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Many of the major car insurance companies offer military servicemembers discounted rates. I run car insurance quotes every 2 years or so to see if I can get a better deal, but I have yet to find anyone who can beat USAA. I recently bought a new 2015 Mazda 3, so my auto insurance rates have more than doubled from my used car rates. Let’s see how the best auto insurance companies stack up.
Your quotes will vary from mine for many reasons. All of these quotes are based on two 25+ year old, married drivers for one new 2015 car for 6 months with the following coverage:
- $100,000/$300,000 Bodily Injury Liability
- $100,000 Property Damage Liability
- $100,000/$300,000 Underinsured Motorists Bodily Injury
- $100,000 Underinsured Motorists Property Damage
- Comprehensive Insurance with a $300 deductible
- Collision Insurance with a $300 deductible
- Towing and Labor and Rental Reimbursement
- Personal Injury Protection
Any company that did not offer a military discount on their website I called to determine if they offered any additional discount over the phone. I also ran all of these quotes in incognito mode on Google Chrome, so my cookies wouldn’t affect the price. With the ability to run auto insurance quotes online, there’s no reason not to shop around every couple of years, when you get a new car, or when you PCS.
Military Discounts for Auto Insurance
This year, I’ll run quotes on: USAA, State Farm, GEICO, Allstate, Progressive, and Esurance. Again, these quotes are for 6 month rates paid every 6 months, rather than monthly. Paying twice a year rather than 12 times a year saves a bit.
USAA (current insurer) – $506 Still the best auto insurance company for military servicemembers for the price. USAA’s customer service is legendary. The one claim we had to file in 2012 was handled efficiently and smoothly. If they keep their prices reasonable, they have a customer for life. USAA is our one stop shop for banking and insurance and has been for 7 years now.
GEICO – $800 GEICO stands for Government Employees Insurance Company, so you’d think they are pretty military friendly. However, they just can’t seem to compete with USAA
Allstate – $1000 Yikes! You may be in good hands, but it’s going to cost you! The highest of all the quotes.
Progressive – $688 Not too bad, the closest to USAA. An easy to use website and you might be able to save more with the Snapshot in car monitoring device.
Esurance – $701.30 Esurance definitely had the easiest and fastest application to fill out. The rates they offer on used cars are competitive with USAA but they can’t beat USAA
State Farm – $??? Their online app never worked for me on two different computers and a mobile device. They should probably fix that.
Best Auto Insurance for Military
USAA is the winner (for 5 years running!) for me this year. Unbeatable price, unbeatable service, and having all my banking and insurance accounts in one place (like Personal Capital for my investments) makes managing my financial life that much easier.
Credit Score Impact of Multiple Car Insurance Quotes
Of the companies I looked at, only Progressive and Esurance asked for my social security number. I declined to type it in and both applications allowed me to continue. Therefore, none of them checked my credit report so there was no impact on my credit score.
If I had gone farther in the application process (i.e., actually signing up for any of the offers), I probably would have needed to provide my SSN, which may have generated a soft pull on my credit.
How about you, reader? Where do you find the best auto insurance rates? Do you get a military discount?
I echo the GEICO comment. I’m in the Norfolk/VA Beach area, and my quote for GEICO was almost half of what USAA was willing to do for me, despite being a member for 12 years. I was a little hesitant to switch at first, because I had been with USAA for so long, but a lot people I talked to had done the same thing with no issues. So I ditched my auto policy with USAA. I still keep them for banking however.
When I PCS cross country this fall I’ll see if Geico can beat USAA in my new state. I hear it’s very competitive outside the current state I live in!
I just did this and ended up saving with GEICO (DC area). My insurance was $579/6mo with USAA but GEICO’s was $320/6mo for the same coverage! Definitely worth shopping around a bit.