What Car Insurance is Cheapest for Young Drivers in Pittsburgh?

For youthful drivers, one of the largest considerations that are used to help calculate auto insurance rates is your zip code in Pittsburgh. Regions with more people or even just more weather-related claims tend to have more expensive auto insurance rates, whereas areas with less crime or weather claims benefit from lower prices.

The information below rates the highest-priced areas in Pennsylvania for young drivers to buy auto insurance in. Pittsburgh shows up at #13 with a yearly premium of $1,063 for the average policy, which is around $89 monthly.

Prices are comparative as the specific geographic location can affect prices substantially.

Determining which insurers offer the cheapest insurance rates for young drivers will require a bit more effort in order to find the lowest price quote. Every insurance company has their own guidelines to determine premium rates, so we need to take a look at the most affordable insurance companies in Pittsburgh.

Cheapest Insurance Rates for Teens

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General Casualty generally has some of the lowest car insurance rates in Pittsburgh at around $726 a year. USAA, Travelers, Penn National, and Erie also make the cut as some of the cheaper Pittsburgh, PA insurance companies.

In the above example, if you are a customer of USAA and switched to General Casualty, you could realize a yearly savings of about $59. Policyholders with Travelers could save as much as $85 a year, and Penn National policyholders might cut rates by $90 a year.

These policy prices are averages for all insureds and vehicles and do not take into consideration a specific vehicle garaging location for young drivers. So the company that is most affordable for your situation may not even be in the top 30 companies shown above. That helps illustrate why you need to compare as many prices as possible using your own personalized driver profile and vehicle information.

The car, truck, or SUV that needs insurance is a significant factor that determines whether or not you find cheaper car insurance for young drivers. Vehicles with high performance features, poor safety features, or high incidents of liability claims will cost quite a bit more to insure than safer, lower-performance models.

The table below presents coverage costs for a number of the most cost-effective automobiles to insure in Pennsylvania.

Table data assumes single female driver age 17, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1,000 deductibles, and Pennsylvania minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include safe-driver, and claim-free. Information does not factor in specific Pittsburgh, PA garaging location which can increase or decrease coverage prices considerably.

Based upon the table data, vehicles like the Honda CR-V, Hyundai Elantra, and Ford Escape will be the more affordable vehicles to insure for youthful drivers. The cost of auto insurance will tend to be more expensive because of the fact that there is more claim risk for young drivers, but overall those models will probably have the lowest insurance prices available.

Reckless driving habits raise insurance rates

The easiest method to earn good insurance prices in Pennsylvania for youthful drivers is to drive cautiously and avoid getting tickets or having accidents. The example below illustrates how violations and at-fault collisions can impact auto insurance costs for different age groups. The rate quotes are based on a married female driver, full physical damage coverage, $1,000 deductibles, and no policy discounts are applied.

The data in the chart shows the average cost of an auto insurance policy in Pennsylvania per year with no violations or accidents is $1,410. Factor in two speeding tickets and the average cost swells to $1,994, an increase of $584 each year. Then throw in two accidents along with the two speeding tickets and the yearly cost of insurance for young drivers increases to an average of $4,452. That’s an increase of $3,043, or $254 per month, just for not keeping your driving record clean!

Liability-only versus full coverage

Saving on insurance should be important to the majority of vehicle owners, and an effective way to find cheaper insurance for young drivers is to not insure for full coverage. The example below compares auto insurance costs with full physical damage coverage and with liability coverage only. The premium estimates are based on no claims or driving violations, $250 deductibles, drivers are single, and no discounts are taken into consideration.

Averaged for all age groups, full coverage on your policy costs $2,311 per year more than just buying liability only. At some point, almost every driver questions when is the right time to remove full coverage. There is no exact rule to delete comprehensive and collision coverage on your policy, but there is a general convention. If the annual cost of having full coverage is more than 10% of the settlement you would receive from your company, the it may be a good time to stop paying for full coverage.

For example, let’s pretend your vehicle’s settlement value is $12,000 and you have $1,000 physical damage deductibles. If your vehicle is damaged in an accident, the most you would get paid by your company is $11,000 after the policy deductible has been paid. If you are currently paying more than $1,100 a year for physical damage coverage, then you might want to consider buying only liability coverage.

Get discounts on Pittsburgh car insurance rates

Auto insurance companies that provide policies for young drivers may also offer policy discounts that could reduce prices by 25% or more if you qualify. The best insurance companies and a summarized list of policyholder discounts can be found below.

• Progressive may offer discounts for online quote discount, online signing, continuous coverage, good student, and multi-policy.
• AAA offers discounts including good student, anti-theft, AAA membership discount, education and occupation, and multi-car.
• Farmers Insurance has discounts for switch companies, business and professional, distant student, good student, and homeowner.
• GEICO includes discounts for emergency military deployment, multi-vehicle, multi-policy, five-year accident-free, and anti-lock brakes.
• Esurance offers discounts for anti-lock brakes, homeowner, Switch & Save, paid-in-full, safety device, defensive driver, and anti-theft.
• SAFECO offers premium reductions for homeowner, multi-car, anti-theft, accident prevention training, and drive less.
• State Farm discounts include Steer Clear safe driver discount, Drive Safe & Save, driver’s education, multiple autos, student away at school, defensive driving training, and passive restraint.

The illustration below compares insurance rates with and without discounts. The prices are based on a female driver, a clean driving record, no claims, Pennsylvania state minimum liability limits, full physical damage coverage, and $500 deductibles. The first bar for each age group shows insurance cost with no discounts. The lower bar shows the rates with anti-theft, paperless filing, vehicle safety, good student, paid-in-full, and continuous coverage discounts applied. When discounts are factored in, theaverage amount saved on insurance for young drivers is 28% or $518.

How to find cheaper car insurance for young drivers

The list below summarizes some of the better thrifty suggestions that can help Pennsylvania drivers locate more affordable coverage.

• Get cheaper liability coverage by choosing a safer vehicle
• Tickets and violations raise rates
• Avoid filing excessive claims
• Avoid having at-fault accidents
• Bundle home and auto and save
• Shop your coverage around for the best deal

The last suggestion is certainly valuable, as we hit on in this piece. Rates can be modified anytime, so don’t be hesitant to buy from a new company if a cheaper price is available.

Brand loyalty is not necessarily bad, but is isn’t recommended if that loyalty results in overpaying a small fortune. It only take a few minutes to compare prices and find cheaper car insurance for young drivers in Pittsburgh.

The insurance agencies listed below can help you decide which auto insurance coverages would be the best in your situation, as some drivers have questions and prefer to have some professional guidance when trying to find lower insurance rates for youthful drivers. It’s not always easy to find the cheapest auto insurance company, and insurance agents can bring satisfaction knowing your policy gives you adequate coverage if you have an accident or claim. To find a Pittsburgh insurance agency in your neighborhood, click the link after the list or click here to compare rates now.

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