Updated: July 23, 2026
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The average cost of car insurance in North Carolina is $105 per month for full coverage and $50 per month for minimum coverage, a $55 difference between the two.
Your actual rate will vary based on the city you live in, driving record, age, credit score and the company you choose.
| Minimum Coverage | $50 | $60 | $604 | $726 |
| Full Coverage | $105 | $124 | $1,264 | $1,493 |
Minimum liability alone costs $53 per month in North Carolina. Comprehensive and collision bring the total to $63, and stepping up to standard full coverage with 100/300/100 liability limits reaches $112.
North Carolina is an at-fault state, so higher liability limits protect you from a lawsuit if you're responsible for a serious crash. That protection costs just $49 more per month, from $63 to $112 with 100/300/100 limits. A $0 deductible costs more, $70 extra, but it only lowers your own repair bill, not any legal exposure.
| Minimum Liability Only | $53 | $638 |
| Min. liab. + comp/coll ($1,000 ded.) | $63 | $752 |
| Min. liab. + comp/coll ($2,000 ded.) | $97 | $1,169 |
| 50/100/50 liability + comp/coll ($500 ded.) | $109 | $1,303 |
| Min. liab. + comp/coll ($250 ded.) | $110 | $1,315 |
| 100/300/100 liability + comp/coll ($1,000 ded.) | $112 | $1,338 |
| 300/500/300 liability + comp/coll ($1,500 ded.) | $132 | $1,590 |
| Min. liab. + comp/coll ($0 ded.) | $133 | $1,596 |
Comprehensive and collision are the only coverage types here that protect your own vehicle from theft, weather and collision damage. Liability coverage, no matter how high the limit, pays for everyone else's damage first.
Full coverage costs $153 per month in Fayetteville and $99 in Winston-Salem, a $54 difference that adds up to $648 per year for the same driver.
Fayetteville's higher rate has nothing to do with the coast. The city sits roughly 100 miles inland, and its higher property crime and vehicle theft rates are what actually raise comprehensive coverage costs there. Charlotte comes in at $141 per month because of traffic and rapid population growth, not crime. Winston-Salem's lower rate comes from lighter traffic and lower crime relative to North Carolina's larger cities. Greensboro and Raleigh land close to the state average, between $121 and $123, where switching companies can close most of the remaining gap to Winston-Salem's rate.
| Fayetteville | $153 | $78 |
| Charlotte | $141 | $71 |
| Greensboro | $123 | $62 |
| High Point | $122 | $62 |
| Concord | $122 | $62 |
| Raleigh | $121 | $62 |
| Wilmington | $119 | $63 |
| Cary | $115 | $60 |
| Durham | $107 | $54 |
| Winston-Salem | $99 | $49 |
The average cost of a 16-year-old driver in North Carolina on a family policy is $256 a month for full coverage, 2.3 times the base adult rate. It is also the highest rate among the teen and young adult age range. Full coverage for a 19-year-old driver on a family policy costs $142 a month, showing how quickly North Carolina car insurance rates decline as teens gain a few years of driving experience.
North Carolina doesn’t allow insurers to use gender when setting car insurance rates, so men and women of the same age aren’t priced differently based on gender. New drivers licensed after July 1, 2025 also pay an inexperienced-driver surcharge for eight years, up from three years under the previous rules. This means being a newly licensed driver can affect insurance costs for longer than before.
A DUI has a much larger effect on North Carolina car insurance rates than other driving incidents. Full coverage rises from $112 to $424 per month after a DUI, a 279% increase and the highest percentage increase in the country. By comparison, speeding adds $48 per month and texting while driving adds $39. A not-at-fault accident has almost no effect on the average rate, adding only $1 per month.
| Clean Record | $112 | $1,338 | — |
| Accident (not at fault) | $113 | $1,355 | 1% |
| Texting While Driving | $151 | $1,815 | 35% |
| Accident (at fault) | $157 | $1,884 | 40% |
| Speeding | $160 | $1,926 | 43% |
| DUI | $424 | $5,093 | 279% |
Standard violations stay on your record for three years in North Carolina, but that lookback period doubled to five years for serious violations as of July 1, 2025. A DUI surcharge runs even longer, five years or more. Drivers with multiple violations can find coverage through high-risk car insurance in North Carolina, or read about the specific cost of a DUI conviction in North Carolina. Get new quotes once your three-year window closes, since the rate won't drop on its own.
Poor credit costs North Carolina drivers $276 per month for full coverage, versus $105 with good credit. That $171 gap adds up to $2,052 a year, bigger than the city gap and company gap combined, $54 and $56 respectively.
