Woodward Insurance
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Planned Auto Insurance Rate Increases for 2025

• Paul Woodward
• 05 May, 2024

As if California auto insurance consumers hadn’t already seen enough increases in their car insurance premiums during 2023 and 2024, unfortunately there is more to come. Although the large majority of auto insurance programs have increased rates over 20% and some over 50%, the rates for many customers will be going up again in 2025.

The total insurance premiums are calculated using several factors, with on of the key factors being the amount of coverage being requested. For many years California has required that drivers carry no less than $15,000 in coverage for bodily injury per person, $30,000 in coverage for bodily injury per occurrence, and $5,000 in property damage. These limits are often referred to as the minimum limits.

Effective January 1, 2025, there will be an increase to the minimum limits of coverage that can be carried in California. The minimum bodily injury limits will double and the minimum property damage limits will triple, effectively requiring that all drivers carry no less than $30,000 in coverage for bodily injury per person, $60,000 in coverage for bodily injury per occurrence, and $15,000 in property damage.

Consumers that carry limits that already exceed the new minimum limits should not be impacted, but any driver carrying coverage with limits lower than the new minimum that purchase a new insurance policy or have their current policy renew will need to comply with the changes. Unfortunately, but understandably, this is expected to increase the overall insurance premiums that California auto insurance policyholder pay moving forward.

The most impacted consumers from a perspective of the amount of increase as a % in premium will be the consumers that carry exclusively minimum coverage with no additional options coverages, such as, comprehensive or collision. Being that the changes only impact the lines of coverage being changed (injury and property damage, including uninsured motorist injury) the rates paid for comprehensive, collision, rental, towing, and medical coverage should not be impacted.