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Money & Insurance

How Much Is Car Insurance in PA? A Berks County Answer

The state's average per insured car, why a Berks address moves it, what a ticket or a teen adds, the discounts the law requires, and how to compare quotes.

Berks Connect Blog|Published October 8, 2026
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In 2023 the average Pennsylvania driver paid $1,154.57 a year to insure one car, about $96 a month, and a car that carried liability, collision and comprehensive averaged $1,273.46. Whether your number is normal depends on where the car is garaged, who drives it, what's on their record and what coverage you chose, and the state's own rule of thumb for finding out is to price the same policy at three companies. Do it yourself, or start with an insurance agent in Berks County and let an agent do it.

What a Pennsylvania driver pays to insure one car.

Both figures are per car per year, not per household; the second adds the averages for the three main lines together.

Those three lines are liability, collision and comprehensive. Liability is one line with two pieces: bodily injury liability pays damages if you injure someone in an accident, and property damage liability pays for repairs if you damage someone's property and you're at fault. The state requires both liability pieces plus $5,000 of medical benefits, nothing else. Collision pays to repair your own car after an accident. Comprehensive pays for theft or damage from fire, flood, vandalism or hitting an animal. Most lenders require both on a financed car.

Collision comes with a deductible. The deductible is what you pay yourself on a claim before the company pays the rest. By law a collision deductible starts at $500; you can ask for a lower one, and you can choose a higher one on collision and comprehensive, which lowers the premium.

The table shows the three pieces and the totals for 2019, 2021 and 2023, beside the whole country's 2023 figures.

Coverage 2019 2021 2023 Whole country, 2023
Liability $550 $517 $567 $737
Collision $384 $373 $465 $464
Comprehensive $171 $178 $241 $238
A car carrying all three, added together $1,104 $1,068 $1,273 $1,439
Average across every insured car, with or without collision and comprehensive $995 $967 $1,155 $1,282

Average premium per insured car per year in Pennsylvania, rounded to the dollar, from the insurance regulators' 2023 count published in 2025; the last row counts every insured car whether or not it carried collision and comprehensive.

The 2023 column is the answer from the top of the page: the last row is the $1,154.57 figure across every insured car, and the row above it is the $1,273.46 figure for a car with all three lines.

The 2023 number came after a 13.5 percent jump from 2022. After increases that ran from 2022 to 2024, the approved rates flattened: the 2025 filings averaged a 0.2 percent decrease and the filings approved since a 0.5 percent decrease, so a renewal can come in the same or lower.

The other number comes from a model. A model here means prices computed from insurers' rate filings for one made-up driver, a 30-year-old with good credit, at 1,904 Pennsylvania ZIP codes. As of 2026 it puts minimum coverage, meaning the state-required liability and medical benefits and nothing else, at $62 a month statewide, and full coverage at $198.

Full coverage is the model's name for liability plus collision and comprehensive at set limits: $50,000/$100,000 for bodily injury, $50,000 for property damage, the same for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (the coverage that pays you when the driver who hit you has no insurance or too little), $5,000 of medical benefits, and $500 deductibles. If what you're holding is a full-coverage quote or renewal (liability plus collision and comprehensive), hold it against the model's $198 a month statewide, or $206 in Reading, not against the 2023 count: the model prices one driver at set limits right now, and the state count blends every car and every limit and is three years older.

Why your address changes the price.

Your address is one of the inputs, and it moves the price between neighborhoods, not only between states. What the address can't do is get you dropped: Pennsylvania law bars a company from cancelling your policy, turning down your application or refusing to renew you because of where you live or drive. That rule protects your policy, not your price.

The same model prices Berks towns one by one, and most land close to the $198 statewide figure; the table shows a spread of them, Reading included.

Berks place Full coverage, a month, for the model's 30-year-old
Mount Penn $211
West Reading $208
Reading $206
Birdsboro $200
Wyomissing $198
Boyertown $194
Hamburg $186
Kutztown $183

One comparison site's modeled full-coverage price by place for a 30-year-old man with good credit in a 2018 Honda Civic, on a page updated September 9, 2026; the statewide figure in the same model is $198.

