Best Auto Insurance Rates in Alabama

Our team analyzed auto insurance quotes for four types of drivers across multiple companies in Alabama to find who had the best rates by insurer and city. Rates varied from city to city, but the greatest gap came from what insurers quoted. The most expensive carrier charged as much as 2.5x the cheapest auto insurance company in Alabama. This is why motorists in the Heart of Dixie should compare several quotes if they're looking for good rates. Enter your zip code above to start shopping among top insurers in your area for great car insurance rates.

Cheapest Auto Insurance in Alabama

Rates were obtained for 16 underwriters for a single 30 year old man. The driver is a typical 30 year old motorist in Alabama with a good driving record.Based on these results, we found the cheapest auto insurance rates in Alabama at: Progressive, United Services, ACCC, National General and Infinity.

Rates from the top three lowest cost companies averaged $800, which came out to about 36% cheaper than what the typical company charged for basic liability coverage in the state. Below is a table ranking the carrier groups with the best car insurance rates in Alabama to the most expensive.

Your actual rates are dictated by your record as a driver, your age and other factors. We always recommend consumers to compare across at least three insurers to find the best match. Here is a list of nine Alabama auto insurance companies included in our study, as well as the average cost of coverage for a year based on our sample driver profiles.

Cheap Car Insurance in Alabama: by City

The table below lists the companies with the cheapest auto insurance rates in each Alabama city in our study. Note that these annual premiums are composite rates based on a typical 30 year old male driver types of driver in the Yellowhammer State. Your actual quotes will be different and tailored to your individual circumstances. This merely shows who tends to offer the best rates, and in which cities.

Birmingham, AL

Despite having the largest urban population in the state of Alabama, Birmingham has the 10th least expensive rates in the state. Car collectors are in great company in Birmingham, with the largest collection in the world of both vintage and modern motorcycles and racecars at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. It's currently the only city in the Deep South to host the Honda Indy Grand Prix on the North American circuit. Last but not least, Birmingham is home base for the Porsche Sport Driving School as well.Residents here pay on average $1,226 to insure their cars each year.

Drivers looking for the cheap auto insurance in Birmingham should include Progressive, Infinity, and National General when shopping for cheapquotes. Our analysis shows that these three companies had the cheapest auto insurance rates, averaging about $762 for our sample driver, which is 61% lower than what the average company in Birmingham was quoting.

Montgomery, AL

Montgomery is the second largest city in Alabama and home to 206,000 residents. $1,268 was the average cost for our resident driver, about $20 more in the state capital to buy car insurance compared to the rest of the state. We suggest adding Progressive, National General and United Services when looking for cheap auto insurance companies in Montgomery. Rates at these three insurers go for about $794 a year, which saves drivers 60% compared to the average insurer's quotes in Montgomery.

Mobile, AL

In addition to being the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the United States and the only saltwater seaport in Alabama, Mobile ranks as the most expensive city for car insurance.$1,368 is the mean annual premium for in Mobile, AL based on quote data for our example driver. Quotes fromProgressive, National General and United Serviceswere the most affordable in Mobile. On average, rates from these three cheap car insurance companies in Mobile were $832 a year and about 64% lower than the citywide cost.

Huntsville, AL

Alabama's third cheapest city is situated in the Tennessee Valley. Named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2010", Huntsville, AL is the fourth largest city in the state. The average cost of insuring a vehicle in Huntsville is $1,168 for our sample, about $80 less than what other state residents may pay. Rates here are already low, but if you're looking to go lower, start atProgressive, National General and United Services, the cheapest three auto insurers in Huntsville. Going with thesethree could save you $439; that's 60% lower than the citywide average in Huntsville.

Tuscaloosa, AL

Rounding out our top five list of cheapest cities for car insurance in Alabama is Tuscaloosa, also the fifth largest city in the state with 90,000 residents. Home to the University of Alabama system and the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant, a 30 year old driver living in Tuscaloosa will pay on average $1,220 for full coverage car insurance. That's just a tad less than the overall state mean. Based on the annual premiums we found the lowest auto insurance quotes at Progressive, National General and United Services for our 30 year old driver. Going with one of these three companies meant a premium that was lower than the city average by $430, which shaved about 55% off of what the typical insurer would charge here.

Average Cost of Car Insurance in Alabama: by City

The mean cost of insurance in Alabama was $1,249 as measured for our 30 year old male driver. Generally speaking, the cost of insurance did not vary much depending on location. In fact, the difference between the cities with the most expensive rates (Mobile, AL) and the cheapest car insurance (Dothan, AL) was just about 20% - less than other states in our other auto insurance studies.

Best Car Insurance Companies in Alabama

One way we've thought of addressing the question of who the best auto insurers in Alabama are is to figure out which received the least complaints relative to the amount of business the conduct. We researched the amount of business and complaints for the ten biggest carriers in the state, and calculated each carrier's complaint ratio. To compute this ratio, we took a company’s complaints and divided it per $1 million premiums of the company. This ratio allows us to compare across the major carriers, and shows how dissatisfied consumers are with their provider. The table below ranks the largest companies from the lowest ratio (least dissatisfied and happiest) to largest ratio (most dissatisfied and least happy). Progressive, Allstate, and Alfa rank as the three best rated car insurance companies in Alabama based on this metric.

Auto Insurance Rate Changes in Alabama

If car insurance companies want to raise their rates they must file with each individual state. It's not different in Alabama. Each year these insurers like to make adjustments (usually up!) to their premiums for drivers in the state. To give you an idea of how much these companies have changed their rates in the last year we've looked at eight top companies in Alabama:

Alabama Car Insurance Requirements

All Alabama drivers are required to have a certain amount of auto insurance, as is typical in the U.S. Those that are caught driving without insurance coverage risk being fined, having their vehicle registration suspended and even imprisonment. Below we detail the required coverages and their minimum limits for Alabama drivers:

How We Conducted This Study

We collected quotes from a variety of insurance companies across 27 towns and cities in Alabama. Our sample driver was a 30 year old male who drove a Toyota Camry. To obtain quotes, we kept parameters for getting coverage the same, such as that he was single, had a good credit score and a clean driving record. The only parameter that changed was the zip code where he lived. The amount of coverage we opted for gave our driver bit more than what is required of state minimums. Below you can see the coverage options used in our study.