The best car insurance for teachers will combine low rates with valuable coverage options and great customer service. But educators don’t need homework of their own to do, so Forbes Advisor evaluated 10 car insurance companies to identify the best car insurance for teachers.
- Best Car Insurance for Teachers
- Nationwide
- Travelers
- Geico
- Progressive
- USAA
- Summary: Best Car Insurance for Teachers Ratings
- Car Insurance Discounts for Teachers
- How Much is Car Insurance for a Teacher?
- How To Get the Best Car Insurance Rate for Teachers
- Which Company has the Cheapest Car Insurance for Teachers?
- Methodology
- Next Up in Car Insurance
Best Car Insurance for Teachers
Summary: Best Car Insurance for Teachers Ratings
Company | Forbes Advisor Rating | Auto insurance cost example for teachers | Complaint level for auto insurance | LEARN MORE | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nationwide | 5.0 | $1,545 | Very low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | |||
4.5 | $1,881 | Very low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | ||||
4.0 | $1,784 | Average | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | ||||
Progressive | 4.0 | $2,121 | Low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | |||
4.0 | $1,716 | Average | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | ||||
Allstate | 3.5 | $2,991 | Low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | |||
3.5 | $2,985 | Low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | ||||
3.5 | $2,392 | Higher than the industry average | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | ||||
Farmers | 3.0 | $3,074 | Low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website | |||
3.0 | $2,603 | Low | Get Quotes | Compare rates via EverQuote’s website |
Rate examples are based on a nationwide average for a 45-year-old female teacher with coverage of $100,000 in bodily injury liability per person, $300,000 in bodily injury liability per accident and $100,000 in property damage liability per accident, plus collision and comprehensive coverage with a $500 deductible. Source: Quadrant Information Services.
Car Insurance Discounts for Teachers
Some car insurance companies provide a price break for educators through affiliate group discounts—for instance, if you belong to a national educational association. Some insurers give car insurance discounts to drivers based on their jobs, so you may get a certain percentage off your rate if you’re a teacher. Others offer financial perks specifically for teachers—for example, your deductible is waived if your car is damaged on school property. So while not a discount per se, you pay less in that case for a claim.
California Casualty
California Casualty waives the deductible if a teacher’s vehicle is hit or vandalized while parked at a school, a school administrative office or an education association office. Among the other non-teacher specific perks are a deductible waiver for windshield repairs, $500 in non-electronic personal property coverage for theft from your car and up to $1,000 for veterinary bills if your cat or dog is injured in your car due to an accident covered by your policy.
Country Financial
Full-time K-12 teachers, as well as full-time firefighters, police officers, EMTs and paramedics, may be eligible for a car insurance discount from Country Financial.
Educators Insurance Agency
For teachers who need car insurance and live in Massachusetts, the Educators Insurance Agency partners with the Massachusetts Teachers Association to provide teacher car insurance discounts to members.
Farmers
While Farmers doesn’t provide car insurance discounts solely for educators, it does offer discounts to people who are members of various organizations. For instance, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology enables eligible employees to save up to 26% on Massachusetts auto insurance from Farmers. And the Minnesota Benefit Association gives several discounts on Farmers car insurance to public school educators, such as a 14% employee discount and 10% payroll deduction discount.
Geico
Educators belonging to any of several professional organizations might qualify for car insurance discounts. These organizations include the Association of American Educators, American Association of School Administrators, College Student Educators International and National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Horace Mann
This educator-focused company offers an educator discount, as well as discounts for educators who insure multiple cars with Horace Mann, who have different types of insurance (such as auto and home), whose premiums are automatically subtracted from their paycheck or who belong to an education association.
In addition, Horace Mann’s Educator Advantage Package program offers perks, such as no deductible or a lower deductible for vandalism or collision incidents covered by the policy that occurs on or near school property or while at a school-sponsored event. It also provides liability insurance when students are passengers in your insured car.
Liberty Mutual Insurance
The company offers an educator’s discount in some states. Other benefits for teachers are a $0 deductible for car vandalism that happens on school property or during school-related events, a $0 deductible if their car is damaged in a collision while they’re driving it for school business and up to $2,500 of coverage per incident for personally property if teaching materials or school-owned property are damaged or stolen while they’re in the teacher’s car.
Meemic
Meemic offers newly certified teachers a discount that applies to their first seven years of certification. Meemic’s car insurance for educators also includes waived deductibles for comprehensive claims for incidents that occur on school property and liability car insurance for driving students to and from school activities. Note that Meemic is selling new car insurance policies only in Georgia, Illinois and Michigan.
Teachers’ Insurance Plan of New Jersey
Educators in the Garden State who need New Jersey car insurance can earn a teacher discount through the Teachers’ Insurance Plan of New Jersey. It’s a subsidiary of Plymouth Rock.
How Much is Car Insurance for a Teacher?
The average cost of car insurance for teachers is $2,309 a year, based on a Forbes Advisor analysis. Average rates from 10 large insurers ranged from $1,545 to $3,074. Nationwide had the lowest rate (working out to $129 a month), and Farmers had the highest ($256 a month).
You can save money by shopping around for car insurance, since the cost of the same coverage varies from insurer to insurer.
How To Get the Best Car Insurance Rate for Teachers
Here are five tips for getting the best teacher car insurance rates:
- Assess coverage options. Consider what types of coverage each insurer offers so you can find the company that best suits your needs. In addition to asking about educator-specific benefits, you may want a company that offers accident forgiveness insurance or new car replacement insurance.
- Shop around. Compare car insurance quotes for identical coverage amounts from multiple insurance companies.
- Inquire about discounts. You may be able to score car insurance discounts based on a variety of factors, such as your driving record and claim history. Get quotes that include discounts so you can compare costs apples-to-apples among insurers.
- Choose a higher deductible. You can usually snag savings by raising your car insurance deductible. Drivers who increase their deductibles can save between 7% to 28% a year on average, according to a Forbes Advisor analysis of car insurance deductibles and rates.
Which Company has the Cheapest Car Insurance for Teachers?
Among the 10 companies evaluated, Nationwide offers the cheapest car insurance for teachers. Nationwide’s rate ($1,545) was nearly half the dollar amount of the most expensive car insurance from Farmers ($3,074). Travelers and Geico also have cheap car insurance for teachers.
Nationwide, Travelers and Geico also top the list of car insurance companies with cheap full coverage car insurance.
Methodology
To identify the best car insurance companies for teachers we analyzed rates, coverage options and customer service metrics.
Car insurance rates (50% of score): We used data from Quadrant Information Services to find average rates for teachers. Not all companies in our analysis offered a teacher discount.
Auto insurance coverage options (25% of score): Any auto insurance company can provide the basics of liability insurance, collision and comprehensive coverage and other standard offerings. But it’s also important to have access to additional coverage types that can provide greater protection or cost savings. In this category we gave points to companies that offer accident forgiveness, new car replacement, vanishing deductibles, usage-based or pay-per-mile insurance and SR-22s.
Complaints (20% of score): We used complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Each state’s department of insurance is in charge of logging and monitoring complaints against the companies that operate in their states. Most auto insurance complaints center on claims, including unsatisfactory settlements, delays and denials.
Collision repair (5% of score): We used data provided by CRASH Network, a weekly newsletter covering the collision repair and auto insurance market segments. CRASH Network’s Insurer Report Card has grades from more than 1,100 collision repair professionals to gauge auto insurers on the quality of their collision claims service.
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