The span from the lowest Berks town to the highest is about $28 a month for the same driver, so your own address shifts the price, but not the way Philadelphia's $367 does.

What moves your number: the car, the driver, the record and the coverage.

The inputs are the type and age of the car, its safety features, where it's garaged, the miles you drive in a year, the coverages and limits you choose, and everyone's driving history. Some companies use your credit history to set the starting premium, but can't use it to raise your rate at renewal.

In the model, one speeding ticket adds about 21 percent, roughly $42 a month on full coverage, and one DUI about 72 percent, roughly $142. A surcharge is an added charge after an accident or violation, and has to appear as its own line on your notice. A company may not raise your premium just because you made a claim and were paid, unless you were at fault. After an accident, the company adds up what it paid for any one person's injuries or any one piece of damaged property, beyond your deductible, over the three years before your renewal. If that stays under $2,350, it may not surcharge you, add points or drop you for it. That $2,350 cap took effect July 1, 2026.

A teen driver is often a significant added cost; ask about good-grade and driver-education discounts. In the model, an 18-year-old's own full coverage runs $440 a month, roughly 2.2 times the 30-year-old's.

The discounts the law makes companies offer.

The law makes every company offer three discounts. Each comes off the coverage it names, not the whole bill. Ask for each by name. A company may leave one out only if it has shown the state, in its rate filing, that the saving is already in its rates, and then its notice may leave that one out too.

  • At least 5 percent on every coverage for each car when all the named insureds are 55 or older and have completed a PennDOT-approved driver improvement course.
  • At least 10 percent on comprehensive for a passive anti-theft device, one that arms itself when you turn the key off.
  • 15, 20 or 30 percent on first-party benefits for safety equipment. First-party benefits is the coverage that pays your own medical bills, lost income and funeral costs whoever was at fault; the required $5,000 of medical benefits is one piece of it. The discount is at least 15 percent for passive seat belts (belts that fasten on their own), 20 percent for one airbag on the driver's side, and 30 percent for two airbags.

What lowers the bill without switching companies.

  • Bundle. Ask about a multi-policy credit for auto with home, condo or renters.
  • Raise the deductible. A higher one on collision and comprehensive lowers the premium.
  • Look at limited tort. It takes 40 percent off four parts of the bill: bodily injury liability, uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist, and first-party benefits. In exchange you give up the right to sue for pain and suffering except for a serious injury or the other exceptions the policy lists. The other choice, full tort, keeps that right at the higher price for those four parts.

How to compare three quotes so they mean something.

Get quotes from at least three companies and make every quote match: the same coverages, limits and deductibles. A cheaper quote with a higher deductible isn't cheaper, it's different. Read each for what's excluded.

Every application and renewal must come with an itemized invoice showing what the state-minimum coverages cost by themselves, and if you ask, including by phone, the company must give you that minimum cost under full tort and under limited tort. That minimum-coverage figure is the floor of any bill; everything above it is coverage you chose.

You can make the three calls yourself, or start with an insurance agent in Berks County and let an agent do it. Which agents quote several companies and which quote one is explained in the post on independent and captive agents.

There's one thing to do after you switch. The company you left tells PennDOT it cancelled you, and the new one isn't required to say you bought a policy, so PennDOT may send a letter asking for proof of insurance. Answer it (frinsurance@pa.gov) or the registration gets suspended. Separately, a new company can take up to 60 days after issuing the policy to finish underwriting, its final checks on your application; if it cancels in those first 60 days it has to give you the reason in writing.

Questions people ask.

Who has the cheapest car insurance in PA?

No single company is cheapest for everyone; cost varies significantly among companies for the same driver, so the answer is three matching quotes.

Are Pennsylvania rates still going up?

On average, no. The 2025 filings averaged a 0.2 percent decrease and the filings approved since a 0.5 percent decrease. Those are averages, not a promise about your bill.

Will one accident raise my rate?

No, not for a claim you made and were paid on, unless you were at fault. Even at fault, the $2,350 cap above can keep a surcharge, points or a cancellation off your policy.

Take the notice or the quote in your hand and get two more quotes on the same coverages, limits and deductibles. If the new quotes come in at or under your notice, that's the market. If they come in higher, take the notice to an agent who prices several companies at once and ask what moved it.

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