Who Has The Best Car Insurance Rates in Columbus, Georgia?
Who Has The Best Car Insurance Rates in Columbus, Georgia?
Find Cheap Auto Insurance Quotes in Columbus
The cheapest minimum-coverage car insurance in Columbus, Georgia comes from State Farm. The average annual rate from the company is $48 per month, $8 less than the city average.
The average Columbus driver pays $670 per year for minimum coverage.
Drivers pay just about the state average in one of Georgia's largest metro areas, which straddles the Alabama border. Full-coverage rates in Columbus are less than 1% more expensive than the state overall, while minimum coverage is nearly 2% cheaper.
You should always get quotes from multiple insurers and compare them before selecting a policy. Depending on your background and driving history, your rates may vary.
Cheapest auto insurance in Columbus: State Farm
State Farm and Georgia Farm Bureau offer the cheapest minimum liability car insurance rates in Columbus. Those two insurers were at least $79 per year cheaper than the city average, a savings of 11% or more.
State Farm has the cheapest rates in our analysis, at $48 per month, or $580 per year. Georgia Farm Bureau came in at $591 per year.
USAA's rate of $538 per year was the lowest offered, but the company only sells insurance to members of the military, veterans and some of their family members.
Find Cheap Auto Insurance Quotes in Your Area
You will only get the lowest level of protection with minimum liability coverage. That means in the event of an accident, all your costs may not be covered. We suggest you purchase as much coverage as you can, especially to protect an expensive vehicle.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | State Farm | $580 |
| 2 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $591 |
| 3 | Geico | $620 |
| 4 | Progressive | $757 |
| 5 | Allstate | $934 |
| N/A | USAA | $539 |
Cheapest full-coverage car insurance in Columbus: Georgia Farm Bureau
The cheapest widely-available full-coverage car insurance in Columbus is offered by Georgia Farm Bureau. Geico had the next-lowest rates in the city.
USAA offered the lowest rates overall, but the company's policies are only available to members of the military, veterans and some of their family members.
At $1,359 per year, Georgia Farm Bureau was $181 less than Geico. Those two companies and USAA were the only companies that were cheaper than the city average of $2,398.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $1,359 |
| 2 | Geico | $1,540 |
| 3 | Progressive | $2,648 |
| 4 | Allstate | $3,097 |
| 5 | State Farm | $4,397 |
| N/A | USAA | $1,348 |
Full-coverage auto insurance differs from minimum coverage because it has higher liability limits and includes collision and comprehensive coverages. Those coverages protect a driver's own car in several situations.
- Comprehensive coverage: covers damage due to theft, natural disasters and other events outside the driver's control, sometimes called "acts of God".
- Collision coverage: covers damage to a vehicle that results from hitting another vehicle or object.
Cheapest car insurance for drivers with prior incidents
Incidents on a driving record, such as a speeding ticket, DUI or accident, raise insurance rates in almost every instance, and that impact shows in the rates of Columbus drivers.
Cheapest car insurance in Columbus after an accident
Georgia Farm Bureau offered Columbus' best full-coverage rates after an at-fault accident. Those rates were considerably cheaper than second-place Geico, with a difference of $1,267 per year.
Georgia Farm Bureau's average rate was $1,485 per year, 46% less than Geico, and an increase of 9% from the cost with a clean record. An accident raised Columbus drivers' rates 46% on average.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $1,485 |
| 2 | Geico | $2,752 |
| 3 | Progressive | $4,795 |
| 4 | Allstate | $4,825 |
| 5 | State Farm | $5,262 |
| N/A | USAA | $1,927 |
Cheapest car insurance for drivers with a speeding ticket: Georgia Farm Bureau
Georgia Farm Bureau offered the best rates in Columbus for drivers with a speeding ticket looking for full-coverage car insurance. The company's annual rate of $1,485 was 14% cheaper than Geico and 57% cheaper than Progressive.
On average, a speeding ticket raised Columbus drivers' rates 16%, or $377 per year.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $1,485 |
| 2 | Geico | $1,732 |
| 3 | Progressive | $3,414 |
| 4 | Allstate | $3,525 |
| 5 | State Farm | $4,830 |
| N/A | USAA | $1,668 |
Cheapest car insurance for drivers with a DUI: Georgia Farm Bureau
In Columbus, a DUI increases the full-coverage insurance rate by $1,381, a jump of 58%. Georgia Farm Bureau offers the city's best rates, at $2,629 per year.
Georgia Farm Bureau's rates increase 93% with a DUI, but are still the cheapest overall. Progressive's rate is the second-lowest, at $3,267, while Allstate was third, at $4,227.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $2,629 |
| 2 | Progressive | $3,267 |
| 3 | Allstate | $4,227 |
| 4 | State Farm | $4,830 |
| 5 | Geico | $5,011 |
| N/A | USAA | $2,710 |
Cheapest car insurance for drivers with poor credit: Georgia Farm Bureau
The best rates for drivers with poor credit in Columbus were offered by Georgia Farm Bureau and Geico. Credit history can have a significant impact on your rates — more so than a speeding ticket or accident.
