Question: Do you ford the river or try to walk across?

That’s a critical question in one of the most popular games for young children in the 90’s—Oregon Trail.

The Oregon Trail serves as a seminal moment in Oregon’s history when thousands of Americans traveled across the country to settle in the Pacific Northwest.

Today, Oregon is home to one of the most culturally-rich cities in the country in Portland and has all the ecological and geographical beauty rivaling any other state.

Crater Lake, Mount Hood, the Valley of the Giants…there’s a reason Oregon was named “Top Moving Destination” in 2013 and ’14.

But we’re here to talk about something a little less fancy than beautiful vistas in the natural world.

Something, however, that is quite important. It protects you from financial losses, sometimes small, sometimes large. And it doesn’t have to cost you a bundle.

We’re here to talk about car insurance.

If you’re on this page, you’re likely looking for car insurance for yourself, a family member, or a friend. And you may have found that researching car insurance can be, well, confusing.

All those technical terms—deductibles, premiums, GAP coverage, comprehensive vs collision—may leave you wanting to hit your head against a wall.

We understand.

We boil down the concepts into easy-to-understand ways to take your car insurance and make it better. We also cover important aspects specific to Oregon—which highway is the most dangerous, for instance, or which cars thieves are stealing the most.

Grab your keys and hop in the car. We’re going to take a drive.

Ready to compare rates? Try our FREE online tool.

Oregon Car Insurance and Coverage Rates

If you’ve ever talked to a car insurance agent—or even browsed a company’s website—you’ve probably encountered some strange terms.

There’s everything from GAP coverage to collision insurance and it seems designed, by its very nature, to be confusing.

In this section you’ll encounter all those terms with explanations as well as numerous topics that will help you get a better understanding of car insurance in Oregon.

If you’ve ever wondered what rates were in different zip codes in Oregon, how rates differ by being male or female, what core coverage costs in Oregon, this section is for you.

– Oregon’s Car Culture

It may be difficult to ascertain a state’s car culture in a single glance but one thing is clear: Oregon likes to race.

With over 10 race tracks spread out across Oregon, and quite a few in its largest city Portland, racing—whether on dirt tracks, short loops, or more complex tracks—is popular.

And just south of Portland in Wilsonville is the World of Speed Motorsports Museum, where you can learn about all things motorsports from drag racing to NASCAR.

There’s also the history of Portland being the destination of the first transcontinental race in 1905.

– Oregon Minimum Coverage

Most states (all but two) require someone to have car insurance before they are legally able to drive.

Not knowing the minimum insurance coverages of your state can lead to a fine, license suspension, and possibly being labeled as a high-risk driver if you have under it and are caught.

The following information comes from Nolo, which is one of the foremost legal authorities on the internet.

The minimum insurance requirements for Oregon are stricter than some states, more protection if you’re in an accident.

There’s the liability coverage, which is 25/50/25.

• $25,000 for injuries of one person
• $50,000 for the injuries of more than one person
• $25,000 in property damage

Then there’s the uninsured motorist coverage for $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.

Finally, there’s PIP (personal injury protection) for $15,000 per person.

Now, what does this all mean?

Liability coverages occur when you are found responsible for an accident. When you are, you (and your insurance company) are responsible for the financial damages caused in that accident.

That means broken windshields, busted street signs, and even the other person’s (or persons’) medical bills.

Uninsured motorist coverage occurs when you are hit by someone who doesn’t have insurance. Because they might not be able to pay for the damage to your car, this insurance covers the cost of the damage.

As the Insurance Information Institute notes, this can be a major issue in Oregon as 12.7 percent of drivers are uninsured.

However, you might ask, what happens if I get hit by an uninsured motorist and I have medical bills? That’s where PIP comes in.

It covers your medical bills (and lost wages) in the event you get in an accident and the other person’s coverage doesn’t cover all of them or they don’t have coverage at all.

– Forms of Financial Responsibility

If you’re in an accident or pulled over for a moving violation, the officer is likely to ask for proof of insurance. In Oregon, it’s simple to prove you have insurance, but there are just two options.

According to Oregon Statute 742.447, proof of insurance means two things:

• A physical copy of an insurance card
• An electronic copy of an insurance card

The electronic card option has been around since 2013.

You might ask: if I show my insurance card through my cell phone, will police have the right to search it?

As Allstate notes, consumer rights and privacy activists have raised this concern.

Thankfully, no, according to Oregon Statute 806.011:

The use of an electronic device to display proof of insurance does not constitute consent for a police officer to access other contents of the electronic device.

Failure to provide proof of insurance is a Class B Traffic Violation, with a presumptive fine of $260.

– Premiums as a Percentage of Income

Sometimes it’s not enough to know what the average premium in a state like Oregon is. The state is large, and there are a lot of income levels.

Therefore, we, here at CarInsurance.org, have a handy statistic that tells how much someone is paying for their car insurance, as a percentage of their disposable income.

