Car insurance discounts can make a meaningful difference in what you pay each month. But you may be surprised to learn that companies don’t offer the same set of deals. Some have just a few ways to save, while others have many more.
To help you find the best car insurance discounts, Yahoo Finance analyzed 20 major insurers based on three core factors: rate competitiveness, the total number of discounts offered, and the breadth of coverage options available. Below are the companies that topped our rankings.
Learn more: Car insurance discounts: 17 ways to save
GEICO earned Yahoo Finance’s top spot for best car insurance discounts. It offers 23 distinct ways to lower your premium — the most of any insurer we analyzed. GEICO’s discount options span nearly every category, including safe driving, vehicle safety features, military and federal employee discounts, multi-policy bundling, early shopping, and paperless billing credits. You can also enroll in GEICO’s usage-based program, DriveEasy, for the potential to earn additional savings.
GEICO pros and cons
Pros
Offers the most auto insurance discounts in our analysis
Solid mix of driver, vehicle, military, and membership-based savings
Has niche discounts for federal employees and deployed drivers
Cons
Average cost for full coverage car insurance: $202
Availability: Nationwide
Crash Network grade for claims handling: C-
Coverage offerings: 11 options
Available discounts: 23 types
Digital experience score: 4.65 (out of 5)
Learn more: GEICO car insurance review
American Family ranks just behind GEICO for the best car insurance discounts. The company has 17 distinct savings opportunities and some of the most competitive full coverage rates in our analysis.
Its discounts span safe driving, bundling, loyalty, and young driver programs, along with two usage-based options: DriveMyWay, to reward safe driving habits, and MilesMyWay, for lower-mileage drivers. American Family also stands out for having generational and young volunteer discounts, which aren’t commonly available from large national insurers.
American Family scored at the top of our analysis for the best car insurance overall.
American Family pros and cons
Pros
Has some of the most competitive rates
Offers both low-mileage and telematics programs
Unique discounts for young volunteers and generational customers
Cons
Average cost for full coverage car insurance: $151
Availability: Regional (mostly the Midwest and West)
Crash Network grade for claims handling: C+
Coverage offerings: 11 options
Available discounts: 17 types
Digital experience score: 3.95 (out of 5)
Learn more: American Family auto insurance review
Farmers also has some of the best car insurance discounts with 19 ways to help you save. Its savings lineup covers the basics, including bundling, multi-vehicle, good-student, and safe-driver discounts. But also goes deeper with loyalty rewards, five-year accident-free savings, and unique discounts for youthful drivers transitioning to their own policies.
Farmers also offers savings through its Signal app, which rewards safe driving habits. Its car insurance rates aren’t the lowest in our study, but the range of discount options could lower premiums.
Farmers also scored near the top of our analysis for the best teen car insurance.
Farmers pros and cons
Pros
Car insurance rates are slightly below average
Strong mix of safe driver and loyalty-based savings
Offers telematics discounts through the Signal app
Cons
Average cost for full coverage car insurance: $182
Availability: Nationwide
Crash Network grade for claims handling: C-
Coverage offerings: 17 options
Available discounts: 19 types
Digital experience score: 4.75 (out of 5)
Learn more: Farmers auto insurance review
USAA earns a strong 4.3-star rating for car insurance discounts with 15 ways to save. Among its options, you’ll find many military-specific car insurance deals, like on-base garaging discounts, storage discounts of up to 60% for deployed service members, and the MyUSAA Legacy discount for children of longtime members. This variety, along with having competitive rates, helped USAA score well in our analysis.
USAA pros and cons
Pros
Unique discount options for military members
Competitive full coverage rates
Strong safe-driver and loyalty incentives
Cons
Only available to military members, veterans, and eligible family members
Claims handling grade is below that of some competitors
Average cost for full coverage car insurance: $168
Availability: Nationwide (but limited to military members, veterans, and eligible family)
Crash Network grade for claims handling: D+
Coverage offerings: 13 options
Available discounts: 15 types
Digital experience score: 4.75 (out of 5)
Learn more: USAA car insurance review
State Farm’s competitive rates and 16 types of auto insurance discounts earn it a 4.1-star rating in our analysis. Its lineup covers many common discounts, including bundling, safe driving, student discounts, and telematics through Drive Safe & Save. The company may not have as many ways to save as other nationally recognized insurers, but its well-rounded mix of traditional and tech-driven options is appealing.
