The Best Auto Insurance in New York 2024

With dozens of local agents throughout the state of New York, State Farm is a great option for safe drivers and those looking for strong customer service. The company offers multiple ways for safe drivers to save, from a discount for going three years without an accident, to usage-based insurance that rewards you for safe driving behaviors.

Safe Driving Discounts

State Farm’s prices lower both if you have a safe driving history, and if you drive safely while you’re insured with the company. It offers a whopping six discounts that have to do with safe driving:

• Accident-free: You can get this discount once you’ve been insured with State Farm for three years in a row with an accident. The more years you go without an accident, the more you’ll save.
• Defensive driver: If you’ve voluntarily taken a New York DMV-approved defensive driver course in the past three years, you could get up to 10 percent off.
• Drive Safe & Save: Drive Safe & Save is State Farm’s usage-based insurance program. The app pairs with a Bluetooth beacon to collect your driving data and give you a discount for driving safely, up to 30 percent off.
• Driver training: Young drivers earn this discount for completing an approved driver education course. All household drivers under age 21 must complete the course.
• Good driving: For those with multiple drivers on their policy, this discount could apply if no drivers have moving violations or at-fault accidents in the past three years.
• Steer Clear: Finally, Steer Clear is for drivers under the age of 25 with no moving violations or at-fault accidents in the past three years. They must also complete the Steer Clear program, an app-based safe driving training program.

State Farm also offers the following discounts in New York:²

• Anti-Lock Brake Discount
• Anti-Theft Device Discount
• Daytime Running Lights Discount
• Good Student Discount
• Multiple Automobiles Discount
• Multiple Line (Bundling) Discount
• Passive Restraint Discount
• Student Away at School Discount
• Vehicle Safety Discount

Good Students

New York is home to hundreds of high schools, colleges, and universities, and if you’re a student under age 25, you could save money due to your good grades. Here are the qualifications:

• Rank in the upper 20 percent of your class
• GPA of B or higher, or, if out of 4.0, 3.0 or higher
• Made the Honor Roll or Dean’s List

Whether you’re earning an Associate’s Degree at city college or a Bachelor’s at a SUNY campus, or even if you are homeschooled, you could qualify.

Great Customer Service

In J.D. Power’s 2024 Auto Insurance Satisfaction study, car insurance customers in New York gave State Farm the second-highest ranking overall, second only to Travelers. (USAA also received a top score, but technically does not qualify to rank due to its limited availability). Out of 1,000 points, State Farm received 662, above the state’s average score of 647. Customers were also satisfied with the claims process, according to another national study from J.D. Power. State Farm had a score out of 891 out of 1,000, higher than the study’s average score of 878.

In New York, drivers with low credit pay more than twice the average for full coverage as drivers with good credit. However, GEICO’s rates for drivers with low credit are significantly lower. If you have low credit and you’re looking for cheap car insurance in New York, GEICO is worth a look.

Good for Low Credit

While Progressive’s rates are cheapest in New York for most driver profiles, GEICO comes out the least expensive for drivers with low credit. Its average rates are about half the average for low credit in New York.

Learn more about GEICO’s pricing.

Wide Range of Coverages

One way to find cheap car insurance in New York is to get the bare minimum, just liability coverage, uninsured/underinsured motorist, and personal injury protection. But having these requirements will leave you financially responsible for your property damage, not to mention the cost of a roadside breakdown, the cost of a rental car, and the cost of rideshare insurance, if you drive for Uber or Lyft. We recommend taking advantage of GEICO’s wide range of coverages, which includes roadside assistance, rental reimbursement, and rideshare coverage in addition to collision and comprehensive coverage.

Financially Stable

When it comes to car insurance, you want to work with a company that’s financially stable and can actually pay out your claims when the need arises. GEICO has strong financial strength ratings from third parties like AM Best, which gave it an A++, or Superior Grade,⁴ along with Moodys, which gave it an Aa1, or stable financial outlook.⁵ Although its commercials may be silly and absurdist, when it comes to fulfilling its promises, GEICO delivers.

If you’re looking for the least expensive car insurance in New York, it’s worth getting a quote from Progressive. Whether you have a spotless driving history, speeding ticket, at-fault accident, or even a DUI, Progressive’s rates in New York are lower than average.

Name-Your-Price Tool

Car insurance in New York isn’t cheap, and if you have a speeding ticket, New York car insurance is even more expensive. Those with poor driving records in particular will appreciate Progressive’s Name-Your-Price tool. In a nutshell, when we got our online quotes from Progressive, we had the option to, well, name our price, meaning tell Progressive how much we wanted to pay per month, and see what it could offer us. While some amounts are too low to qualify for coverage at all, like $25 a month, we found that we could get affordable minimum coverage through Progressive by using this easy online tool.