North Carolina drivers with poor credit scores can reduce their car insurance premiums by working to improve their credit rating over time. North Carolina permits insurers to use credit-based scoring when setting rates, which means your credit score affect what you'll pay for coverage in North Carolina.
Good Credit | $50 | $105 |
Poor Credit | $127 | $276 |
Difference | $77 | $171 |
Insuring a Ford F-150 costs $125 per month in North Carolina. A Tesla Model Y costs $64 more, $189 per month, which comes to $768 extra every year, a bigger gap than what separates the state's cheapest and priciest insurers.
Few North Carolina shops carry the certification needed to work on EV battery packs, and that scarcity shows up directly in the premium. The Toyota Prius costs $144 per month, $45 less than the Model Y, and it still gets far better mileage than driving electric. Conventional gas vehicles stay tightly bunched by comparison. The entire range from the F-150 to the Toyota RAV4 spans just $22 per month, from $125 to $147.
| Ford F-150 | $64 | $762 | $125 | $1,495 |
| Honda Civic | $67 | $803 | $131 | $1,575 |
| Honda Accord | $69 | $829 | $136 | $1,628 |
| Toyota Prius | $73 | $879 | $144 | $1,724 |
| Toyota Camry | $74 | $892 | $146 | $1,747 |
| Toyota Rav4 | $75 | $900 | $147 | $1,763 |
| Tesla Model 3 | $80 | $958 | $157 | $1,885 |
| Tesla Model Y | $96 | $1,152 | $189 | $2,268 |
Credit score creates the widest rate spread in North Carolina, $171 per month between good and poor credit, wider than the city gap and company gap combined. Two things make North Carolina's rate structure unusual. State law bans gender as a rating factor entirely, and the DUI surcharge is the steepest of any state in the country. North Carolina is also an at-fault state, so liability coverage pays the other driver's damages when you cause a crash.
Ask at least three North Carolina companies for a quote before you renew. State Farm charges $56 per month for full coverage. Erie Insurance charges $112 for the same driver, exactly double, for coverage that's otherwise identical.
Price alone won't tell you how a company handles a claim. The best car insurance companies in North Carolina rankings score claims performance too, not just cost. Cheapest car insurance in North Carolina data only tracks price, and State Farm still wins on cost for nearly every kind of driver.
| State Farm | $24 | $56 | $288 | $671 |
| Progressive | $35 | $61 | $425 | $737 |
| Geico | $43 | $86 | $521 | $1,037 |
| Nationwide | $42 | $101 | $498 | $1,207 |
| National General | $46 | $102 | $557 | $1,218 |
| Erie Insurance | $48 | $112 | $574 | $1,342 |
North Carolina bans gender as a rating factor, one of only a handful of states to do so, and location still changes the price by $54 per month between Fayetteville and Winston-Salem. These are the most common questions from residents trying to understand their premiums.
North Carolina car insurance costs $50 per month for minimum coverage and $105 per month for full coverage. Your driving record, age, credit score, city and coverage choices all affect the final number.
A DUI raises full coverage in North Carolina from $112 to $424 per month, a 279% increase and the steepest DUI penalty percentage of any state in the country as of 2026. The state's point system assigns a DUI conviction 12 insurance points, the maximum for any violation on the books, and that penalty now stays on your record for five years or more instead of three.
A $171 gap separates good and poor credit in North Carolina, $105 per month versus $276. That gap exists because credit-based scoring is legal here. Once your score improves, ask for a new quote, since insurers won't apply the lower rate on their own.
We used this profile to determine auto insurance costs across all available ZIP codes and cities in the state.
Sections covering cost by age and driving record use rates for those driver profiles, with all other factors remaining constant.
Minimum coverage represents the state's minimum liability coverage requirements. Full coverage includes a policy with 100/300/100 liability limits and a $1,000 deductible for comprehensive and collision coverage.
Mark Fitzpatrick, a licensed Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurance Producer in Connecticut, is MoneyGeek's resident expert in insurance and economics. He has spent nearly a decade covering the market, first at LendingTree and now at MoneyGeek, where he analyzes hundreds of carriers and millions of rates across auto, home, renters, health and life insurance.
His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times and NPR. He draws on independent cost and consumer experience data, and no insurance company partnerships influence his recommendations.
Mark studied at Boston College before earning a master's in economics and international relations from Johns Hopkins University. Before MoneyGeek, he worked in financial risk management at State Street. He's also a five-time “Jeopardy!” champion.
