Your car insurance premium is going up. Find out how much and how to save
Across the nation auto insurance rates are spiking higher than ever, even in Southern California. In fact, some of the most expensive cities in the state are in Los Angeles County.
Last year, the average Californian driver saw only a 1% increase in their auto insurance premiums. However, this year, researchers at LendingTree said drivers can expect an 11.5% hike.
See how much people in your city pay and how it compares to every city in California
This spike has left drivers, especially small business owners with a fleet of vehicles, with sticker shock. A year ago, Kerrygold Plumbing was paying $38,000 for its trucks. Now, they're faced with a 55% increase.
"Right now we have 12, some of which we don't even use on job sites, and we are paying around $59,000 a year," managing director Aisling Van Dyke said. "We don't really have a choice. We have to pay it to stay in business, and there's not a lot of carriers that will write commercial policies."
Across the nation, LendingTree expects auto insurance rates to increase more than 12.5% compared to California's 11.5%.
"This is independent of your driving record. Even if nothing changed from 2023, you could see your insurance go up by an average of 11.5%," LengingTree insurance expert Divya Sangameshwar said.
However, there are cities that are more and less expensive to insure your car in. According to LendingTree's analysis, the most expensive city in the state is Beverly Hills at $3048 a year for auto insurance. Rounding out the top five are Tarzana, Van Nuys, West Hollywood, and North Hollywood — all of which are hovering around $2900 a year.
In fact, the 30 most expensive cities to insure your vehicle in California are in L.A. County. LendingTree attributed the increase to a couple of factors.
"While inflation has started to slow down, cars continue to just be more expensive, to repair and replace," Sangameshwar said. "That's happening across the country."
According to LendingTree, Nevada saw the biggest rate hike, with an average increase of 28% for its drivers. However, the most expensive premiums are in Michigan at $4,416 and Florida with $2,988.
Sangameshwar attributed the differences in premiums to the negotiations between insurance companies and the state's insurance commissioners. California has one of the most consumer-friendly regulatory agencies. Here, insurance companies must publicly file all rate changes with the Department of Insurance and the commissioner must approve them. In December, the department warned auto insurance companies that they must write policies for all qualified good drivers.
However, if you get a ticket, LendingTree said you can expect your premium to increase more than 100%.
"Of all these rate hikes, it might be better to just drive very safe in 2024," Sangameshwar said.
The most expensive cars to insure are electric vehicles, especially the Tesla Model X and Model Y. The cheapest vehicle to insure is the Honda CR-V and the Ford F-150, according to LendingTree.
The least expensive city to insure your car in the state is Northern California's Mount Shasta at about $1,300 a year — less than half of what it costs in Beverly Hills. In L.A. County, Brentwood is the least expensive in the region with a yearly premium of $1,788.
