Who Has Cheap Car Insurance for Homeowners in Virginia?

The words “affordable” and “auto insurance” really should not be used together, in particular when you are searching for the best car insurance rates for homeowners. In an attempt to save some money, let’s take a look at a few of the things that impact insurance rates, and find a few ways to lower the cost of the next policy you buy.

One of the more important criteria that play a part in determining the policy price is where you call home in Virginia. Regions with larger populations or more claims like Burke, Alexandria, and Lake Ridge tend to pay slightly more, whereas areas with less congestion have the luxury of cheap auto insurance for homeowners in Virginia.

The information below shows the most costly cities in Virginia for homeowners in which to purchase auto insurance.

Premium costs are estimated as the specific geographic location can lower or raise coverage rates noticeably.

The vehicle you are seeking coverage for is one of the primary factors when comparing low-cost auto insurance for homeowners. Vehicles with higher performance, a lack of advanced safety features, or a high likelihood of having liability claims will cost significantly more to insure than more modest models. The next table ranks auto insurance rates for some of the cheapest automobiles to insure.

Above prices assume married female driver age 40, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1,000 deductibles, and Virginia minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include claim-free, safe-driver, homeowner, multi-policy, and multi-vehicle. Rates do not factor in specific location information which can increase or decrease premiums greatly.

Looking at the numbers, cars like the Honda Accord, Chevrolet Traverse, and Hyundai Elantra should be the most budget-friendly vehicles to insure for people who own their homes.

Rate comparison of full coverage and liability-only

Finding cheap auto insurance for homeowners in Virginia is the goal of most people, and one of the best ways to pay less for insurance is to not insure for full coverage. The example below shows the comparison of annual premium costs with and without full coverage. The rates are based on a clean driving record, no at-fault accidents, $250 deductibles, single marital status, and no policy discounts are applied.

google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawFclqcibChart);function drawFclqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Age of Insured’, ‘Full Coverage with $250 Deductibles’, ‘Liability Only’],[‘Age 20’, 3157,1037],[‘Age 30’, 1643,571],[‘Age 40’, 1621,529],[‘Age 50’, 1477,497],[‘Age 60’, 1427,487],[‘Age 70’, 1739,651]]);var options = {title: ‘Full Coverage and Liability Only Rates’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’,fontSize: 17,bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 500,’chartArea’: {left:100,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’, ‘height’: ‘70%’},legend: {position: ‘bottom’},colors: [‘#6791b9′,’#98bee2’],hAxis: {title: ‘Annual Auto Insurance Cost for Average Vehicle in Virginia’,minValue: 0,format: ‘$###,###’},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 for all age groups, full coverage on your policy costs an additional $1,844 per year over having just liability coverage. That proposes the question if physical damage coverage is worth the money. There is no clear-cut rule of when to stop paying for physical damage coverage, but there is a guideline you can use. If the annual cost of coverage is more than 10% of the vehicle’s replacement cost less your deductible, then it might be time to buy liability only.

There are a few situations where buying only liability insurance is not a good plan. If you haven’t paid off your loan, you have to carry full coverage in order to keep the loan. Also, if your savings is not enough to buy a different vehicle in the even your car is totaled, you should keep full coverage.

Who has the cheapest insurance quotes for people who own their homes?

Thanks to the internet, there are a lot of ways to quote and buy car insurance in Virginia, but the three most common methods are using a non-exclusive or independent agent, a captive (or exclusive) agency like Liberty Mutual or Allstate, or from a direct company like Geico. All three ways are similar, but they differ in how they function.

Independent agents are appointed by several companies and can do rate comparisons with each one. These types of agencies can quote with many companies and compare multiple rates, which may provide you with improved odds of finding cheaper coverage. If the agent locates a cheaper price, an independent agent can move your coverage which prevents you from having to switch agents.

An exlusive, or captive, agency is restricted to quoting rates for a single company like Allstate or Farmers Insurance agents. These agents are unable to provide multiple price quotes, so you will not be able to compare their rates to other companies.

The final way is buying direct, which means you bypass local insurance agents and instead shop direct from companies such as Progressive or Geico. Shopping direct can be a good choice for families who do not need risk management and know more than average about what limits they need.

So which method is best for finding cheap auto insurance for homeowners in Virginia? We wish we could say buying direct yields the cheapest rates because there is no agent taking a commission, but that is not always the case. An argument could also be made that an independent agent can save the most money due to more options, but again, that’s not a true statement. In a lot of cases, exclusive agencies have coverage prices that are the lowest in Virginia.

Because there are so many factors that make up car insurance rates, the best way to buy the cheapest coverage is to do a thorough rate comparison. Be sure to get prices from all three types to have enough rates to compare. A great place to start is our list of online companies offering discounts: click here to view.