Idaho insurance rates (Twin Falls: 2013, car insurance, buy)

[Wardendresden]

Well, as I continue to research Idaho as a strong possibility for retirement, I came across this encouraging information:

Here’s the 10 states in which residents tend to pay the lowest rates for car insurance:

1. Maine: $889
2. Iowa: $985
3. Wisconsin: $987
4. Idaho: $1,011
5. North Carolina: $1,022
6. Vermont: $1,063
7. Ohio: $1,099
8. South Carolina: $1,108
9. New Hampshire: $1,133
10. Arizona: $1,176

The study was conducted by Quadrant Information Services and was based on auto insurance rates for more than 900 vehicles from six large carriers (Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, Nationwide, Progressive and State Farm) in 10 ZIP codes per state, based on a hypothetical single, 40-year-old male with a good driving record, short commute and typical coverage limits and deductibles.

States With The Highest (And Lowest) Auto Insurance Rates - Forbes

Having spent 30 years as an insurance underwriter/ratemaker/compliance officer this in an encouraging statistic. Please note that it is darn near impossible to make comparisons between states when each of them have dozens or more rating areas which may not be the same from company to company. I know, I used to have to make comparisons with competitors and quickly learned how to make whatever company I was comparing to look tremendously competitive or out of sight expensive.

People in Idaho either don't drive a lot or overall are much more careful in their driving habits. Also, heavily populated areas tend to have more accidents and Idaho doesn't have a lot of dense population areas. It may also be indicative of lower cost to repair vehicles and/or a lesser degree of lawsuititis. Don't know. Don't care. I'm smiling right now.

[chevpu1967]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. It's nice to know that I'm not crazy and that the insurance in my state is high, being that it is the 2nd highest in the nation. *sigh*

[brokencrayola]

I spend about $630 a yr. I have never had a claim or accident with my car insurance, so that helps.

[elkotronics]

I spend about $800 a year for mine with GEICO car insurance. To insure a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS sedan. But I live in southern New Mexico, it's always a bit different according to where you live. And I haven't made an insurance claim in about 12 years, that was when someone else hit me in Burlington, WA. At that time I was driving a 1999 Kia Sephia. It's a battle to keep other people from hitting you!

And people, turn signals are there to put on to signal your intention to turn! Are we that dumb and distracted that we've forgotten to put our turn signals on in America? I think we've gone that way, pathetically enough.

[Wardendresden]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

I spend about $800 a year for mine with GEICO car insurance. To insure a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS sedan. But I live in southern New Mexico, it's always a bit different according to where you live. And I haven't made an insurance claim in about 12 years, that was when someone else hit me in Burlington, WA. At that time I was driving a 1999 Kia Sephia. It's a battle to keep other people from hitting you!

And people, turn signals are there to put on to signal your intention to turn! Are we that dumb and distracted that we've forgotten to put our turn signals on in America? I think we've gone that way, pathetically enough.

The best insurance coverage you can buy is uninsured/underinsured motorists (UM/UIM) insurance. It covers you for personal injuries in the event someone else doesn't carry auto liability insurance. Roughly one in seven drivers on the road now has no liability insurance--more in those states that don't monitor insurance coverage.

In those states that require underinsured motorists coverage, that coverage will pay you for your personal injuries up to the difference between your own liability limits, if they are higher than the other at fault driver, and that other driver's insurance. So, for instance, if you carry 100,000/300,000 liability limits and the driver that hits and injures you or those in your vehicle carries only 25,000/50,000 liability limits AND you have underinsured motorists coverage, the potential to collect for you is 75,000 per person and/or 250,000 for all individuals injured in your vehicle. But many states don't mandate underinsured motorists coverage and insurance companies rarely offer it voluntarily.

It was common knowledge among ratemakers that uninsured motorists coverage was normally purchased at limits far below what most drivers should have. They will carry 100k/300k liability but only 25k/50k uninsured motorists limits---more willing to provide protection for the other guy than protection for themselves. And if you do collect UM/UIM from your own carrier it's not just medical bills, but lost wages, pain and suffering, etc.

Costwise, rural areas are usually less expensive than metropolitan areas--mostly because there are so many more fender benders in densely populated areas. However, rural areas are expensive in some states. Wyoming is one of the ten HIGHEST to insure states because they have an abnormal death rate per 100,000 miles driven. I'm not sure the reason, they drive longer distances frequently, put lots of miles on their vehicles, drive a lot at night (nights have higher serious accident rate), drink a lot of beer--not sure, just know they have had very serious death by car issues for years.

