How much insurance? Don't guess

When you bought your last car insurance policy, how did you decide how much coverage to buy?

Sure, there are generally accepted guidelines out there. Homeowners need at least $100,000 in bodily injury liability protection, because a large, valuable asset like a house is an easy lawsuit target if you don’t have enough to cover your victim’s hospital bills.

Or maybe you own nothing and have no savings – nothing you could lose. Then you might go for the legal minimum in your state.

There’s a lot of room in between, though, and seeing the choices other drivers in your situation make can be a good guideline when you shop for car insurance yourself. Insurance.com analyzed more than 550,000 insurance quotes delivered through its price-comparison tool to find the most common choices made by drivers of similar age, who live in the same state, who drive the same model year of car, or who own their homes.

You can find data for your state in Insurance.com's auto insurance calculator, plus advice on which types of coverages to consider and why.

Nationwide, there are clear patterns. Three out of four drivers choose a $500 deductible for collision and comprehensive coverage. A third of drivers under age 25 shop for the lowest legal amount of liability coverage, but only 19 percent of drivers over 55 do.

Nationwide, the most common coverage profile looks like this:

• Most common bodily injury liability coverage: $50,000 per person ,$100,000 per accident, selected by 46 percent of all drivers.
• Most common property damage liability coverage: $50,000, selected by 59 percent of all drivers.
• Collision coverage, selected by 60 percent of all drivers.
• Comprehensive coverage, selected by 61 percent of all drivers.
• $500 deductible, selected by 74 percent of drivers who buy comprehensive and collision.
• Towing and emergency road service, selected by 16 percent of all drivers.
• Rental reimbursement coverage, selected by 16 percent of all drivers.

3 tips for buying the right amount of coverage

Seeing what other people in your situation are buying is a good place to start, but in the end, you need enough coverage for insurance to serve its intended purpose: Standing between you and financial disaster. As you decide on what coverage to buy, consider these tips:

• Raising your deductibles can save you money. Going from a $500 deductible to $1,000, for example, would save $201 a year, on average, or 10.8 percent, on your car insurance bill, according to a rate analysis by Insurance.com. But this strategy only work if you have $1,000 on hand to get your car out of hock to the body shop. Even hiking your deductible to $500 from $250 trims an average of $167 (8.3 percent)a year from your policy costs.
• Before you make big changes in coverage, shop around for first. The more you pay for car insurance, the more you are likely to find savings by switching insurers. 
• Extra liability coverage beyond the required minimums is generally quite cheap – you’ll typically pay only a fraction as much for an additional $50,000 as you did for the first $25,000. Consider the following examples: Drivers age 20 pay an average of $95 more a year to boost liability limits from state minimum levels to $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident, Insurance.com's rate analysis found. For drivers ages 40, 50 and 60 it's just about $34.

You'll see in the charts below the average rate in each state for drivers near your age (20, 30, 40, 50 and 60) for three different levels of coverage:

• state minimum liability
• bodily injury liability limits of $50,000 per person and up to $100,000 per accident, with $50,000 for property damage
• bodily injury liability limits of $100,000 per person and up to $300,000 per accident, with $100,000 for property damage

This will show you what you can expect to pay, both for more liability and for full coverage that also includes optional comprehensive and collision, with a $500 deductible. Enter your state in the search field to find rates for your location.

Average car insurance rates for drivers age 20

Average car insurance rates for drivers age 30

Average car insurance rates for drivers age 40

Average car insurance rates for drivers age 50

Average car insurance rates for divers age 60

*Methodology:

Insurance.com commissioned Quadrant Information Services to provide a report of auto insurance rates for a 2016 Honda Accord for nearly every ZIP code in the United States. We calculated average rates using data for up to six large carriers (Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, Nationwide, Progressive and State Farm). 

Averages rates are based on male and female drivers ages 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 for three coverage sets: state minimum liability, bodily injury liability of $50,000 per person and up to $100,000 per accident with $50,000 in property damage, and full coverage insurance with policy limits of $100,000 for injury liability for one person, $300,000 for all injuries and $100,000 for property damage in an accident, with  a $500 deductible on collision and comprehensive coverage. The rate includes uninsured motorist coverage. These hypothetical drivers have clean records and good credit. Average rates are for comparative purposes. Your own rate will depend on your personal factors and vehicle.