers are single, and no discounts are taken into consideration.

google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawFclqcibChart);function drawFclqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Age of Insured’, ‘Full Coverage with $500 Deductibles’, ‘Liability Only’],[‘Age 20’, 3531,1331],[‘Age 30’, 1861,731],[‘Age 40’, 1817,677],[‘Age 50’, 1659,633],[‘Age 60’, 1607,623],[‘Age 70’, 1977,833]]);var options = {title: ‘Full Coverage Rates Versus Liability Only Rates’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’,fontSize: 17,bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 500,’chartArea’: {left:100,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’, ‘height’: ‘70%’},legend: {position: ‘bottom’},colors: [‘#6791b9′,’#98bee2’],hAxis: {title: ‘Annual Auto Insurance Cost for Average Vehicle in California’,minValue: 0,format: ‘$###,###’},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);}

If all age groups are averaged, full coverage costs an extra $2,075 per year over having just liability coverage. That touches on the question when is it safe to stop buying full coverage. There is no exact formula of when to drop full coverage, but there is a general guideline. If the annual cost of coverage is more than about 10% of replacement cost minus your deductible, then it might be time to buy liability only.

Best rates: Geico, Allstate, Progressive, or State Farm

When comparing car insurance for safe drivers in California, four companies to definitely compare rates with are Geico, Allstate, Progressive, and State Farm. The following table compares and contrasts price and claims rank as well as some different options that are available for customers.

How to find budget-friendly auto insurance for good drivers

The list below summarizes some penny-pinching suggestions that can help California drivers buy cheaper auto insurance.

• Get cheaper liability coverage by choosing a safer vehicle
• Avoid accidents
• Increase physical damage deductibles
• You will pay more if you get tickets or have at-fault accidents
• Do not pay for full coverage on older vehicles
• Pay cheaper rates with good credit scores
• Compare rates regularly to ensure the best deal

The last item on the list is highly critical, as was stressed in the prior article. Coverage prices fluctuate considerably, so don’t hesitate to switch carriers if a better rate can be found. Brand loyalty is not necessarily bad, but it’s not a good idea if that inflexibility results in costing you a considerable chunk of change every month. If you have a few minutes, compare prices to find cheaper auto insurance for good drivers.

Best cheap insurance quotes for safe drivers

Drivers have a lot of ways to quote and buy car insurance in California, but the most preferred are either through an exclusive insurance agent such as Auto-Owners or State Farm, an independent or non-exclusive agent, or direct from companies such as Geico or Progressive. They all follow the same basic process, but they are slightly different in how they work.

Independent agents work for many companies and can provide price quotes from each one. These types of agents are able to provide you with more rate quotes, which may give you the best chance of finding a lower price. If they find a cheaper price, an independent agent can move your coverage which makes it simple for you.

An exclusive ageny is only able to write with one insurance company, examples being a State Farm or Allstate agent. These agents are not able to quote prices from more than just one company, so they have to upsell other benefits.

The final way is buying direct, which means you bypass either of the other two types of agents and instead shop direct from companies such as Progressive or Geico. Shopping direct can be a good choice for drivers who do not have a need for a risk management assessment and have an above average understanding of the exclusions of a policy.

Out of those three methods, which one works best to find the cheapest auto insurance for good drivers in California? The quick answer would be shopping direct results in the best prices because there is no agent taking a commission, but unfortunately, that is not always true. It could also be said buying car insurance from an independent agent results in the cheapest rates since they can quote with many companies, but again, that’s not a true statement. And sometimes, the exclusive agents may have very competitive prices that are well below what direct and independents offer.

Because it’s impossible to say who has the best car insurance rates, really the only way to ensure you are not overpaying for car insurance is to compare rate quotes from as many companies as possible. Make the effort to get quotes from all three types to get a good idea who is cheapest. For a list of companies offering online discounts in California, click here to view.