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Maine Car Insurance Guide

You know that moose collisions are no joke. You know to be careful when driving on Route 182. And of course you know how to drive in the snow.

But do you know how to find really cheap auto insurance in Maine? We’ll explain Maine’s insurance requirements and tell you where to find the best rates. Or, if you want to skip ahead to the good part, go ahead and get your own personalized quotes on Compare.com. It’s free. It’s fast. It works!

1. What Are Maine’s Auto Insurance Requirements?

If you own or drive a vehicle in Maine, you must carry car insurance. Maine’s minimum insurance requirements, often abbreviated as 50/100/25, are:

$50,000 in bodily injury liability per person and $100,000 per accident: Bodily injury liability is the part of your insurance that pays for other people’s medical bills and other losses if they get hurt in an accident you cause
$25,000 in property damage liability: This pays for damage to other people’s cars (or other property) in an accident you cause
$50,000 in uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage per person and $100,000 per accident: This coverage pays for injuries you and your passengers suffer if an uninsured, underinsured or hit-and-run driver causes an accident
$2,000 per person in medical payments coverage: This covers medical expenses for you and your passengers after an accident

2. Why is Maine Car Insurance so Cheap?

Maine has high minimum limits for bodily injury liability, compared to other states, so you might expect car insurance to cost a lot. Nope! Maine is the fourth cheapest state for car insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That’s probably because of its low population density. Rural populations and little traffic mean lower collision and crime rates — and so car insurance rates are lower too.

3. How Do I Find the Cheapest Car Insurance in Maine?

Just because Maine generally has low auto insurance rates, that doesn’t mean you personally are getting the best deal from your current insurer. You have to shop around! Every Maine car insurance company has its own way of calculating rates. When giving you a quote, an insurer may factor in your age and gender; your driving history; your marital status; your job; your address; and even your credit history.

In Maine, having bad credit and a clean driving record can be worse for your insurance rates than having great credit and a DWI, Consumer Reports found.

Long story short, rates vary a lot. That’s why you have to compare customized quotes side by side. If you want super-cheap Maine car insurance, plug in your info on Compare.com. To get the absolute cheapest Maine auto insurance quotes, pick state minimum coverage. This gives you 50/100/25 coverage for bodily injury and property damage, 50/100 in uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury, and $2,000 in medical payments. Compare your quotes and pick the lowest. Done!

4. Is it Smart to Buy More than the Maine State Minimum Insurance?

Good question! The point of having liability insurance is protecting yourself from lawsuits, if you cause an accident and someone sues you. 50/100/25 insurance is actually pretty good protection, when you consider that the average auto liability claim for bodily injury is $16,110 and the average property damage claim is $3,683. That’s way under the Maine minimum limits.

Maine lobster

However, you may want more insurance if you own more assets. Let’s say you own a house that’s worth $250,000. If you cause a big accident that injures several people, you could get sued for more than $100,000 and risk losing that house. If you own a newer car, you’ll also want comprehensive and collision coverage, which pays to fix your car if it’s damaged by a hurricane, flood, fire or crash.

5. How Do I Use Compare.com to Compare All my Options for Maine Auto Insurance Quotes?

We’ll show you how it works by running the numbers for a sample driver: a 27-year-old woman with a good driving record who’s living in Portland, ME. The first step is entering some basic information on Compare.com. To get the cheapest quotes, she can select state minimum coverage — the least amount of insurance she can carry and still drive legally — and opt to pay for six months of premiums up front.

This gives her the lowest rates: $53 to $118 per month. If she can’t afford to pay up front, she can choose the “pay as you go “ option. Now her quotes range from $61 to $118 per month, plus an extra down payment that’s roughly equal to the monthly payment.

Those rates look good — but if our Portland driver owns a newer car, she’ll want to upgrade her insurance to protect it. When she selects Basic coverage, which includes comprehensive and collision (with a $1,000 deductible), her quotes range from $94 to $118 per month, paid up front.

What if our sample driver owns a house or other assets she wants to protect? She can get quotes for Plus coverage, which increases the property damage limit to $50,000 and cuts the collision/comprehensive deductible to $500. She also gets towing and rental car coverage. Now, her best up-front quote is $108 per month. That’s cheaper than the highest state minimum quote!

6. What if I Can’t Afford Maine Car Insurance?

It’s never a good idea to drive without insurance! The penalties for driving uninsured in Maine aren’t super strict — if you’re caught, you’re looking at a fine of up to $500 as well as suspension of your driver’s license and motor vehicle registration. But causing an accident while you’re uninsured can ruin your life, if you get sued and you have no insurance to protect your assets.

So don’t let the cost of car insurance make you drive illegally. Compare.com can help you find the cheapest Maine car insurance quotes in just minutes. Start now!