The following information comes from a company we work with called Quadrant, who supplies data from the top property and casualty insurance companies in the United States.

According to the data, from 2012 to 2014, the average Oregonian had disposable income between $34,000 and $37,000. Full coverage cost varied between $820 and $900.

When the average full coverage premium is divided by the disposable income, Oregonians spend between 2.36 and 2.48 percent of their income on insurance.

This is fairly comparable to the nationwide averages.

However, both are significantly more than the amount paid in Oregon’s neighboring states.

Many factors can go into this, including the driving behaviors of Oregonians versus residents of other states, vehicle theft rates, the number of road fatalities, and more.

To try it for yourself, plug your information into the calculator below.

CalculatorPro

– Core Coverage

Core coverage is just that—the centerpieces to your policy that protect you from almost anything (certainly most common situations).

It’s built out of three parts: liability, comprehensive, and collision.

• Liability keeps you from paying out of pocket for damages in an accident you caused
• Comprehensive covers the cost of repairs to your car from anything other than an accident
• Collision covers the cost of repairs to your car when you are in an accident

Generally, liability is the most expensive, followed by collision, and then comprehensive.

Oregon is a full $150 less than the national average, which bodes well.

– Additional Liability

When it comes to car insurance coverages beyond core coverage, there are a few options.

Three of those options are medical payment (Med Pay), personal injury protection (PIP), and uninsured/underinsured motorist.

• Med Pay covers your medical bills in the event of an accident
• PIP takes it a step further and covers your lost wages in addition to your medical bills
• Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist covers you when you’re hit by someone who doesn’t have insurance—and can’t pay.

When looking at these three optional insurance coverages, it can be helpful to look at something called the loss ratio to determine how many claims a company is paying out.

These statistics are taken from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), a leading authority when it comes to specific insurance companies and statistics.

For loss ratio, anything between one and .5 is solid with .8 to .6 being the sweet spot.

Anything over one and the company is losing money. Anything below .5 and the company might not be paying out on claims.

Both PIP and Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist are solid. However, Med Pay is well over one.

This means that the cost of paying claims is overwhelming the amount of money gained from writing premiums.

– Add-ons, Endorsements, and Riders

There are other optional coverages as well, including some that are helpful in a pinch.

• Guaranteed Auto Protection (GAP)
• Personal Umbrella Policy (PUP)
• Rental Reimbursement
• Emergency Roadside Assistance
• Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
• Non-Owner Car Insurance
• Modified Car Insurance Coverage
• Classic Car Insurance
• Pay-As-You-Drive or Usage-Based Insurance

There is one coverage on that list that can help with more than just auto insurance: Personal Umbrella Policy (PUP).

This increases your overall coverage limits, whether you have a car busted in an accident or a house that has burned down.

It bundles with others, which can really help.

– Male vs Female Premiums

Being male or female affects your rates, as insurance companies believe that women are safer drivers than men.

Statistics back this up: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety did a study looking at 2015 accident data according to gender and found that 71 percent of fatalities were men.

Men typically drive more miles than women and more often engage in risky driving practices including not using safety belts, driving while impaired by alcohol, and speeding.

So, how does this impact Oregon drivers?

The statistics bear this out. Across the board, the highest rates are for 17-year-old males, while the lowest rates are for 60-year-old women.

Why age?

Insurance companies believe that if you’re younger (particularly between 17 and 24), you’re less experienced as a driver and more likely to engage in risky behavior.

There is a small push to get rid of using gender as a determining factor for car insurance rates.

Experts believe this will push rates toward the middle so that women will pay more and men will pay less. 17-year-old boys should receive the most benefit.

– Rates in Oregon’s 10 Largest Cities

Car insurance rates vary according to the city as well. The reason is that car insurance companies look at the likelihood to file a claim when setting rates.

The rate at which a city’s residents have accidents, get tickets, or have their cars stolen all impact the general rate for a city.

The following population information was taken from World Population Review.

Generally, bigger cities have higher rates than smaller cities or rural areas, though this is not always the case.

A case in point would be Gresham, which has a higher average premium than Portland, with just a one-sixth of its population size.

The lowest on this list is Eugene with the third-most population size.

– Cheapest Rates by Zip Code

Like by city, your car insurance rate can vary depending on which zip code you live in.

This is for the same reason cities vary: Insurance companies calculate how many claims are coming out of each zip code and set rates accordingly.

There have been instances where two neighbors in different zip codes have different rates—sometimes hundreds of dollars worth.

Some U.S. reps have gone so far as to draft legislation abolishing this practice.

For the table, you can use the search button to quickly find your zip code.

You can also use the next button. Then you can see how your rates match up per your zip code and other zip codes. You might end up wanting to abolish the zip code practice too.

– Cheapest Rates by City

In this table, we’ve pulled together data from cities and insurance companies: Essentially, what each insurance company is charging in your city.