Save Money on Jacksonville Auto Insurance

If you’ve recently reviewed your auto insurance bill, you may have noticed higher premiums. Rates are rising not only in Jacksonville, but also in the entire state of Florida and even across the United States.

Why are auto insurance rates high in Jacksonville?

There are a number of reasons for higher rates, but here are the main contributing factors.

1. Jacksonville is a great city to live in, but it’s the largest city in the southwest. With over 870,000 residents in Jacksonville and over 1.5 million in the metro area, that’s a lot of drivers. More drivers means more accidents, and higher rates are the result.
2. High gas prices from 2006 through 2014 resulted in fewer miles driven and fewer accidents. Insurance companies adjusted rates downward to reflect the decrease in claims. Now that gas prices are more reasonable, drivers are hitting the roads in record numbers. This has caught insurance companies off-guard and they are now raising rates again to offset large losses the last couple of years.
3. New vehicles are incorporating high-tech safety features and flashy paint jobs that are expensive to repair. A small fender-bender that used to cost $500 to repair may now cost $3,000 or more due to sensors, cameras, and increased paint costs at the body shop. 

How you can reduce your auto insurance bill

There are many factors that influence the rate you pay, but these are the ones that have the most severe impact.

1. Stop driving carelessly and pay more attention to the road. Tickets and accidents are the single largest contributor to high auto insurance rates. The illustration below demonstrates how a couple speeding tickets and an accident can dramatically raise insurance rates for a Ford F-150 pickup in Jacksonville.

2. Stop buying expensive, high-performance vehicles. Even if you have a clean driving record and no accidents, a high-performance car is going to cost you a lot to insure. Replacement parts for high-priced vehicles are also high-priced, so when repairs are needed, your insurance company has to pay more. As a result, you pay higher insurance rates to cover this extra cost.

   The chart below shows the difference in premiums between different makes and models from low performance to high performance.

3. Save money by raising deductibles. Having a low deductible is great when you have a claim because it means less money out of your pocket. But in order to have this luxury, you have to pay more every month for car insurance. Raising physical damage deductibles is a great way to lower your bill as long as you have the financial reserves to cover the higher deductibles in the event of a claim.

   The following chart shows the price change at each age group for different deductible levels on an Acura MDX in Jacksonville.

The following table shows example auto insurance rates for some of the more popular vehicles in Jacksonville. The rates are based on full coverage with $250 deductibles, minimum Florida liability limits, and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is included. Policy discounts include multi-policy, claim-free, safe-driver, multi-vehicle, and homeowner. The driver is a married male age 40 with no violations or at-fault accidents.