Congratulations on driving a RAM 1500 pickup.
Since it’s a legal requirement to have truck insurance, you’ll want to save money by paying the lowest premiums possible.
Here’s the best way to pay less for truck insurance: Follow the advice of most state insurance departments and SHOP around for the best rates. Getting an insurance quote from only one or two companies will probably not give you the cheapest truck insurance rates.
Table of Contents:
- Compare Rates for Ram 1500 Insurance
- How Are Premiums Determined?
- Who Is Best Company for Ram 1500 Truck Insurance?
- Tips to Lower Costs
Quickly Find the Cheapest Insurance Rates for a RAM 1500 Truck
To get the most accurate rates you will need the following information before you begin the quoting process:
- Current Policy Info: Find your current insurance information if you have it, such as your liability limits and physical damage deductibles.
- Your Truck’s Make: This may seem obvious, but RAM wasn’t always it’s own brand. Before 2009, the truck was a Dodge Ram.
- Your Trim Style: Insurers will want to know your body trim style such as Classic vs. New, or Bighorn, Longhorn, etc.
- Your Credit: Your estimated credit score as in Poor, Fair, Good, or Excellent. Insurance premiums for most companies have credit scoring built into their rates.
- DMV Details: You’ll need some basic information about your driving record and the driving record of other drivers in your family (if you are insuring more than one auto or truck).
- Location: Quotes will depend partly on the ZIP code where your RAM truck is garaged.
What’s The Average Cost to Insure a RAM 1500 Pickup?
Insurance rates for a RAM truck can vary greatly for each person.
So it’s not possible to apply one average rate to every truck driver. There are just too many different rating variables — both for the truck and for the driver.
But here’s a baseline example for a 2019 RAM 1500 Crew Cab Bighorn pickup: A 33-year-old male with a good credit score, with a safe driver discount, and with no multiple policy discounts (and no multiple car discounts) would pay around $1,292 a year in South Carolina for coverage with the Cincinnati Insurance Company.
This rate provides “full coverage,” meaning the insurance premium includes not only Liability coverages and Uninsured Motorist coverages, but also Physical Damage coverages such as Comprehensive and Collision for the truck itself.
How Do Insurance Companies Determine Premiums for RAM Trucks?
Insurance company actuaries determine premiums for RAM trucks much like they would for any other private passenger vehicle. Variables include:
Location
Actuaries use geographic locations to assess costs of repair, frequency of theft, as well as accident histories for the area. Areas with higher costs prompt higher premiums.
Location determines specific state minimum coverages that directly impact rates. Insurance companies doing business in your state will file their rates with your state’s insurance department.
Some of the most expensive states to insure a Dodge RAM 1500 are Michigan, Florida, Rhode Island, and Kentucky. The states with the cheapest insurance rates include Maine, North Carolina, and Idaho.
Rates in California and Texas are on the slightly higher side compared to other states.
Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston are some of the most expensive cities to cover a RAM 1500.
Specific Make and Model
The cost of the vehicle itself – the RAM truck – would be used to determine the cost of repairs which in turn affects premiums.
And, some models have a greater risk of theft, and some high-performance vehicles would be very difficult to replace. Once again, the make and model impact insurance rates.
Differences in Insurance Premiums for Different RAM Trim Styles
Trim packages matter because they determine the cost to replace or repair your RAM truck.
Your trim package will affect your premiums but probably not by enough money to influence which trim package you choose.
For example, a RAM quad cab with 4-wheel drive will cost about 5 percent more in premiums than a 2-wheel drive model.
A 2020 RAM Laramie package will cost about 7 percent more in insurance premiums than a 2020 RAM Bighorn package.
In terms of the model year, a brand new truck will almost always cost more to insure than an equivalent truck that’s one or two years old.
For example, rates for 2020 trucks are about 3 percent higher than the 2019 models for the same body style.
The Driver
One, single question impacts your rates more than any other: Who’s driving the truck?
The demographics of the primary driver, along with other drivers in the household, make a huge difference. Contributing factors here are the:
- Age of the Driver(s): Drivers under 25 usually cost more to insure.
