It’s impossible to miss the catchy advertisements from car insurance companies like Farmers, The General, and GEICO that guarantee dirt cheap rates, so drivers just need to choose one randomly, right?
That is not the case, however, as there are a ton of unknowns such as whether you just want liability only, the crime level of your neighborhood, and if you have a tendency to get into accidents, that all impact the cost of coverage. This article delves into the best ways to save money and will hopefully give you a good beginning to your quest for cheaper car insurance in Fort Worth.
For student drivers, one of the largest criteria that are used to help calculate car insurance rates is your zip code. Areas with more people or even just a higher incidence of claims tend to have higher rates, whereas areas with less people or fewer weather incidents benefit from lower rates.
The table below shows the highest-priced places in Texas for good students to buy car insurance in. Fort Worth is ranked at #16 with a yearly premium of $1,653 on average, which is approximately $138 per month.
| Rank | City | Premium Per Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | McAllen | $1,956 |
| 2 | Houston | $1,909 |
| 3 | Laredo | $1,907 |
| 4 | Dallas | $1,855 |
| 5 | Brownsville | $1,851 |
| 6 | Amarillo | $1,840 |
| 7 | Garland | $1,832 |
| 8 | Pasadena | $1,812 |
| 9 | Grand Prairie | $1,793 |
| 10 | Beaumont | $1,754 |
| 11 | Mesquite | $1,753 |
| 12 | San Antonio | $1,739 |
| 13 | Irving | $1,736 |
| 14 | Arlington | $1,692 |
| 15 | Lubbock | $1,665 |
| 16 | Fort Worth | $1,653 |
| 17 | Corpus Christi | $1,636 |
| 18 | Austin | $1,627 |
| 19 | Carrollton | $1,598 |
| 20 | El Paso | $1,584 |
| Compare Prices Now Go | ||
Annual rates are approximated as zip code location can decrease or increase premiums noticeably.
Finding affordable auto insurance is not the easiest thing to accomplish, and figuring out which company offers the cheapest auto insurance rates for good students may require a little more work.
Every auto insurer has a different process for determining rates in each state, so let’s take a look at the lowest cost auto insurance companies in Texas. We do need to point out that Texas auto insurance rates are determined by lots of factors that control the policy price. Simply having another birthday, buying higher coverage limits, or having an at-fault accident may prompt premium changes resulting in some rates now being affordable when they were higher priced.
Find Cheaper Car Insurance for Students
| Rank | Company | Cost Per Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Travelers | $1,052 |
| 2 | USAA | $1,128 |
| 3 | Texas Farm Bureau | $1,211 |
| 4 | Germania Mutual | $1,282 |
| 5 | Esurance | $1,379 |
| 6 | California Casualty | $1,382 |
| 7 | State Farm | $1,450 |
| 8 | Mercury | $1,521 |
| 9 | Safe Auto | $1,565 |
| 10 | Nationwide | $1,600 |
| 11 | Allstate | $1,650 |
| 12 | Progressive | $1,698 |
| 13 | Amica | $1,723 |
| 14 | GEICO | $2,135 |
| 15 | Home State | $2,155 |
| 16 | MetLife | $2,227 |
| 17 | Encompass | $2,232 |
| 18 | Unitrin | $2,264 |
| 19 | 21st Century | $2,469 |
| 20 | Titan | $2,594 |
| Find Your Rate Go | ||
Travelers has some of the best car insurance rates in Fort Worth at around $1,052 each year. USAA, Texas Farm Bureau, Germania Mutual, and Esurance would also be considered some of the more affordable Fort Worth, TX auto insurance companies.
In the rate table above, if you are a policyholder with Germania Mutual and switched to USAA, you could realize savings of upwards of $154. Policyholders with Esurance could save as much as $251 a year, and California Casualty policyholders might lower prices by $254 a year.
If you want to find out if you’re overpaying, click here to start a quote or quote rates from the companies below.
Bear in mind that those premium estimates are averaged for all drivers and vehicles and and are not figured with a specific vehicle garaging location for good students. So the insurer that fits you best may not even be in the top 23 companies in the list above. That point stresses why you need to quote rates from many companies using your own driver information and specific vehicle type.
