What Insurance is Cheapest for College Students in Albuquerque?

The car, truck, or SUV you are buying coverage for is a large consideration when comparing low-priced coverage for college students. Vehicles with high performance features, poor passenger safety features, or high incidents of liability claims will cost much more to insure than safer models.

The list below presents insurance rates for a number of the more affordable vehicles to insure in New Mexico.

Data based on single female driver age 20, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1,000 deductibles, and New Mexico minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include safe-driver, and claim-free. Premium amounts do not factor in vehicle garaging location which can change premiums greatly.

Based upon the table data, vehicles like the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape, Hyundai Elantra, Volkswagen Jetta, and Toyota Prius will be the less-costly vehicles to insure for students in college. The price of auto insurance will tend to be more expensive just due to the fact that there is more inherent risk for college students, but overall those makes and models will most likely have the lowest insurance prices compared to other vehicles.

Finding reliable, budget auto insurance is challenging, and figuring out which company has the cheapest auto insurance rates for college students will take even more perseverance. Every auto insurer uses their own method to determine rates, so first we will examine the auto insurance companies that tend to be cheaper in New Mexico.

Best Cheap Insurance Rates for College Students

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USAA normally has some of the cheapest car insurance rates in Albuquerque at around $683 per year. This is $885 less than the average policy premium paid by New Mexico drivers of $1,568. Allied, Safeco, Farm Bureau Mutual, and Farmers are also some of the cheapest Albuquerque, NM auto insurance companies.

In this example, if you have coverage with Farm Bureau Mutual and switched to Allied, you could realize a yearly price reduction of approximately $294. New Mexico drivers with Farmers might save as much as $382 a year, and State Farm insureds might lower prices by $429 a year.

If you would like to find cheaper car insurance rates, click here to get quotes or visit any of the low-priced companies below.

Be aware that those policy rates are averaged across all types of drivers and the different vehicles they drive and are not factoring in a specific vehicle garaging location for college students. So the company that can offer the best rates for your situation may not even be in the top 17 companies in the list above. That points out the importance of why you need to get car insurance quotes using your own driver information and specific vehicle type.

The information below shows how choosing a deductible can influence insurance costs when quoting cheap insurance for college students. The rates are based on a married female driver, comprehensive and collision coverage, and no policy discounts are applied.

As shown above, a 30-year-old driver could lower rates by $256 a year by switching from a $100 deductible up to a $500 deductible, or save $388 by switching to a $1,000 deductible. Younger drivers, like the 20-year-old example, could lower their rates up to $544 or even more just by choosing higher deductibles when buying full coverage. If you do raise deductibles, it will now be necessary to have enough spare savings to enable you to pay the extra out-of-pocket expense. That is the one drawback of using higher deductibles.

How much more does full coverage cost?

Reducing the cost of auto insurance is the goal of the majority of drivers, and an easy way to pay less for insurance for college students is to buy only liability coverage. The example below visualizes the comparison of car insurance rates when comparing full coverage to liability only. The information is based on no accidents or driving violations, $1,000 deductibles, drivers are not married, and no discounts are applied to the premium.

On average, physical damage insurance costs $1,356 per year more than insuring for liability only. At some point, about every driver wonders when is it a good idea to stop buying full coverage. There is no specific rule to delete physical damage coverage on your policy, but there is a broad guideline. If the annual cost of your full coverage insurance is more than around 10% of any settlement you would receive from your insurance company, then you might consider buying liability only.

For example, let’s assume your vehicle’s book value is $6,000 and you have $1,000 policy deductibles. If your vehicle is destroyed, the most your company will settle for is $5,000 after the deductible is paid. If premiums are more than $500 annually for physical damage coverage, then it might be time to buy liability only.

Impact of careless driving on Albuquerque auto insurance rates

In a perfect world, the best way to earn good auto insurance rates for students in college is to drive safely and avoid tickets and accidents. The example below illustrates how traffic citations and accident claims can affect insurance premiums for different categories of driver ages. The rate quotes are based on a married female driver, comp and collision included, $100 deductibles, and no policy discounts are applied.

The data above shows the average cost of an auto insurance policy in New Mexico per year with a clean driving record and no accidents is $1,428. Get written up for one speeding ticket and the average cost increases to $1,659, an increase of $231 each year. Then add two accidents along with the one speeding ticket and the 12-month cost of auto insurance for college students increases to an average of $3,614. That’s an increase of $2,187, or $182 per month, just for not driving responsibly!

The importance of comparing Albuquerque car insurance rates

Albuquerque, NM auto insurance rates are calculated based on many things that control the price you pay for coverage. Getting older, buying a different vehicle, or getting a ticket for careless driving can cause premium changes that can now make some companies more affordable than the competition.

Not only may things change on your end, but insurance companies amend pricing as needed to ensure their profitability. Larger than normal claims can cause higher rates, while a profitable period may produce lower-cost Albuquerque car insurance rates.

For instance, the data below analyzes the cheapest car insurance in Albuquerque, NM for a 45-year-old female driver with no violations or accidents, and good credit. If we estimate prices based on her current rating profile, USAA offers the cheapest car insurance rates in Albuquerque at $857 a year. This is $711 less than the average policy premium paid by New Mexico drivers of $1,568. Allied, Safeco, Farm Bureau Mutual, and Farmers are the remaining cheapest Albuquerque, NM auto insurance companies.

Now we will give the driver in the first chart some claims, a lower credit score, and a traffic ticket or two. Because each insurer has a proprietary method for determining rates, analyzing rate quotes may now result in a different list of cheap Albuquerque auto insurance companies as shown below.

Allied now has the cheapest rate in Albuquerque, NM with USAA, The Hartford, Central Mutual, and Safeco also having competitive pricing. This example demonstrates why it is important to perform an extensive rate comparison to get the best insurance quotes for college students. Rates are influenced by many things and change dramatically, so the most affordable company when you bought your policy may now cost much more than other companies.