Worried about insurance rates? Your loyalty might be costing you

Insurance rates have skyrocketed since the pandemic, and jaw-dropping renewal notices have left many consumers stretched thin when it comes to protecting their assets. Nearly half of Americans with auto insurance (49%) and homeowners insurance (46%) say they're stressed about their premiums, according to a recent NerdWallet survey.

Despite this stress over premiums, few consumers are taking their business elsewhere: 12% of Americans with auto insurance and 8% of Americans with home insurance say they switched those respective insurance companies in the past 12 months.

Here are some of the forces keeping Americans trapped in expensive policies — and what you can do about it.

Americans are shopping around, but not enough

Most insurance customers don't shop around on an annual basis. About 1 in 5 Americans with auto insurance (22%) and home insurance (19%) say they shopped around for a new insurance company in the past 12 months, leaving a sizable gap between consumers with budget anxiety and those taking action.

Even as affordability challenges drive more people to shop than usual, nearly 80% of shoppers considered only one or two insurers, according to JD Power's Q1 2026 Insurance Shopping Loyalty Indicator & Shopping Trends (LIST) Report.

Part of the blame can likely be placed on consumer inertia — people often stay loyal to a single brand out of convenience or habit, even when cheaper alternatives exist. And this is certainly a factor in the insurance market, where policies don't come lined up on a retail shelf with price tags you can easily compare.

But there's not much reason to stay loyal to your insurance company, says Emily Rogan, senior program officer for United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group. "The interesting thing is that you're buying one year of coverage over and over and over again," Rogan says. "So they're still selling you one year of product. And the only way to find out if you could get a better deal is to shop around and see what else is out there."

Review your coverage and shop around annually

Insurance may not be the easiest product to shop for, but letting your policy sit on autopilot isn't the answer. "The new normal is that people have to pay more attention to their insurance," Rogan says. "Just because the cost is going up doesn't mean the quality of your coverage or the amount of your coverage is going up."

Take the time to audit your insurance policies once a year. Scott Fox, an independent insurance broker in California, says this annual review can do two things: "Make sure that you've got the coverage that you need, but also make sure that you're not overpaying."

Pay special attention to your coverage limits and deductibles to ensure they still align with your needs. While you're at it, you can check other insurance companies to see if you can get a better rate for the same coverage.

If manually entering your personal information into multiple websites and risking an onslaught of spam messages and robocalls is stopping you from comparing prices, you can always ask an independent insurance agent to shop around for you.

How to lower your rates when you can't switch

Digital fatigue isn't the only barrier keeping Americans from shopping around. For some, a lack of options has forced them to stay loyal to one insurer.

In recent years, insurance companies in some states like California heavily restricted new business, stopped appointing new agents or pulled out of certain regions entirely. "If a preferred carrier didn't want a particular risk, they would just decline to quote it rather than give someone a quote that reflected the risk," Fox says. This made shopping for insurance feel like a frustrating and fruitless endeavor.

Rogan has witnessed this, too. "I think that there's definitely a sentiment, especially in the areas where there aren't a lot of options, to stay put and that you're lucky to have insurance," Rogan says.

Fortunately, the market freeze may be thawing. Fox notes that the industry's appetite for taking on new customers is starting to pick back up. But if your local options are still limited, or you've already got the best deal in town, here are a few ways to save on home insurance and car insurance without switching companies.

* Increase your deductible. This is one of the quickest ways to lower your insurance premiums. Just make sure you have enough money in savings to cover the deductible in case something happens.

* Try bundling. If you have home and auto insurance, bundling them together with the same company can get you discounts of up to 40%, depending on the insurer.

* Look for discounts. Insurance companies offer all kinds of discounts, and you might qualify for one without even knowing it. You can check your insurer's discounts page or have your agent review potential savings opportunities. Fox has seen teachers overpaying by 20% because they didn't know about educator discounts.