How Much are Durham Auto Insurance Rates for Low Credit Scores?

The words “economical” and “insurance” probably shouldn’t be used in the same sentence, in particular when you are looking for the cheapest auto insurance for low credit scores. To save some money, let’s familiarize you with a few of the things that influence car insurance rates, and find some ways to reduce the cost of your next policy.

For bad credit, one of the big components that are looked at to help calculate auto insurance rates is where you live. Areas with more people or more claims likely pay more, whereas areas with less people or fewer weather incidents profit from lower rates.

The information below shows the highest-priced places in North Carolina for low credit scores to buy car insurance in. Durham shows up at #4 with a yearly cost of $789 on average, which is approximately $66 per month.

Prices are approximated as specific Durham zip code can impact price quotes greatly.

The type of vehicle requiring coverage is one of the primary factors that determines the availability of the most affordable auto insurance for low credit scores. Vehicles with limited top-end speed, a great safety record, or a low likelihood of having liability claims will cost substantially less to insure than adrenaline junky models. The data below estimates coverage rates for some of the cheapest automobiles to buy coverage for.

Data variables include single female driver age 40, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1,000 deductibles, and North Carolina minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include multi-vehicle, homeowner, safe-driver, claim-free, and multi-policy. Rate quotes do not factor in vehicle location which can decrease or increase premiums greatly.

Based upon the table data, you can expect cars like the Honda CR-V, Ford Explorer, Honda Accord, Hyundai Elantra, and Ford Edge are most likely going to be some of the more affordable vehicles to insure for bad credit.

Finding cost effective insurance is not always easy, and determining which companies offer the cheapest auto insurance rates for low credit scores may require even more work. Every insurance provider uses a little different formula to determine rates, so let’s rank the most affordable auto insurance companies in North Carolina.

It’s important that you understand Durham auto insurance rates are influenced by many factors that will increase or decrease the cost of a policy. This price variation is why it is crucial to spend some time comparing rates to find affordable car insurance rates for low credit scores. Prices can be determined by many factors and can change without notice, so the cheapest rate the last time you shopped your coverage around may now be priced much higher than other options.

Find the Cheapest Auto Insurance in North Carolina

Compare Rates Now

Utica National generally has some of the cheapest car insurance rates in Durham at around $655 annually. This is $217 less than the average rate paid by North Carolina drivers of $872. Progressive, Liberty Mutual, Penn National, and GEICO also qualify as some of the lowest-priced Durham, NC insurance companies.

As illustrated above, if you are a policyholder with Penn National and switched to Progressive, you might see an annual premium reduction of roughly $67. Customers with GEICO might save as much as $70 a year, and Titan insureds might lower prices by $71 a year.

Understand that those rates are averages across all drivers and vehicles in North Carolina and are not factoring in a vehicle location for low credit scores. So the insurer that can offer you the lowest price may not even be in the top 20 companies in the list above. That emphasizes why you need to compare as many prices as possible using your own driver information and specific vehicle type.

Price comparison of only insuring for liability

Saving money on auto insurance is probably important to most vehicle owners, and one great way to reduce the cost of insurance for low credit scores is to not insure for full coverage. The diagram below shows the difference between annual premium costs with full physical damage coverage compared to only buying liability only. The data is based on no tickets, no at-fault accidents, $250 deductibles, single marital status, and no discounts are taken into consideration.

Averaged for all age groups, physical damage coverage on your policy costs $1,316 per year more than carrying just liability coverage. That proposes the question if buying full coverage is a good investment. There is no definitive guideline for excluding physical damage coverage on your policy, but there is a guideline you can consider. If the annual cost of having full coverage is 10% or more of the replacement cost minus the deductible, then you might consider buying liability only.

For example, let’s say your vehicle’s replacement cost is $9,500 and you have $1,000 policy deductibles. If your vehicle is totaled in an accident, the most you would get paid by your company is $8,500 after paying your policy deductible. If you are paying in excess of $850 a year for physical damage coverage, then you may want to consider only buying liability coverage.

There are some conditions where dropping full coverage is not a good idea. If you still owe money on your vehicle, you have to maintain full coverage in order to keep the loan. Also, if you can’t afford to buy a different vehicle if your current one is damaged, you should not opt for liability only.

The illustration below illustrates how your deductible choice can influence annual premium costs when researching cheap insurance for low credit scores. The data assumes a married female driver, full coverage, and no discounts are taken into consideration.

As shown above, a 40-year-old driver could lower rates by $238 a year by changing from a $100 deductible to a $500 deductible, or save $358 by switching to a $1,000 deductible. Youthful drivers, such as the 20-year-old chart data, could reduce their rates $588 or even more by using a higher deductible.

When choosing a higher deductible, it will be important to have additional savings on hand to enable you to pay the extra out-of-pocket expense that deters many people from opting for higher deductibles.

Careless Durham drivers pay higher rates

The recommended way to get cheap auto insurance premiums for bad credit is to drive cautiously and maintain a clean driving record. The example below shows how traffic citations and at-fault collisions raise premium costs for different age groups of insureds. The premiums are based on a single male driver, full physical damage coverage, $250 deductibles, and no discounts are applied.

In the previous chart, the average cost of auto insurance per year with a clean driving record and no accidents is $1,755. Factor in one speeding ticket and the average cost swells to $1,976, an increase of $221 each year. Now add two accidents along with the one speeding ticket and the 12-month cost of auto insurance for low credit scores increases to an average of $3,906. That’s an increase of $2,152, or $179 per month, just for not paying attention while driving!