Full coverage rates compared to liability-only
Finding cheaper auto insurance should be important to the majority of drivers, and one way to save on the cost of insurance for good students is to not buy full coverage. The example below shows the difference between insurance prices with full physical damage coverage compared to only buying the minimum liability limits required in Texas. The premiums assume no claims or driving citations, $500 deductibles, drivers are not married, and no discounts are applied to the premium.
If averaged for all ages, full coverage costs $1,793 per year more than just buying liability insurance. At some point, every insured wonders if you should buy full coverage at all. There is no specific rule to drop full coverage on your policy, but there is a general school of thought. If the annual cost of having full coverage is more than around 10% of the settlement you would receive from your company, then it may be the right time to buy liability only.
For example, let’s say your vehicle’s claim settlement value is $3,000 and you have $1,000 policy deductibles. If your vehicle is totaled in an accident, the most your company would pay you is $2,000 after paying your policy deductible. If you are paying in excess of $200 annually to have full coverage, then you might want to think about dropping full coverage.
There are some situations where only buying liability is not a good plan. If you still owe a portion of the original loan, you have to carry full coverage to protect the lienholder’s interest in the vehicle. Also, if your emergency fund is not enough to purchase a different vehicle in the even your car is totaled, you should keep full coverage in place.
Selecting the right insurer can be challenging considering how many different insurance companies sell coverage in Texas. The ranking data displayed below could help you pick which coverage providers to look at shopping prices with.
The rankings below are for companies that write coverage in many states, so companies that may only write in Texas will not be included in the list. If you wish to compare rates from the insurers below and more, just click here.
| Company | Value | Customer Service | Claims | Customer Satisfaction | A.M Best Rating | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travelers | 93 | 98 | 99 | 88% | A++ | 95.1 |
| USAA | 83 | 99 | 100 | 91% | A++ | 94.1 |
| Mercury Insurance | 97 | 96 | 88 | 89% | A+ | 93.4 |
| AAA Insurance | 91 | 95 | 92 | 90% | A | 93.3 |
| Nationwide | 85 | 95 | 97 | 89% | A+ | 92.4 |
| Allstate | 77 | 100 | 97 | 88% | A+ | 90.7 |
| State Farm | 80 | 94 | 96 | 88% | A++ | 90.6 |
| The Hartford | 88 | 93 | 91 | 87% | A+ | 90.4 |
| Safeco Insurance | 91 | 95 | 85 | 88% | A | 90.2 |
| Progressive | 88 | 94 | 83 | 88% | A+ | 90.1 |
| American Family | 91 | 86 | 95 | 83% | A | 89.7 |
| Esurance | 86 | 90 | 94 | 90% | A+ | 89.5 |
| The General | 86 | 93 | 89 | 84% | A- | 88.2 |
| GEICO | 79 | 89 | 95 | 87% | A++ | 87.8 |
| Titan Insurance | 86 | 82 | 92 | 86% | A+ | 86.5 |
| 21st Century | 86 | 82 | 90 | 84% | A | 86.4 |
| Liberty Mutual | 79 | 87 | 95 | 78% | A | 85.3 |
| Farmers Insurance | 77 | 80 | 80 | 84% | A | 80.3 |
| Compare Rates Now Go | ||||||
Data Source: Insure.com Best Car Insurance Companies
Safe drivers pay less for auto insurance
A great way to find the best auto insurance premiums in Texas for student drivers is to pay attention while driving and avoid accidents and keep your driving record clean. The illustration below illustrates how speeding tickets and at-fault fender-benders can increase insurance rates for different ages of insureds. The prices are based on a single male driver, comp and collision included, $1,000 deductibles, and no policy discounts are applied.
In the previous chart, the average cost of car insurance in Fort Worth per year with no accidents and a clean driving record is $2,131. Get written up for one speeding ticket and the average cost increases to $2,407, an increase of $276 each year. Now add in one accident along with the one speeding ticket and the annual cost of auto insurance for good students jumps again to an average of $3,175. That’s an increase of $1,044, or $87 per month, just for not driving safely!