How to Find the Best Car Insurance for Families

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Written by Eric Schad Edited by Nick Versaw Reviewed by Amanda Clear

Updated December 20, 2022

Cars can give you the freedom to travel when you want and where you want, but when you’re also in a family with several drivers, hopping in the car isn’t that simple. 

Beyond juggling a car schedule among several drivers, finding affordable car insurance for families can prove burdensome or even overwhelming. 

By understanding how companies factor insurance rates and applying a few hacks, you can find the best car insurance policy for your family. Here’s everything you need to know.

Key Takeaways:

• When shopping for car insurance as a family, it makes the most sense to shop around for the most comprehensive policy to cover all drivers in your household
• Certain car insurance companies are more comprehensive and offer better discounts than others when young drivers are involved. You should shop for car insurance whenever you add a driver to your policy.
• Don’t skimp on coverage to save a few bucks when you have multiple family members on the road.

An Overview of Car Insurance for Families

Car insurance for families refers to a multi-person and multi-car policy that covers every legal driver at a single residence. For example, if you’re married with two teen drivers you have six drivers under one roof.

While each person could get their own individual policy, this isn’t cost-effective. Multiple individual policies can make your insurance costs remarkably higher and more complicated. As a result, most insurance companies offer car insurance for families. These types of policies have many benefits, including:

• A single monthly premium rather than one for each driver or each vehicle
• One deductible if more than one car is damaged in a single incident, such as vandalism or an act of God
• Discounts, and ultimately, lower car insurance rates than if you had several auto insurance policies

Between lower prices and making your policy far more manageable, car insurance for families just makes sense.

What Are Some of the Best Car Insurance Providers for Families?

Like other types of insurance, the “best” auto insurance company is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps you only want the lowest price, or maybe extraordinary customer service is worth a few extra bucks a month. Couple that with the level of coverage you want, and choosing the right car insurance provider can feel like a daunting task.

And again, while the choice is still a matter of preference, several of these companies have been shown to provide better rates for families:

1. Farmers Insurance
2. Nationwide
3. Travelers Insurance
4. Amica Insurance
5. Liberty Mutual

On top of better rates, these companies also tend to provide more discounts, improved customer service over competitors, and better bundling and multi-line options than others. However, shopping around and comparing quotes is always the best way to find a policy and provider that works for you.

What Car Insurance Coverage Does My Family Need?

How much car insurance and what type of coverage you need depends on three items: state law, lender requirements, and personal preference. Obviously, you must meet the legal requirements to get behind the wheel, while your lender may also have their own requirements.

Legal Car Insurance Requirements

Unless you live in New Hampshire or Virginia — the only states where car insurance isn’t 100% mandatory — your family will need at least state minimum coverage. State minimum coverage varies between:

• At-fault states: Liability coverage, i.e., bodily injury coverage and property damage coverage
• No-fault states: Personal injury protection coverage (PIP) and property damage coverage

Some states may also require uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which pays for your property damage and medical bills if you’re hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver. According to the Insurance Research Council, around 1 in 8 drivers are uninsured. As such, adding it isn’t all that expensive compared to what you might pay for medical care and damage to your car out of pocket.

Keep in mind that the driver’s age doesn’t affect what type of coverage you need. However, teen drivers are high-risk compared to all other age groups, and an increase in your insurance premium might be worth the added protection.

Lender Requirements

If you have one or more car loans, chances are high that your lender will require full coverage car insurance. The reason that your lender requires this type of coverage is to protect their collateral. If you’re in an at-fault accident, full coverage protects your car from being a total loss — or at least pays for the vehicle if it is a total loss.

Full coverage typically includes:

• Liability insurance: This pays for damage to the other driver’s vehicle and their medical bills after an accident.
• Comprehensive insurance: This pays for damage to your vehicle that’s the result of theft, vandalism, or an act of God, i.e., your car isn’t involved in an accident.
• Collision insurance: This pays for damage to your vehicle when you’re at fault in an accident.

Both comprehensive and collision insurance also have a deductible, which you can choose when you select your policy.

Some lenders may also require gap insurance, which pays the difference between the balance of your car loan and the actual cash value of your vehicle if you’re in a total loss accident.

Due to the higher risk of payouts on full coverage, auto insurance rates are typically much more expensive than liability-only car insurance policies.

Personal Preference

Aside from legal and lender requirements, all other types of car insurance for families are personal preferences. If you have elderly or new drivers, you may want to add another layer of protection. Fortunately, you can choose your coverage options regardless of who you choose as an insurer.

Here are your most common options to mix-and-match your coverage:

• Liability coverage, including property damage and bodily injury coverage
• Collision coverage
• Comprehensive coverage
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
• MedPay, or medical expense coverage
• Gap insurance
• Roadside assistance
• Rental reimbursement coverage

How Can I Get Better Rates for My Family’s Car Insurance?

Finding cheap car insurance for your family is a lot like discovering affordable options for your individual policy. But with more people to insure comes more opportunities for some juicy driver discounts. Aside from maintaining a safe driving record, discounts are the foremost way to lower car insurance rates. Here are a few you should try to get:

• Good driver discount: If your family has good driving habits and can avoid citations, tickets, and accidents or remain claim-free, insurers may extend a good driver discount to your family.
• Good student discount: If you have young drivers in your family currently enrolled in high school or college, their good grades can translate to savings. In most cases, a GPA of 3.0 (B+) or higher should net you a discount.
• Bundling: Combining your home insurance and car insurance for your family may result in a sizable discount.

How Often Should I Shop for Car Insurance for My Family?

Several situations can impact car insurance for families, so you should also reevaluate your car insurance costs and needs in the following cases:

• You buy a home or condo: Homeowners and condo owners can get a cheaper rate on their car insurance than renters. Plus, you can always see if insurers offer bundling to both car insurance and home insurance policyholders.
• You add a new family member to the policy: New drivers and young drivers can significantly impact car insurance for families in terms of needs and pricing. Before you add them to the policy, you should compare adding them versus them getting their own policy. If they have a clean driving record, it shouldn’t be an issue. If they have a poor driving history or a DUI, you may want to consider other options.
• You’re moving: If you’re moving, your car insurance needs and rates may change. Your original insurer may not operate where you move, and geographic locations can impact your auto insurance quotes and rates. If you move, take a few minutes to shop for car insurance for your family.
• Your credit score changes for the better: Credit scores are one of the major determinants of car insurance rates, so if your score goes up significantly, shopping around for family car insurance is important.

Car insurance companies routinely change or update the methodology of calculating car insurance rates, so comparing rates about once a year is essential.

Find the Cheapest Car Insurance for Families Today

The more cars and drivers you have on a policy, the more you’ll pay — that’s an inevitability. However, insuring an entire family doesn’t have to put you in financial dire straits either. With a mix of car insurance discounts, bundling, safe driving, and shopping for car insurance quotes, you can find the cheapest rate for the coverage you need.

If you haven’t shopped for multiple car insurance quotes in the past, start with Compare.com. Just input the personal information of the drivers in your family and the coverage you need, and you can browse dozens of quotes at once.

Type in your ZIP code below to get started:

Eric Schad Insurance Writer

Eric Schad has been an expert content writer for nearly a decade. Before getting behind the keyboard, he worked in the finance and music industries. With eight years of writing experience in the automotive and insurance industries, he enjoys communicating information that makes shopping for car insurance a breeze. Away from the computer, Schad is a blues guitar shredder, crazed sports fan, and always down for a spontaneous trip anywhere around the globe.