I did a quick check and discovered Idaho's required liability limits are 25k/50k and 15k for property damage. Property damage is way inadequate as many cars are selling for over 25k. You don't want to total someone coming out of the dealership in their new Cadillac as 15k wouldn't take care of much. You would be responsible for the difference.

The minimum limits of liability for whatever state you drive in are always provided. So if you carry only the 25/50/15 in Idaho and drive into Wyoming which requires 25/100/10, you have the higher 100k for all persons injured by you in your at fault accident. Idaho is actually better with 15k property damage than most of the surrounding states like Washington and Montana that only require 10k property damage.

Tried to put a chart in here that shows complaint ratio by insurance company but couldn't format it properly. So here is the link so you can look at it yourself. It's at the bottom of the page and shows USAA, a company I always dreamed about working for, as having the lowest complaint ratio in 2006. I couldn't find a more recent chart, but do beleive that with the bigger companies it is very reminiscent of the complaint ratios I saw while working in the industry.

http://www.instantcarinsurance.com/i...-insurance.asp

[509]

I moved to Idaho in 1972. I could not believe how inexpensive car insurance was in Idaho. I asked my agent why rates were so cheap. His answer was insurance companies do not pay much in claims for fatalities. It is those pesky injuries that are expensive.

Wonder if air bags are raising our insurance rates?

[Wardendresden]

Originally Posted by 509

I moved to Idaho in 1972. I could not believe how inexpensive car insurance was in Idaho. I asked my agent why rates were so cheap. His answer was insurance companies do not pay much in claims for fatalities. It is those pesky injuries that are expensive.

Wonder if air bags are raising our insurance rates?

Not likely. There has been a steady decrease in the number of auto deaths in recent years, while other injuries have remained stable.

The number of deaths – and deaths relative to the total population – have declined over the last two decades. From 1979 to 2005, the number of deaths per year decreased 14.97% while the number of deaths per capita decreased by 35.46%. In 2010, there were an estimated 5,419,000 crashes, killing 32,885 and injuring 2,239,000.[1] The 32,367 traffic fatalities in 2011 were the lowest in 62 years (1949).

List of motor vehicle deaths in U.S. by year - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We studied National Trauma Data Bank data to determine the effectiveness of car safety devices in reducing mortality and injury severity in 184,992 patients between 1988 and 2004. Safety device variables were seat belt used plus air bag deployed; only seat belt used; only air bag deployed; and, as explicitly coded, no device used. Overall mortality was 4.17%. Compared with the no-device group, the seat-belt-plus-air-bag group had a 67% reduction in mortality (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.33; 99% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.39), the seatbelt- only group had a 51% mortality reduction (AOR, 0.49; 99% CI, 0.45-0.52), and the air-bag-only group had a 32% mortality reduction (AOR, 0.68, 99% CI, 0.57-0.80). Injury Severity Scores showed a similar pattern.

Do seat belts and air bags reduc... [Am J Orthop (Belle Mead NJ). 2011] - PubMed - NCBI

That's not to say that the cost of injuries has not risen because they have---dramatically--in proportion to the increase in our overall health care costs. Auto insurance premiums will continue to rise as a reflection of skyrocketing health care costs. Still another reason it is so important to get health care costs under control. It affects just about every part of our economy.

[dogsmusicpizza]

Is it considered high to be paying $177 every 6 months in Twin Falls ?

And this is after doing an online safe driver discount course, I guess that mature drivers can do. I'm 56.
The discount is $40, and I'm using Geico.

I have a 2005 Ford focus - no tickets, no accidents for decades.

( I was paying much less back in 2019, but I guess the uprise of people moving into idaho is increasing it )

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by dogsmusicpizza

Is it considered high to be paying $177 every 6 months in Twin Falls ?

And this is after doing an online safe driver discount course, I guess that mature drivers can do. I'm 56.
The discount is $40, and I'm using Geico.

I have a 2005 Ford focus - no tickets, no accidents for decades.

( I was paying much less back in 2019, but I guess the uprise of people moving into idaho is increasing it )

The numbers quoted above are from 2013.

[dogsmusicpizza]

Oh woops, super old thread.