On average, poor credit increases rates $705 per year in Columbus. Georgia Farm Bureau's rates were $710 cheaper than the next-best option, Geico.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $1,359 |
| 2 | Geico | $2,069 |
| 3 | State Farm | $2,268 |
| 4 | Allstate | $3,159 |
| 5 | Progressive | $3,459 |
| N/A | USAA | $1,972 |
Cheapest car insurance for married drivers: Georgia Farm Bureau
Georgia Farm Bureau just edged out Geico for the best rates for married drivers in Columbus. Georgia Farm Bureau charged an average of $17 less per year than Geico, and $697 less than Progessive.
Insurers tend to see married drivers as less risky, and they often pay lower rates as a result. Georgia Farm Bureau's rate of $1,359 was $952 less than the city average.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $1,359 |
| 2 | Geico | $1,376 |
| 3 | Progressive | $2,056 |
| 4 | Allstate | $3,002 |
| 5 | State Farm | $4,870 |
| N/A | USAA | $1,202 |
Cheapest car insurance for young drivers: Georgia Farm Bureau
Insurers usually consider 18-year-old drivers to be considerably riskier than older, more experienced drivers. As a result, they tend to pay more for insurance. In Columbus, younger drivers save the most with Georgia Farm Bureau. The next-best rate was from Geico, and other companies for the most part charged considerably more.
Georgia Farm Bureau's rate of $4,327 was $356 less than Geico, and 46% cheaper than the city's average rate. On average, a younger driver pays 236% more than a 30-year-old.
Rank | Company | Average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Farm Bureau | $4,327 |
| 2 | Geico | $4,683 |
| 3 | Allstate | $9,353 |
| 4 | Progressive | $12,087 |
| 5 | State Farm | $13,316 |
| N/A | USAA | $4,606 |
Some good options for young drivers looking to lower their insurance costs include:
- Joining a parent's car insurance policy: this will increase the price of the parent's policy, but it should still save a considerable amount compared to having separate policies.
- Looking for discounts: you should speak with your insurer about discounts for which you might be eligible. Some notable options include discounts for good grades, avoiding accidents and safe driving.
Average car insurance costs in Columbus by neighborhood
The Columbus metro area sits on the western border of Georgia and includes some cities in Alabama. Nearly 200,000 people live in the city itself.
Columbus spans nine ZIP codes, and the price of full-coverage insurance varies by $129 from the cheapest to the most expensive.
ZIP code | Average annual rate |
|---|---|
| 31808 | $2,466 |
| 31820 | $2,418 |
| 31901 | $2,397 |
| 31903 | $2,359 |
| 31904 | $2,431 |
| 31905 | $2,337 |
| 31906 | $2,417 |
| 31907 | $2,419 |
| 31909 | $2,379 |
The least expensive ZIP code in Columbus for car insurance is 31905, which includes the southern part of town and Fort Benning. The most expensive was 31808, which includes a few sparsely populated northern parts of the city.
Columbus residents can also potentially save money by moving across the border to Phenix City, Ala. The rate for full coverage in Phenix City is $334 cheaper than Columbus, on average.
Auto theft statistics in Columbus
Columbus ranked 11th among Georgia's 15 largest cities in car thefts per 10,000 residents, based on the most recently available data. In 2017, Columbus had 35.4 cars stolen per 10,000 residents.
Johns Creek, a city of 85,048 in the northeast corner of the Atlanta metro area, ranked at the top, with only 2.1 cars stolen per 10,000 residents. Columbus overall had 704 auto thefts.
Rank | City | Population | Car thefts | Thefts per 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johns Creek | 85,048 | 18 | 2.1 |
| 2 | Alpharetta | 66,711 | 35 | 5.2 |
| 3 | Roswell | 95,602 | 109 | 11.4 |
| 4 | Sandy Springs | 107,740 | 178 | 16.5 |
| 5 | Athens-Clarke County | 124,903 | 230 | 18.4 |
| 6 | Dunwoody | 49,321 | 92 | 18.7 |
| 7 | Brookhaven | 52,973 | 125 | 23.6 |
| 8 | Albany | 73,209 | 189 | 25.8 |
| 9 | Marietta | 61,646 | 182 | 29.5 |
| 10 | Warner Robins | 75,323 | 230 | 30.5 |
| 11 | Columbus | 198,832 | 704 | 35.4 |
| 12 | Savannah-Chatham | 242,941 | 940 | 38.7 |
Motor vehicle theft data was pulled from the FBI 2017 Georgia crime report.
Methodology
We collected data from six of the largest insurers in Georgia. The sample driver is a 30-year-old male with a 2015 Honda Civic EX. The driver has average credit, unless otherwise stated. Rates are for a full-coverage policy, unless otherwise noted.
The analysis uses insurance rate data from Quadrant Information Services publicly sourced from insurer filings. Rates should be used for comparative purposes only, as your rates will likely differ.
Sources: FBI 2017 Georgia crime report
Editorial Note: The content of this article is based on the author’s opinions and recommendations alone. It has not been previewed, commissioned or otherwise endorsed by any of our network partners.