The deals you can get on Farmers car insurance prices will often depend on where you live
Since its creation in 1928 in the Southern California agriculture community, Farmers Insurance has grown to become one of the nation’s top five insurance companies. Roughly 10 million American households rely on Farmers for some form of insurance coverage, with a substantial number of those households entrusting their car insurance coverage to Farmers.
While Farmers relies on a nationwide network of agents to sell and service its products, it’s the local connection that ultimately makes for a good relationship between insurer and insured. Locality is also a big factor that goes into how Farmers car insurance prices are calculated. To give you some idea of just how much that difference can be, we’ve created a fairly typical driver profile and taken that profile for a shopping spin using Farmers’ online quoting resources to build a car insurance coverage plan and price out what it will run you in monthly premium. While your specific coverage options and prices may vary, this profile can give you some idea of how where you live will impact what you pay for car insurance prices.
Our driver profile
To go shopping for Farmers car insurance, we’re using a driver profile that seems pretty common. We’re naming our driver Penny. She’s a 34-year old single homeowner who works as a technical analyst for state governments. She drives a 2011 Hyundai Sonata (the 4D GLS model) that she primarily uses for short commutes to work and occasional weekend trips. (The car has less than 40,000 miles on it.)
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Penny has been continuously insured since first getting her license at age 17. She has never been in an accident and has no moving violations on her driving record. Her car comes with a number of factory-installed safety and anti-theft devices. She’s hoping to put a new Famers car insurance plan in place just before her current policy with another insurer expires (to ensure continuous coverage.)
Our markets for insurance
To offer a fair view of what a typical driver like Penny can expect to pay for Farmers car insurance prices and coverage, we’re taking Penny shopping in three different markets. The markets where we requested online quotes for cost and coverage with Farmers reflect what annual surveys show as expensive, mid-range and less expensive states when it comes to annual costs for car insurance.
We took Penny Famers car insurance shopping in: Augusta, Georgia (an expensive state for car insurance prices); Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (a mid-range state for car insurance prices); and Concord, New Hampshire (an inexpensive state for car insurance costs). Here are the results:
(Note: these car insurance coverage scenarios and the corresponding quotes for premium costs were the result of online queries conducted in late March of 2014.)
Georgia
The Peach State is pretty consistent in annual rankings for car insurance costs, maintaining a position as the third most expensive state in the country for several years. Licensed drivers in the state are required to have, at a minimum, the following coverage options and levels in place:
- $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person per accident
- $50,000 in total bodily injury liability coverage per accident
- $25,000 in total property damage liability coverage per accident
Car insurance companies in Georgia are required to offer licensed drivers in the state uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at levels similar to these liability coverage requirements. Drivers can opt out of adding this coverage by filing a letter saying so with the state.
Our hypothetical driver, Penny, routinely puts coverage options and levels in place that exceed the limits of the state where she lives and drives. She also routinely puts coverage options in place that will protect her against any financial investment she may have to make should her own car experience damage or loss. As a result, the Farmers car insurance plan we put in place for Penny in Georgia includes the following options and levels of coverage:
- Liability insurance at $100/$300/$100 levels
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at $100/$300/$100 levels
- Medical payments coverage at $10,000
- Collision coverage with a $1,000 deductible
- Comprehensive coverage with a $1,000 deductible
- Farmers’ glass deductible buyback option
- Farmers’ roadside assistance/towing option
In the state of Georgia, Farmers is able to offer Penny discounts for having safety and anti-theft devices on her car, for being a homeowner, for being a new Farmers customer and for getting her Farmers coverage before her previous insurer’s plan expires (a discount Farmers call its Early Shopper discount.) Penny also gets a slight reduction in her premium for agreeing to pay the entire six-month policy premium in one lump sum. The result is a Farmers car insurance plan in Georgia that runs her $135- $150 in monthly premium.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania used to be a more expensive state for car insurance, but costs there have declined in recent years, putting the state near the national median for car insurance costs. (One exception is for divers living in Philadelphia where costs are still quite high for car insurance.) The state places fairly low requirements on licensed drivers when it comes to car insurance options and levels:
- $15,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person, per accident
- $30,000 in total bodily injury liability coverage per accident
- $5,000 in total property damage liability coverage per accident
- $5,000 in medical payments/first party benefits coverage
As in Georgia, car insurance companies in Pennsylvania are required to offer drivers uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at similar levels of required liability coverage. Pennsylvania drivers can forego this coverage by filing a letter with the state stating their declination of this coverage.
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Taking Penny car insurance shopping with Farmers in Pennsylvania, here’s the coverage plan we put in place for her:
- Liability coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Medical payments coverage at $10,000 with $10,000 in death benefits, $1,500 in funeral expenses and income loss at a $100/15 level (in essence, a PIP coverage package.)
- Collision coverage with a $500 deductible
- Comprehensive coverage with a $500 deductible
- Farmers’ glass deductible buyback option
- Farmers’ roadside assistance/towing option
This is a slightly expanded coverage plan for Penny compared to her Georgia plan and part of that has to do with the low required levels in Pennsylvania. Farmers is able to offer Penny all of the same car insurance premium discounts in Pennsylvania that she qualified for in Georgia. As a result, even with her expanded levels and options, Penny’s Farmers car insurance policy in Pennsylvania will cost her $125 - $140 monthly.
New Hampshire
The Granite State is unique in that it technically does not require licensed drivers to carry insurance. It does require that licensed drivers show proof that they are financially responsible and solvent enough to pay for any damages they cause in any car accident that is found to be their fault. The easiest way to illustrate this financial solvency/responsibility is to purchase car insurance and for those licensed drivers in New Hampshire selecting car insurance coverage as a way to fulfill these requirements, the state sets the following minimum coverage options and limits:
- $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person per accident
- $50,000 in total bodily injury liability coverage per accident
- $25,000 in total personal property liability coverage per accident
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage at 25/50 levels
- $1,000 in medical payments coverage per accident
When using the Farmers online car insurance quoting tool for Penny in New Hampshire, we were transferred to 21st Century Insurance (a wholly owned subsidiary of Farmers) and put the following coverage plan in place for her:
- Liability coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist (bodily injury) coverage at 100/300 levels
- Medical payments coverage at $2,000 per accident
- Collision coverage with a $500 deductible
- Comprehensive coverage with a $500 deductible
- Glass deductible buyback option
- Roadside assistance/towing option
- Rental reimbursement option
Even getting bounced to 21st Century for the coverage option, Penny is afforded the same premium discounts as she was in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The result is that her Farmers car insurance coverage in New Hampshire will cost her $65 - $80 in monthly premium.
While you may have a driver profile similar to Penny, what you actually pay for your Farmers car insurance will vary from these scenarios. While online quoting services can be a good gauge of what you can expect to pay, you won’t know for sure until you get a formal offer of coverage. One way to get even more details about the coverage options you may want to put in place and what you can expect to pay is to spend some time with a local, licensed car insurance agent. An agent can answer any questions you may have, can help you find and apply for all the premium discounts you may be eligible for, and can even run you some sample coverage packages to compare before you ever have to make your first premium payment. Reply! can play a valuable role for you by connecting you to local car insurance professionals who will be more than happy to help you get all the coverage you need.