Which State has the Most & Least Expensive Auto Insurance Rates? New Rankings are in!

Insure.com tracks every state and ranks them from most expensive to cheapest every year. The 2014 survey just came out. In this article we're going to list the top 10 most expensive, and the top 10 least expensive states for auto insurance. I will focus on the six states in our territory (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia), and how they fared in these rankings. I have some good news for some of you, and bad news for others!




    Most expensive states:

1. Michigan
2. West Virginia
3. Georgia
4. District of Columbia
5. Rhode Island
6. Montana
7. Louisiana
8. California
9. New Jersey
10. Florida

   
Let's start with the bad news first......  Michigan moved up to number one this year as the most expensive state. To to make it even worse for those of you in our territory, West Virginia moved up to number two as the second most expensive state. Fortunately those are the only two states in our territory that made the top 10 most expensive (or top 20 for that matter).


Michiganders, don't despair. It looks like state government is finally going to do something about these rates… eventually. The reason why Michigan is always rated so high is because they're the only state in the country that has unlimited lifetime medical benefits as a requirement. They also have a state-mandated catastrophe fund known as MCCA, which cost $186 per year, per vehicle.  Michigan also has a very high-ranking in terms of uninsured motorist. It is estimated that as many as 20% of drivers in Michigan are driving uninsured. A huge reason for this, I think, is simply because the rates are unaffordable.


How did West Virginia auto insurance get to be so high? That's mostly because of two main factors. Number one is the fact that West Virginia has the highest rate in the country of deer accidents per capita. A second major reason is because West Virginia tends to have a lot of bad weather which doesn't mix well in a state that has a lot of mountains.

Least expensive states:

1. Ohio
2. Maine
3. New Hampshire
4. Idaho
5. Iowa
6. North Carolina
7. Wisconsin
8. Virginia
9. Vermont
10. New York

     Now for the good news......  This year we have a new number one for the cheapest state in the country. And it's none other than the state of Ohio. Ohio surpassed Maine, who has been the usual winner year in and year out. More good news is that the state of Virginia finished in the top 10. Virginia came in at number 8. And although Indiana just missed the top 10 cheapest category, they did very well coming in at number 12.




While Ohio did make number one as the cheapest auto insurance state, I doubt they're going to hold hold that position any longer than this year. That's because the state minimum liability coverage went up, and the higher requirements are going into effect now as drivers' policies renew. But Ohio normally stays around the top 10 cheapest of the states. I don't see that changing changing anytime soon.


Pennsylvania, whom I've yet to mention ranks right in the middle at number 25. that is actually doing pretty well for a no-fault state. Many no-fault states tend to be towards the upper end of the expensive category. Being ranked in the middle is right where you want to be. PA does a good job of balancing necessary coverage with premium.


Virginia and Indiana both do very well as far as keeping auto insurance rates affordable. Neither state requires medical coverage, which plays a big part in why they rank toward the lower end of the premium scale.


If you would like to see the entire list of rankings lending exactly where the standings were as far as specific dollar amounts, simply click on this link.


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