- Gender of the Driver: Gender applies mainly if under 25 years old when males cost more to insure.
- Insurance Score of the Driver: This is similar to a credit score. Insurers have found a correlation between lower credit scores and greater risks for claims. More claims lead to higher premiums.
- Driving History: The driving history of each driver in the family will impact premiums. If a driver in your household has several speeding tickets in the past couple years, expect to pay more.
Who is the Best Insurance Company to Insure Your Truck?
Since auto insurance companies differ a great deal in what they charge for truck insurance, it pays to shop around. As you shop, you’re looking for the cheapest rate from the best insurance company in your area.
A comparison shopping tool can rate many different insurance companies and give you the best rate for your individual situation.
The key words here are “your individual situation.” There is no single “best” company for all 50 states since some of the best insurance companies are not licensed to sell insurance in every state.
National car insurance companies such as State Farm (the largest in terms of personal auto insurance written premiums), GEICO, Progressive, USAA, and Travelers, are licensed in all 50 states.
But your best rate may come from a smaller regional insurance company such as Erie Insurance Company, Cincinnati Insurance Company, or Central Insurance. (These regional companies may or may not be licensed in the state that you live in.)
Or you may get the best rate from a company that does business only in your state or from your local affiliate selling Farm Bureau insurance policies.
The point is: It’s up to you to dig deep for your best rate, and chances are you’ll need to dig deeper than the national big-name brands.
Tips to Lower Your Insurance Rates For Your RAM Truck
You can’t control every variable, but there are several things you can do to keep your insurance rates as low as possible.
Since insurance is something you have to pay every year, anything you can do to save money now can help year after year, multiplying your savings.
#1. Compare Rates
As I’ve already mentioned, shop around to get the best rates. We all know how to comparison shop for groceries and gas, but for some reason people have a tendency to accept their insurance rates as set in stone.
It makes good financial sense to shop rates at least every three years.
But don’t change companies too often. If you change insurance companies every year or every few months, you’ll never get to take advantage of long-term customer discounts.
#2. Choose Higher Deductibles
Especially if you own a newer truck, consider getting quotes for a $500 and $1,000 deductible for your Comprehensive and Collision coverages. These higher deductibles will lower your quotes.
Then you can choose the deductible and premium level you are comfortable with, keeping in mind you’d be responsible for meeting the deductible before your insurance company would pay on a claim.
#3. Drive Safely & Defensively
While this is obvious, you should drive as safely as possible in order to keep your Safe Driving or Accident Free Discount.
You won’t actually see the amount of these discounts because they’ll be built into your rates. But by avoiding traffic tickets and at-fault accidents you will qualify for most insurance companies’ lowest rating tiers.
#4. Consider Telematic Devices
Insurance companies such as Progressive and Allstate offer plug-in devices or apps that can monitor driving habits and possibly lower your insurance premiums in response.
There is a downside to these devices: Your rates could increase if a driver has poor driving habits.
How Does Truck Insurance Compare to Car Insurance?
Truck and car insurance premiums don’t vary much because trucks and cars have similar costs from the standpoint of collision repair for physical damage.
On the surface, premiums for different trucks — a Dodge RAM vs. any other type of non-work related truck, for example — don’t vary much either.
This is true because accident probabilities are determined primarily from the driver of the vehicle as opposed to the vehicle itself.
An exception would be if the car were some type of high performance vehicle: Its rates would naturally be higher than rates for a truck.
How Do You Insure a RAM Work Truck?
If you drive your pickup for work, you need to consider a few special underwriting rules.
Some insurance companies will not insure your RAM truck on a personal auto policy if you drive the truck for business and have a sign on your truck. If that’s the case, you will need a commercial auto insurance policy.
However, if you simply drive your truck to your workplace or business, and you don’t have any signage on the truck, you shouldn’t have any insurance underwriting problems on your personal policy.
If you haul expensive cargo for some type of business, be sure to ask your agent about business property insurance issues. Your truck policy will have very little, if any, coverage for the business property you’re hauling.