You have probably seen the catchy commercials from companies like State Farm, Allstate, and Nationwide that make promises of huge savings. So drivers just need to pick the one with the best commercial, right?
Unfortunately, it’s just not that easy, as there are a whole bunch of unknown factors such as if you have maintained coverage continuously, the amount of coverage you want, and the type of vehicle you drive, that all influence how much you pay for auto insurance. In this article, we will cover the best ways to avoid high prices and hopefully give you enough understanding to have a good start to your coverage search.
Locating cheap insurance is not the easiest thing to accomplish, and determining which company quotes the most affordable auto insurance rates for drivers under 21 requires more quotes for comparison.
Every insurance company has a different process for setting rates, so let’s begin by taking a look at the lowest cost auto insurance companies in Arizona.
Best Insurance Companies for Minors
| Rank | Company | Cost Per Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Hartford | $820 |
| 2 | Auto-Owners | $897 |
| 3 | Safeco | $905 |
| 4 | USAA | $1,080 |
| 5 | Travelers | $1,119 |
| 6 | GEICO | $1,142 |
| 7 | Progressive | $1,164 |
| 8 | CSAA | $1,213 |
| 9 | Ameriprise Group | $1,220 |
| 10 | Allied | $1,245 |
| 11 | Farm Bureau Mutual | $1,259 |
| 12 | Safe Auto | $1,323 |
| 13 | Farmers | $1,350 |
| 14 | Unitrin | $1,357 |
| 15 | State Farm | $1,364 |
| 16 | American Family | $1,435 |
| 17 | Amica | $1,443 |
| 18 | Titan | $1,461 |
| 19 | California Casualty | $1,522 |
| 20 | MetLife | $1,567 |
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The Hartford generally has some of the best car insurance rates in Phoenix at around $820 each year. Auto-Owners, Safeco, USAA, and Travelers also rank well as some of the best Phoenix, AZ car insurance companies.
As illustrated above, if you buy coverage from USAA and switched to The Hartford, you could realize yearly savings of approximately $260. Insureds with Travelers may save as much as $299 a year, and GEICO policyholders might realize rate reductions of up to $322 a year.
It’s important to note that these rates are averages across all drivers and vehicles and and are not figured with an exact location for drivers under 21. So the auto insurance company that has the cheapest rates for you may not even be in the top 28 companies in the list above. That points out the importance of why you need to get auto insurance quotes using your own driver information and specific vehicle type.
For minors, one of the big things that are looked at to determine car insurance rates is where your car is garaged. Regions with larger populations or more claims will most likely have higher rates, whereas areas with less congestion have the luxury of lower rates.
The following table sorts the priciest cities in Arizona for drivers under 21 in which to purchase auto insurance. Phoenix shows up at #2 with a yearly cost of $1,218 for car insurance, which is about $102 each month.
| Rank | City | Annual Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glendale | $1,226 |
| 2 | Phoenix | $1,218 |
| 3 | San Tan Valley | $1,196 |
| 4 | Avondale | $1,186 |
| 5 | Buckeye | $1,144 |
| 6 | Chandler | $1,126 |
| 7 | Gilbert | $1,120 |
| 8 | Tempe | $1,118 |
| 9 | Maricopa | $1,118 |
| 10 | Scottsdale | $1,117 |
| 11 | Mesa | $1,113 |
| 12 | Peoria | $1,104 |
| 13 | Casa Grande | $1,089 |
| 14 | Goodyear | $1,087 |
| 15 | Casas Adobes | $1,072 |
| 16 | Tucson | $1,061 |
| 17 | Surprise | $1,058 |
| 18 | Catalina Foothills | $1,050 |
| 19 | Oro Valley | $1,020 |
| 20 | Flagstaff | $969 |
| 21 | Yuma | $954 |
| 22 | Prescott | $952 |
| 23 | Sierra Vista | $899 |
| 24 | Lake Havasu City | $878 |
| 25 | Bullhead City | $878 |
| Quote Best Rates Go | ||
Rate quotes are approximated as the specific Phoenix residence address can change premiums noticeably.
Full coverage or liability only
Lowering the price of auto insurance is probably important to most drivers, and a great way to pay lower rates for insurance for drivers under 21 is to only buy liability insurance. The diagram below compares insurance prices with full physical damage coverage compared to only buying liability only. The premiums are based on no tickets, no at-fault accidents, $500 deductibles, drivers are not married, and no additional discounts are factored in.