Check out Progressive’s average annual rates for drivers of various profiles and desired coverage levels In New York:

Student Discounts

New York state has a total of 731 school districts, 2.4 million public school students, and 1.11 million postsecondary students, meaning college or higher.⁶ Whether it’s an average discount of 10 percent for full-time students with B averages or higher, or a discount for full-time students ages 22 or younger that live more than 100 miles away from home, Progressive offers multiple ways to save for families with students. That’s a relief, as the cost of car insurance for teens is much higher than for any other group due to their higher likelihood of at-fault accidents and thus, costly claims.

Bundling Home and Auto

It’s no secret that living in New York is expensive, which may explain why, as of the first quarter of 2024, only 54 percent of residents own homes, the second-lowest rate in the U.S. after Washington, D.C.⁸ But that’s not an issue with Progressive, which lets you save by bundling your auto insurance with homeowners, renters, condo, or even mobile home insurance.

Part of New York’s 25,205 active-duty service members, 39,512 National Guard and reserve members, and their spouses and children? See how much you can save with USAA, a company that caters to military members, veterans, and their families exclusively.⁹ After Progressive, USAA has some of the cheapest average rates in New York. And like State Farm and Progressive, USAA has a good discount for bundling home and auto—expect savings of up to 10 percent.¹⁰

Military-Specific Coverages

Active-duty military members have different needs when it comes to car insurance, but that’s the benefit of going with USAA. It’ll give you a 15 percent discount on comprehensive insurance when you have to put your car in a garage on a military base, or another discount for driving fewer miles per year. For example, if you’re deployed, you can save up to 60 percent on car insurance, which wouldn’t be the case with any other company.

24/7 Roadside Assistance

Especially if you’re deployed and can’t always be there to help your family, you’ll appreciate the option to add 24/7 roadside assistance to your USAA policy. It covers services such as:

• Battery jumpstarts
• Flat tire (does not include cost of spare)
• Fuel delivery (does not include the cost of fuel)
• Lockout services
• Towing
• Winching out of mud or snow

You’ll pay nothing for a stuck vehicle, jumpstart, lockout services, or a flat tire, and a contracted rate for fuel delivery. It’s easy to contact roadside assistance from the USAA app, and they typically show up in less than an hour. Whether you’re stuck on a rural road upstate or on a busy street in the middle of Manhattan, you’ll appreciate having this service when you need it.

Discounts for Military Children

In the state of New York, there are 15,061 active-duty children and 21,560 National Guard and reserve children, according to 2022 data from the Defense Manpower Data Center. Of course, not all these children are of driving age, but if you fall into this category and need car insurance, you can save money if your parents have USAA. Children of USAA members get up to 10 percent off their own policies. To be eligible, you must be under the age of 25, with no major violations within the past three years.

As of 2022, there were over 9 million privately and commercially-registered vehicles in New York, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration. At the same time, there were over 12 million licensed drivers in the state, which averages out to about 1.33 cars per person.¹¹ If you are one of the people in the state who owns more than one car, you can save with Farmers by insuring them both at the same time.

Multiple Discounts

Car ownership is expensive, but if you own multiple vehicles, you can save on your insurance by insuring them both with Farmers. In addition, Farmers offers a discount for bundling auto insurance with life, small business, specialty, or umbrella, as well as a discount for young drivers in your household under the age of 25. The youthful driver discount only applies if your policy has been in force for at least a year, and the young driver is the primary named insurer’s (PNI) child or grandchild.

Specialty Vehicle Insurance

You may want insurance for a regular car or truck, or you may want it for your:

• ATV
• Boat or watercraft
• Classic car
• Fifth-wheel
• Motorcycle
• Motor home
• Off-road vehicle
• RV
• Travel trailer

Fortunately, Farmers is flexible when it comes to the types of vehicles it will cover, whether you need to insure your RV for a cross-state road trip or the classic car you want to show off on Fifth Avenue.

Personal Umbrella Insurance

You carry an umbrella on a rainy day, so why not add personal umbrella coverage to your auto insurance? If any of your limits aren’t high enough to cover your losses, umbrella insurance will add more coverage to your liability insurance. For example, if you hit someone else’s car and your property damage liability only covers half the damages, your personal umbrella insurance can kick in to cover the rest.