What Raises (or Lowers) Your Car Insurance

It’s not your imagination: Car insurance has gone up — a lot. So much so that auto insurance premiums are now a significant force driving inflation. But why have prices skyrocketed? Does the color of your car, the car options you choose or how you drive affect your premiums? What about how old you are? More important, what can you do about lowering your insurance costs?

What's Up?

At the beginning of 2024, the cost of insuring a car in the U.S. had jumped a whopping 20.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index (CPI). That is the single greatest price increase since 1976, when Gerald Ford was president and we were in the middle of an energy crisis. According to Bankrate’s estimate, the average annual cost of car insurance for full coverage in the U.S. is now $2,543, compared to $1,771 just two years ago.