What Car Insurance is Cheapest for High School Students in Portland?

Writing this article would sure be easy if we could just give you the name of the one auto insurance company that has the best car insurance rates in Oregon. It’s not that easy, however, as there are a whole slew of unknown aspects like the crime level of your neighborhood, your date of birth, and if you are currently insured, that all have an effect on the price. We know insurance is not everyone’s favorite topic, but in this article we will cover the best ways to avoid high prices and educate you enough to have a solid foundation to find cheaper car insurance in Portland.

For teenagers, one of the more important factors that determine the amount you pay for auto insurance is where you live. Cities with larger populations or higher claim trends likely pay more, whereas areas with fewer weather claims and lower vehicle theft rates benefit from lower rates.

The information below rates the most expensive places in Oregon for high school students to buy car insurance in. Portland shows up at #2 with a yearly cost of $1,484 for the average insurance policy, which is approximately $124 each month.

Table data uses estimated as the specific garaging location can affect rates considerably.

Buying cost effective insurance is tough enough, and figuring out which companies offer the cheapest car insurance rates for high school students requires additional perseverance.

Each auto insurance company has their own guidelines for establishing rates, so let’s take a look at the most competitive car insurance companies in Oregon.

Best Insurance Companies for Students

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Grange may have some of the best car insurance rates in Portland at around $694 a year. Oregon Mutual, Country, Travelers, and USAA also qualify as some of the more affordable Portland, OR car insurance companies.

As shown in the table above, if you have coverage with USAA and switched to Oregon Mutual, you could see yearly savings of around $113. Customers with State Farm may save as much as $233 a year, and Amica insureds might lower prices by up to $297 a year.

To discover how much you can save, click here to start your free quote or click through to the companies below.

These policy rates are averaged across all ages of drivers and types of vehicles and are not factoring in an exact location for high school students. So the car insurance company that fits your needs best may not even be in the top 22 companies shown above. That illustrates why you need to get quotes using your own individual information.

The make and model of vehicle you are trying to insure is one of the biggest factors that determines if you can find the most economical coverage for high school students. Vehicles with reasonable performance levels, an excellent safety record, or a positive history of liability claims will cost quite a bit less to insure than adrenaline junky models. The next list estimates car insurance premiums for a handful of the most economical automobiles to insure.

Premium data assumes single male driver age 17, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $1,000 deductibles, and Oregon minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include safe-driver, and claim-free. Price estimates do not factor in vehicle garaging location which can affect prices greatly.

Based upon the rates shown, we can tell that vehicles like the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape, Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Silverado, and Toyota Tacoma will be a few of the most affordable vehicles to insure for teenagers. Auto insurance rates will be more costly just due to the fact that there is more claim risk for high school students, but in general those specific models will most likely have the lowest insurance prices compared to other vehicles.

Liability rates compared to full coverage

Paying a lower price for car insurance is probably important to most drivers, and a good way to find cheaper insurance for high school students is to not insure for full coverage. The example below illustrates the comparison of car insurance rates with and without physical damage coverage. The premiums are based on no violations or claims, $500 deductibles, single status, and no discounts are applied to the premium.

If averaged for all ages, comp and collision coverage costs $1,509 per year more than just buying liability insurance. At some point, almost every driver questions if you should buy full coverage at all. There is no definitive guideline of when to exclude full coverage on your policy, but there is a general school of thought. If the annual cost of your full coverage insurance is about 10% or more of any settlement you would receive from your insurance company, the it may be a good time to stop paying for full coverage.

For example, let’s pretend your vehicle’s claim settlement value is $12,000 and you have $1,000 physical damage deductibles. If your vehicle is totaled in an accident, the most you would receive is $11,000 after the deductible is paid. If you are paying over $1,100 a year for full coverage, then it could be time to drop full coverage.

Careless Portland drivers pay higher rates

The easiest method to snag affordable car insurance rates in Portland for teenagers is to be a safe driver and avoid accidents and traffic violations. The chart below shows how traffic citations and accident claims can influence yearly insurance costs for different ages of insureds. The prices are based on a married male driver, comp and collision included, $100 deductibles, and no discounts are taken into consideration.

The data charted above shows the average cost of auto insurance in Oregon per year with no accidents or violations is $1,568. Factor in two speeding tickets and the average cost increases to $2,167, an increase of $599 each year. Now get one accident along with the two speeding tickets and the yearly cost of car insurance for high school students jumps again to an average of $2,767. That’s an increase of $1,199, or $100 per month, just for not driving responsibly!

Who has the cheapest Portland car insurance?

Portland car insurance rates are based on many factors which can significantly increase or decrease the cost of a policy. Getting older, having a teen driver, or getting a ticket for running a stop sign can trigger changes in premium resulting in some rates now being more affordable than competitors.

Additionally, companies change their prices multiple times each year in order to protect their financial rating. Heavy losses can result in higher rates, while less frequent claims can cause lower-priced Portland car insurance rates.

For example, the data below shows which companies have the cheapest car insurance in Portland, OR for a 40-year-old female driver with no prior claims, no tickets, and a good credit history. If we compare prices based on her current risk profile, Grange might quote the cheapest car insurance rates in Portland at $935 per year. This is $543 less than the average rate paid by Oregon drivers of $1,478. Country, Oregon Mutual, Travelers, and USAA are the remainder of the top five cheapest Portland, OR auto insurance companies.

In this example, we will give the driver in the first chart a claim surcharge, a lower credit score, and a few traffic violations. Since each auto insurer has a proprietary method to determining premium rates, comparing quotes may now result in a slightly different list of affordable Portland car insurance companies as shown below.

GEICO now has the lowest car insurance rate in Portland with Amica, Country, Oregon Mutual, and Allied now being in the top five. This example proves why consumers need to perform a complete rate comparison when trying to get the most affordable insurance rates for high school students.

Prices are impacted by many factors and change frequently, so the cheapest company the last time you compared rates may now be costing you a lot of money.