Why is car insurance so expensive in the US?
 

Despite general running costs of a car in the UK being considered high, if you believe some articles, the most expensive place in the world, I recently discovered how expensive insurance premiums are in the US.

I know there are a thousand things that affect your premium, but on average, premiums are about $1500 a year in the US. In the UK, it looks as though premiums are equivalent to $590 on average. Personally, my premium is £240 ($292) for my Peugeot, and about £300 ($360) for the Porsche per annum.

Tried to look at a few statistics to work out why it appears more over the pond, only things I can think of are slightly higher average miles and higher thefts, but wouldn't have thought those two factors make a big difference. How does your premium compare? Would enjoy your input.

It seems to vary a huge amount by state. This site is interesting:
https://www.thezebra.com/auto-insura...surance/#state

Yea and that's just for 6 months, so in Michigan it costs an average of over $3000. I read in some cities such as New York, it can be up to $6000 per annum. Craziness...

I pay $700 per year (US dollars) for my 15 years old Mercedes. I have been driving for 21 years now without any accident and stayed with the same insurance company.

I think people in the US drive about 12,000miles a year and new cars cost around $38,000. New cars are also crazy expensive to repair compared to older ones. I heard a lot of people in the US drive without insurance because they can't afford it, maybe that has something to do with it being so high.

Some part may be due to the excessive amounts of lawsuits and awards.

Yea perhaps, the compensation culture is huge over there, seems to be more lawyers than any other profession. Was gonna say there's a higher traffic density there, but considering how big the US is and spread out people are (for the most part anyway) that wouldn't make much sense considering we've got some 64M people crammed on this tiny island, you'd think the chances of two moving objects colliding here would be greater ha.

I've currently got 3 cars insured liability on all 3 and collision/comprehensive on 1. I'm paying around $500. US every 6 months to cover all 3 vehicles. I've had no tickets in about the last 40 years and no accidents in over 10 years. I've also found that prices vary greatly from one insurance company to the other.

That sounds more reasonable to be fair, especially over three vehicles. Find it kinda weird how policies over there are for 6 months at a time, Where's the sense in that? Yes there are hundreds of companies out there, I shop around every year, I managed to reduce my premium this year by about 15% just by telling them I have a dash cam installed, and by reducing my annual mileage which is now easy to work out thanks to fuelly!

One thing that bugs me here is you can usually only apply your "no claims bonus" to one vehicle, if you ask me, it should apply to the driver, not the car. I convinced my insurer to mirror it on both policies as I can only drive one car at a time, and they're both insured with them.

Most companies will accept monthly payments but it just makes the rate higher. I always pay 6 months at a time to save on total cost. How do you pay? Monthly, quarterly, annually?

I paid £285.60 ($350) for a year's fully comprehensive insurance including protected no-claims bonus. This is for 12,000 miles and no excess. I normally just pay upfront but I have taken monthly payments when there has been no additional service charge.

Most people make a one off payment annually, although there is an option to pay monthly but overall it costs more, which is very unfair because if you chose to do this you obviously can't afford it in the first place.

Yea unfortunately after the age of 55 in the UK, your insurance will gradually increase year on year as statistically your are more likely to be involved in an accident, even if you have the cleanest of records..

My insurance didn't start to go up until I reached 65 years of age but the real hike was at 70 when I had to re-apply for my license despite me taking an IAM Road Smart test. I wanted to see what an examiner made of my driving.
I originally passed my test in 1967 then sat and passed my PCV license (buses and coaches) in June 2006.

Yea appreciate that, you can still be a good driver at a mature age, but regardless, hearing and sight will have deteriorated somewhat and the chance of having a medical condition are higher, just small circumstances that insurers will consider. I remember a lady in her 70's almost causing a huge accident, she was following me in a 30 zone and I spotted a speeding ambulance about a mile back. As it approached I indicated left and slowed down, she some how "missed" the giant fluorescent yellow speeding vehicle with intensely bright blue lights and ear piercing sirens and pulled out around me right into the path of the ambulance who came about half a foot from totaling her car. Just hope she was reported.

4 vehicles insured, 2 full coverage including collision, 2 liability and comprehensive (no collision) cost us under $1500 annually in Illinois.

Kevin