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Question

Why did my car insurance go up when I moved to a safer area?

I moved recently and my car insurance premium went way up! I actually moved from an "inner city" type of living situation. My old location was near an area known for high property crime and dangerous drivers. My new location is in a much more suburban area with less traffic and a lower crime rate. Why has my insurance premium almost doubled??

Mar 31, 2022 Vancouver, WA

Answer
Author profile picture

Kristine Lee

Manager, Content and Data

Credentials
  • Licensed Insurance Agent — Property and Casualty

Kristine is a licensed insurance agent who joined The Zebra in 2019 as an in-house content researcher and writer. Before joining The Zebra, she was a…

We are sorry to hear that your insurance premium has increased so much. Insurance companies have different rating factors and zip code is one of them. As you've seen, depending on where you moved to can have a big impact on your insurance premium. Crime and traffic are factors, but so too are environmental factors. Depending on if your new city is in a new state or not, the laws and regulations affecting insurers operating in your state might also contribute to a rate increase. You can learn more about where insurance rates are higher in our 2022 State of Insurance report. 

As to what you should do about potentially lowering your rates or at least getting answers, you may want to contact your carrier to see if anything else contributed to your rate increase and if so, see if there is anything you can do to help get the pricing down. If you are unable to do that with your insurance carrier you can contact us here at The Zebra and speak to one of our Licensed Insurance Specialists. They can help you shop around with the carriers we are partnered with to see if we can help get you a policy that works better in your budget while maintaining the coverage you need. Thank you for reaching out and if you need anything else please feel free to reach out to us.

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