State Farm pros and cons
Pros
Drive Safe & Save program for usage-based savings
Strong passive restraint, good student, and vehicle safety discounts
Competitive full coverage rates
Cons
Fewer total discounts than other car insurance companies
No military-specific savings
Claims handling score is average compared to competitors
Average cost for full coverage car insurance: $190
Availability: Nationwide
Crash Network grade for claims handling: C-
Coverage offerings: 13 options
Available discounts: 16 types
Digital experience score: 4.7 (out of 5)
Learn more: State Farm car insurance review
We evaluated 20 major insurance companies to determine which offered the best car insurance discounts based on rate competitiveness, the total number of discounts available, and overall coverage breadth.
The top spot went to GEICO, which earned 5 stars (out of 5). American Family and Farmers followed close behind with 4.9 stars each, while USAA (4.3 stars) and State Farm (4.1 stars) rounded out the top five.
See the discounts star ratings for all the insurers we analyzed below.
Here are the most common types of discounts on car insurance:
Bundling or multi-policy discount: For combining auto insurance with home, renters, condo, or life insurance.
Multi-vehicle discount: For insuring more than one car on the same policy for a lower rate.
Safe driver discount: For maintaining a clean driving record with no recent accidents or violations.
Accident-free discount: For going a set number of years without a chargeable accident.
Usage-based insurance (UBI): Tracks your driving habits and rewards you for safe behavior. Usage-based insurance can sometimes raise your premium if you drive badly.
Low-mileage discount: If you drive fewer miles than the average driver each year.
Good student discount: Offered to full-time students who meet GPA or class rank requirements.
Student away at school discount: Available when a young driver attends school far from home without regular access to a vehicle.
Driver training or defensive driving discount: For completing approved safety or driver education courses.
Loyalty discount: For staying with the same insurer for multiple years.
Military or affinity discount: Offered to active-duty military, veterans, federal employees, or members of certain organizations.
Vehicle safety feature discount: For cars equipped with airbags, anti-lock brakes, daytime running lights, or advanced driver-assistance systems.
Anti-theft discount: For vehicles equipped with alarms, tracking systems, or other approved anti-theft devices.
New vehicle discount: For newer model-year vehicles.
Payment discounts: For paying in full, enrolling in autopay, or going paperless.
Early shopper discount: For buying a policy before your current one expires.
Nearly every car insurance company offers these core coverages:
Beyond your state’s minimum requirements, companies tend to offer a mix of optional add-ons to help you create the policy you need. These add-ons can vary just as much as car insurance discounts do.
Depending on the company, optional coverages could include:
Learn more: Most common types of car insurance explained
Many companies with the best car insurance discounts also offer competitive rates. Some, like GEICO, have slightly higher average premiums but make up for it with a wider range of savings opportunities to help lower your final bill.
The table below shows how full coverage car insurance costs stack up across all 20 insurers in our evaluation, based on rate data from the auto insurance marketplace Savvy Insurance Solutions.
Learn more: Cheapest full coverage car insurance
Discounts can help lower your premium, but insurers first calculate your starting rate using a mix of personal, vehicle, and location-based factors. Because each company weighs these risks differently, the price you’re quoted can vary widely from one insurer to the next.
Here are the common factors car insurance providers use when calculating rates:
Learn more: Car insurance rates are climbing. Here are 4 reasons why and 11 ways to save.
Here are tips for finding the best auto insurance discounts and coverage options for your needs.
Before you start chasing discounts, make sure the policy itself makes sense. A cheaper premium won’t help much if your liability limits are too low or you skipped collision on a car you still owe money on.
Start by identifying the coverages you need, then look for insurance companies that offer discounts tied to your situation. For example, if you’re a safe driver, usage-based programs could lower your rate. If you have a teen on your policy, ask about good student or driver training discounts. If you drive infrequently, a low-mileage program may be worth exploring.
Learn more: Minimum car insurance requirements in all 50 states
Not all insurance companies offer the same discounts — and they don’t price them the same way, either. Once you know which discounts you may qualify for, compare car insurance quotes from at least three companies. Pay attention to both the base premium and the discounts applied. The company with the most discounts won’t always have the lowest final price.
Learn more: How much car insurance coverage do I need?
Discounts can help offset the cost of stronger coverage. Some discounts are automatically applied as you fill out a quote form, but others you have to ask about. For example, you usually have to speak to an agent to get a good student discount or student away discount. Asking an agent if you’re eligible for discounts not already applied can help you find more ways to reduce your auto insurance premium.
Learn more: Does buying car insurance online save you money?
