How Much Does Car Insurance Cost in Southwest Florida?

How much does auto insurance cost in Florida? There are many factors that go into the cost of auto insurance. Some of them are obvious and you could probably guess like driving record and age, violations, for example if you’ve had accidents, et cetera, all affect your premium.

Some of the other things that affect the cost of auto insurance are the ZIP code that you live in. The ZIP code is a factor because insurance companies have data based on propensity for accidents, severity of accidents, liability, context, or culture in that particular ZIP code, meaning how often courts side with plaintiff – the attorneys versus defense attorneys, what the award sizes are. All of these things can play a role in the cost of your auto insurance.

Other factors on a more national scale that have affected auto insurance over the last approximately two years are frequency of claims, meaning more claims are occurring, severity of claims, meaning claims are more costly on average, more distracted driving, meaning people are either on their cellphone or doing something else in their vehicle besides paying attention to driving, and that’s leading to more accidents, probably one of the largest being texting and driving or cellphone use and driving.

Now, those trends are starting to level off a little bit and the idea is over time as safety features on vehicles become more and more helpful in deterring accidents and reducing the impact or damage from and injury from accidents, those loss experiences will improve.

Other factors that go into determining the cost of auto insurance are your financial stability or insurance score. And it isn’t necessarily that an insurance company will return a credit score but the actuaries that help build the pricing structure and the filed rates for insurance companies build on certain data or evaluation that’s based on things like financial stability and can include somebody’s insurance score which can include their overall financial picture or in some ways related to credit.

Now, some of that is proprietary and sort of behind the scenes with the actuaries and the algorithms used. But sufficed to say, in general, that can play a role.

So drilling down specifically to the State of Florida, the average auto premium on an annual basis according to one recent general report that I read is approximately $1500 per year on average for auto insurance. That would include people with very low state minimum limits and people with higher than average coverage limits. That would include drivers with poor driving history and drivers with spotless, very clean driving history.

In general, we typically a see a competitive premium, currently at about $1050 per year per vehicle in the Southwest Florida areas, specifically primarily Collier County. This would be for a driver with a very good driving history and insurance score and with coverage limits at or above $100,000 per person for bodily injury liability coverage. Enhanced or reduced coverages would also impact this number.

Some of the ways that you can mitigate your insurance premium are the factors addressed above, i.e., solid insurance score or financial stability and good driving record. Also, time insured with prior company (the longer the better) and prior coverage limits (the higher the better) can sometimes play a role in premium offered with the new company. Finally, working with an independent agent that has access to a few different companies like Responsive Insurance so that you have the ability to see what the projected rate among several companies might be can also be helpful.

If you have any questions about your specific situation or how to strategically alleviate some of the cost or reduce some of the cost of your insurance but without giving up coverages that are important to you, we would be happy to help.

The above description provides a brief overview of the terms and phrases used within the insurance industry. These definitions are not applicable in all states or for all insurance and financial products. This is not an insurance contract. Other terms, conditions and exclusions apply. Please read your official policy for full details about coverages. These definitions do not alter or modify the terms of any insurance contract. If there is any conflict between these definitions and the provisions of the applicable insurance policy, the terms of the policy control.