By Charles Elmore
For all the charms of Palm Beach County’s southern coast, driving does not always represent one of the unalloyed delights. Now motorists face the prospect of thinking about ways to steer through some of the nation’s biggest car insurance bills in 2023.
“We are seeing increases across the board from all of the auto insurance carriers we work with, anywhere between 25% and 50%,” said John G. Backer, one of the owners of the Gracey-Backer Inc. independent insurance agency in Delray Beach.
The South Florida region — including Miami through Palm Beach County — ranks as the most expensive among 25 top U.S. metro areas with an average car insurance premium of $3,447, according to research by Bankrate.com. That’s more than double the average annual premium of $1,328 in Boston.
That’s not what every driver in the region automatically pays, but the broad strokes seem clear enough.
What to do? It’s a moment to consider some serious shopping around for what competing insurers charge, looking for discounts for things like taking a safe-driver course, or trying to lower premiums by choosing higher deductibles, people in the business say. That means the driver agrees to pay more out of pocket if accidents occur.
“Auto insurance in South Florida is going to be expensive regardless of who you are insured with,” Backer said. “Knowing what discounts are available and tweaking your deductibles should help offset these higher premiums.”
Debt can do damage
Some ways to lower the bill may not be obvious or widely known. One involves the advice to “clean up your financial house,” in the words of Harvey Brown, owner of a Delray Beach-based agency bearing his name.
He is referring to the impact of credit scores, measures of how well someone handles debt. This is a controversial part of the rate-setting business, because it affects premiums apart from a person’s tickets or accidents or actual driving record. Industry officials say it does correlate to risk to the insurer, though some consumer advocates argue it is not fair to good drivers who accumulate some debt.
In any case, the Bankrate survey captures how it can matter.
If a driver’s credit score decreases from “good” to “poor,” insurance costs can go up anywhere from $37 more in Seattle to $4,989 more in Detroit.
So where possible, it might be wise to tackle unpaid bills or avoid new debt even if it might seem unrelated to insurance, Brown said.
Whether drivers are affluent executives or seniors on fixed incomes, no one particularly enjoys higher premiums, he said.
“When they get a big increase they get pretty mad at the agent,” Brown said. “The first thing we say is we’re going to check with other companies.”
Both home and car insurance have become a source of heartburn around the region lately.
In the South Florida market, car insurance costs account for 5.51% of the typical household budget, Bankrate found. That is about 2.5 times the percentage in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example.
As for adding a teen driver, welcome to the priciest place to do that — an additional $3,754, Bankrate figured. Compare that to an extra $1,666 to add a 16-year-old to the policy in Portland, Oregon.
“The increases are due to a variety of factors,” Backer said.
These include rising costs for auto materials and repairs, more advanced technology in cars, appreciating car values, availability of new and used cars for purchase, and rising population which leads to more congested streets, thus increasing the likelihood of accidents, he said.
Area growth drives up prices
South Florida’s popularity as a place to live has figured in other recent insurance narratives. People with the means to do so bought a lot of houses in the county during the coronavirus pandemic, driving up property prices, which in turn lifted home insurance rates. That is because the cost to repair or replace a damaged home has gone up.
With car insurance, some of this is related to issues that came up during the pandemic but are still playing out in the cycles of how insurers set rates, analysts say.
“Although inflation has shown signs of slowing lately, we expect rates to continue to rise in 2023,” said Bankrate analyst Cate Deventer. “Full coverage car insurance premiums rose due in part to inflation, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. These factors all individually increase the cost of claims, and when combined, drove up the cost to repair or replace vehicles significantly.”
Nationally, auto insurance costs climbed 13.72% in 2023, to $2,014 per year, which is 2.93% of the average household income, Bankrate figured. That compared to $1,771 in 2022.
Quoted rates are based on a 40-year-old male and female couple, driving a 2021 Toyota Camry, and carrying a package of typical coverage that amounts to more than the bare legal minimum in most states. That includes $500 deductibles for collision and comprehensive coverage.
Some insurers permit higher deductibles such as $1,000. That costs the customer more if a claim occurs, but helps keep annual premium costs down and saves money in accident-free stretches.
“Overall, higher deductibles should save you money over the long run,” Backer said.
Fraud schemes and a high rate of cases going to court in Florida also drive up costs, but drivers can take the wheel into their own hands in several ways, said Mark Friedlander, Florida-based spokesman for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute.
“Auto insurance is the most competitive insurance market in the country,” he said.
Bundling home and auto policies with the same insurer can provide discounts where available, for example.
Ask about discounts for things like not having an accident in the last three years or willingness to pay the full premium up front, he said.
“Shop your coverage,” Friedlander said. “Get multiple quotes to compare costs, discounts offered and coverage levels.” Ú
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