Your eligibility for discounts can change over time. Paying off a loan, moving, or driving less could unlock new savings opportunities. Revisit your policy at least once a year and confirm that all available discounts are still being applied. If another place now offers a better combination of rates and savings, it may be time to switch car insurance companies.
In our analysis of 20 major insurers, GEICO earned the highest score for the best car insurance discounts. It offers 23 different discount types — the most of any company we evaluated — including savings for safe drivers, military members, federal employees, students, and policyholders who bundle or insure multiple vehicles.
That said, the “best” car insurance company for discounts depends on which savings you personally qualify for. An insurer with fewer total discounts could still offer lower full coverage car insurance if its rate structure fits your profile better.
You can get car insurance discounts for nearly anything — bundling home and auto policies, insuring multiple vehicles, driving safely, completing a defensive driving course, paying premiums in full, and being affiliated with certain employers or organizations, among others. Start by identifying which discounts apply to you. It may not be very obvious at first which discounts you qualify for, and you may need to speak with an agent to activate some of them.
If you’d like to lower your car insurance premiums, the most reliable ways are to improve your driving record, increase your deductible (if you can afford it), enroll in safe-driving programs, and comparison shop regularly. Discounts can also reduce your rate, but so can switching insurers if another company offers a better mix of base pricing and savings.
Tim Manni edited this article.
To identify the best car insurance discounts, Yahoo Finance evaluated 20 major car insurance companies across three core factors: rate competitiveness, the total number of discounts offered, and the breadth of coverage options available. Each company was scored using a standardized rubric designed to reflect what matters most to drivers looking to lower their premiums.
All factors were converted to a standardized point scale and combined into a composite score for each company. The total number of available discounts carried the greatest weight in this analysis, followed by rate competitiveness and overall coverage flexibility.
1. Number of discounts offered: 60% of score. The majority of each insurer’s score was based on how many distinct auto insurance discounts were publicly available on its website. We evaluated discounts across categories such as safe driving, bundling, multi-vehicle, telematics (usage-based insurance), payment methods, student savings, military or affinity programs, and vehicle safety features. Companies that offered more ways to save earned higher scores.
2. Rate competitiveness: 30% of score. Average rate estimates were provided by Savvy Insurance Solutions (“Savvy”). Savvy operates a marketplace for home and auto insurance, plus an agency licensed in all 50 states. Estimates are generated using Savvy’s in-house machine learning models based on over 3 million data points and include more than 15 of the largest insurance companies in Savvy’s nationwide data set.
For this analysis, rates were modeled using a standard “full coverage” profile. Full coverage car insurance includes liability insurance, any state-required coverage, plus collision and comprehensive coverage. Insurers with more competitive full coverage rates earned higher scores.
3. Total coverage offerings: 10% of score. This ranking also accounted for the total number of coverage options available at each insurance company. This included standard coverages and optional add-ons. Companies with more coverage options earned additional points.
Unless stated otherwise, the estimates above are provided by Savvy Insurance Solutions (“Savvy”). Savvy operates a marketplace for home and auto insurance, plus an agency licensed in all 50 states. Estimates are generated using Savvy’s in-house machine learning models based on over 3 million data points, and include more than 15 of the largest insurance companies in Savvy’s nationwide data set. This includes data from more than 2 million insurance accounts connected through Trellis Connect, an in-house technology allowing consumers to “link” their insurance accounts before searching for insurance, and tens of thousands of policies bound by Savvy’s own agents. It takes into account a myriad of factors to create predictions, such as:
Policyholder age
Number of vehicles
ZIP code
Vehicle age
Insurer
… and more
Savvy creates estimates by running models against multiple inputs to the parameters of interest. For instance, the “teen driver” estimates were created by adjusting the policyholder age input into the pricing model while keeping all other variables steady from the baseline for “full coverage.” The models enable hyper-personalized estimates that take into account a plethora of user attribute permutations (e.g., teen drivers in specific states, teen drivers with new vehicles, teen drivers in specific states with new vehicles) to provide individuals with a unique and tailored experience. The charts above are a subset of the kinds of personalization Savvy can do.
The following are definitions used by Savvy when providing its rate estimates for various types of coverage.
Full coverage car insurance: A policy with comprehensive, collision, and liability coverage.
Average policyholder: A 48-year-old driver who owns a 13-year-old vehicle and lives in an average-income ZIP code.
Senior driver: A 70-year-old policyholder with full coverage car insurance.
Good driver: Drivers across all coverage types, vehicle types, and locations who have no tickets, accidents or DUIs.