As an overall average, full coverage costs an additional $1,919 per year more than carrying just liability coverage. Many drivers may wonder if physical damage coverage is worth the money. There is no definitive rule for excluding physical damage coverage on your policy, but there is a general convention. If the yearly cost for physical damage coverage is more than around 10% of the replacement cost minus the deductible, then you might consider buying liability only.
For example, let’s pretend your vehicle’s settlement value is $8,500 and you have $1,000 full coverage deductibles. If your vehicle is damaged in an accident, you would only receive $7,500 after you pay the deductible. If you are paying over $750 a year for physical damage coverage, then you might want to think about dropping full coverage.
The information below shows how different deductible levels can influence insurance rates when researching cheap insurance for drivers under 21. The rates are based on a married male driver, full coverage, and no discounts are taken into consideration.
A 50-year-old driver could cut expenses by $210 a year by changing from a $100 deductible to a $500 deductible, or save $316 by choosing a $1,000 deductible. Younger drivers, like the 20-year-old example, have the ability to save as much as $694 or more by choosing a larger deductible amount. If you make the decision to raise deductibles, it will be important to have additional funds squirreled away to allow you to pay the extra out-of-pocket expense, which is the main inconvenience of larger deductibles.
Insuring your vehicle with the top insurer is difficult considering how many companies there are in Phoenix. The rank data shown below could help you pick which providers you want to consider when comparing rates.
The ratings below only include insurance companies that insure vehicles in the majority of U.S. states, so companies that have a smaller presence are not factored into the list. To compare prices from these and other top-rated companies, follow this link.
| Company | Value | Customer Service | Claims | Customer Satisfaction | A.M Best Rating | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USAA | 98 | 100 | 100 | 94% | A++ | 98.6 |
| American Family | 98 | 89 | 100 | 86% | A | 95.4 |
| State Farm | 88 | 93 | 96 | 90% | A++ | 92.4 |
| The Hartford | 94 | 92 | 90 | 89% | A+ | 91.7 |
| AAA Insurance | 88 | 89 | 95 | 91% | A | 91.2 |
| GEICO | 84 | 93 | 93 | 89% | A++ | 90.3 |
| The General | 89 | 91 | 89 | 88% | A- | 90 |
| Titan Insurance | 90 | 87 | 91 | 95% | A+ | 89.6 |
| Progressive | 84 | 91 | 93 | 87% | A+ | 89.5 |
| Mercury Insurance | 88 | 91 | 90 | 85% | A+ | 89.4 |
| Allstate | 85 | 90 | 92 | 88% | A+ | 89.3 |
| Nationwide | 87 | 88 | 84 | 90% | A+ | 88.7 |
| Liberty Mutual | 84 | 87 | 93 | 88% | A | 88.5 |
| 21st Century | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88% | A | 86.7 |
| Esurance | 85 | 80 | 95 | 87% | A+ | 85.9 |
| Compare Rates Now Go | ||||||
Data Source: Insure.com Best Car Insurance Companies
You are probably paying too much for car insurance
Arizona auto insurance rates are impacted by many factors that control the cost of your policy. Getting older, moving across town, or having an at-fault accident can produce rate changes that can cause some rates to be affordable when they were higher priced.
Also, car insurance companies file new Arizona auto insurance rates at least once a year to reflect underwriting profits or losses. Significantly higher losses may cause high rates, while long-term profits can produce more affordable Phoenix car insurance rates.
To help illustrate this point, the data below shows which company has the cheapest car insurance in Phoenix, AZ for a 30-year-old male driver with no prior claims, no tickets, and a good credit history. If we look at prices based on his current rating profile, The Hartford may have the cheapest car insurance rates in Phoenix at $1,244 each year. This is $184 less than the average policy premium paid by Arizona drivers of $1,428. Auto-Owners, Safeco, USAA, and Progressive round out the rest of the cheapest Phoenix, AZ auto insurance companies.
In this example, we will give the driver from the first rate comparison an accident claim, a lower credit rating, and a couple of points charged on his driving record. Since every car insurance company uses their own method to determining premium rates, getting updated rate quotes may now result in a substantially altered list of the cheapest companies as shown below.
GEICO now has the best price in Phoenix with CSAA, Allied, Ameriprise Group, and Safe Auto also being competitive. This example shows why it is critical to spend some time comparing rates to get the most budget-friendly auto insurance rates for drivers under 21. Rates can be altered by many factors and change substantially, so the most affordable company three years ago may now be one of the more expensive options.