BevJez

Is US car insurance similar to UK costs?

LJSassy

From my own personal experience, no.

In the UK we paid less than 40 GBP per month for one car and 1 4wd, here we pay $200 per month for almost the exact same style vehicles. I am in Katy, Texas. It may differ other places.

username.exe

My wife's family here in the States swear by AAA (we just got here two weeks ago). I bought a car a couple of days ago and got quotes from AAA beforehand. Then I went to Geico and they were half the price.

I found Geico to be only slightly more expensive than what I was paying in the UK (around $55 p/month), however I was expecting worse from what I had read on these boards. Pleasantly surprised.

durham_lad

I recently used comparenow.com to get quotes after buying a new VW Golf

I then went back to my existing insurer, Geico, and got them to beat the prices I got. I pay $60/month for myself and wife.

http://www.comparenow.com/ppc-landin...f8gaAvwq8P8HAQ

LJSassy

Looks like I'm gonna have to get a new quote!!! Good prices!!

lansbury

The prices might look good, but what level of cover does it buy. You have to make sure you are comparing oranges with oranges.

Pulaski

There is typically "state minimum" insurance, which is fairly cheap, but the liability coverage is grossly inadequate, leaving you exposed to being sued if you are involved in an accident. In NY state minimum is $50,000 for injury to people and $10,000 for damage to property, so if you have state minimum insurance you'd better hope that you don't hit and kill a corporate executive driving a Ferrari, because the executives heirs' lawyers will come after you for every penny they can squeeze out of you.

The rule of thumb, that appears to be true across much of the US, is that insurance for a new immigrant is going to cost you about $1,000 for six months. It doesn't appear to make much difference whether you're driving an old crate or a mid level Ford/Chevy/Honda/Toyota.

The good news is that the cost falls fairly quickly, within 3-4 years. We are currently paying $1,300 in aggregate for a year for an Accord, a Mustang GT, and an F250 crew cab.

RICH

$750/6 months for my newish Dodge pickup plus the beat up Maxima. (most of the bells and whistles on the Dodge insurance, State min on the Maxima). Versus $300 for just the Maxima minimum previously. Progressive beat Geico.

Pulaski

But you didn't step off the plane yesterday, did you?

RICH

True, that is after 10 years, no claims. I was equating my price to yours, rather than a newbie. Oops

Pulaski

Oh, right, .... same ballpark then.

Lucybell33

We've also found it to be much more expensive, although not as bad as we feared. We're using Mercury who offer a discount for engineers (and other professions). We're paying a little over $200 per month for a new Toyota Sienna and Ford Mustang GT. That's for well over the state minimums. Been here just six months now.

LotusEater33

Been here 6 months, bought a new Ford Focus last week.

Nearly every insurance quote I'm getting in around $500 per month.
It's obscene - don't know where to turn to get a half decent quote.

kins

Wow, that's a lot. We don't even pay that much for three cars!

Tried State Farm, Geico, Progressive etc?

Looked at whoever insures your house to see if you can add on car insurance?

Looked at higher deductibles?

Talked to an agent?

MidAtlantic

When I came (several years ago now) I talked to a State Farm agent. That meant I could explain, and show from my UK no claims discount papers, my claim free history. I believe this helped and I got a fair deal. I do not know how much discretion they have, but I think discussion with an agent is always going to be better than the automated on-line systems.