How Much Do Higher Coverage Limits Cost?
Raising your coverage limits costs more, but far less than most drivers expect - and how much depends on which coverage you raise. We read four carriers' filed rate manuals directly. On bodily injury, The General's Virginia filing charges a 1.60 factor at 100/300 and CURE's Michigan filing a 2.050 factor at 250/500; property damage barely moves (Branch files just 1.08 at $100,000); and uninsured-motorist limits are the steepest of all, with The General filing a 2.10 factor at 100/300. Every figure here is a real filed value we transcribed from a state rate filing, not an estimate.
Every auto policy has limits - the most your insurer will pay on a covered claim - and you choose them. The most common question a shopper faces is whether buying more protection is worth it, and the short answer, read straight from carriers' filed rate manuals, is that higher limits cost more but usually far less than people fear, and the price depends heavily on which coverage you are raising. Insurers file a limit factor for each choice: a multiplier applied to that coverage, with the lowest filed limit set as the 1.00 reference and every higher limit carrying a factor above it.
Rather than estimate, we read four carriers' actual filings - The General (Virginia), Branch (Texas), CURE (Michigan), and others - and pulled the real limit factors. Below is what they show about the cost of buying up each coverage, every number tied to the regulator filing it came from.
What our filed-rate data shows
The clearest ladder is in The General's Virginia filing (SERFF PGAC-134300891, effective January 1, 2025), where bodily-injury limits climb from a 1.26 factor at 50/100 to 1.60 at 100/300 relative to the lowest filed limit. CURE's Michigan filing (SERFF CURE-134790932) goes further up the ladder, pricing 250/500 bodily-injury limits at a 2.050 factor against its 50/100 base. Branch's Texas rate manual (SERFF BRFI-134880802) files a 1.72 factor for 100/300 bodily injury for a prior-insured driver, and a 2.07 factor for a $5,000 medical-payments limit.
The contrast with property damage is striking. Branch files just a 1.08 factor at a $100,000 property-damage limit, and The General a 1.10 factor at $50,000 - so even doubling property-damage protection adds only single-digit percentages to that coverage. The steepest factor of all is on uninsured-motorist coverage: The General files a 2.10 factor for 100/300 uninsured-motorist bodily injury, the highest limit multiplier across every filing we read. The key-data section below lists each filed value with the filing it came from.
Key data
What this means for you: the filed rates for this factor span 1.08× to 2.1× — the highest-rated profile pays roughly 1.9× what the lowest-rated pays for this one factor, before everything else on your policy.
| Factor | Filed value | Est. on $1,200 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodily-injury limit factor — 50/100 (The General, VA) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Jan 2025) | 1.26× | ≈ $1,512 | Permanent General Assurance Corporation — VA PPA filing PGAC-134300891, eff. Jan 1, 2025 (Virginia Bureau of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #PGAC-134300891 · effective Jan 1, 2025 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Bodily-injury limit factor — 100/300 (The General, VA) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Jan 2025) | 1.60× | ≈ $1,920 | Permanent General Assurance Corporation — VA PPA filing PGAC-134300891, eff. Jan 1, 2025 (Virginia Bureau of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #PGAC-134300891 · effective Jan 1, 2025 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Property-damage limit factor — $50,000 (The General, VA) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Jan 2025) | 1.10× | ≈ $1,320 | Permanent General Assurance Corporation — VA PPA filing PGAC-134300891, eff. Jan 1, 2025 (Virginia Bureau of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #PGAC-134300891 · effective Jan 1, 2025 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Uninsured-motorist bodily-injury limit factor — 100/300 (The General, VA) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Jan 2025) | 2.10× | ≈ $2,520 | Permanent General Assurance Corporation — VA PPA filing PGAC-134300891, eff. Jan 1, 2025 (Virginia Bureau of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #PGAC-134300891 · effective Jan 1, 2025 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Bodily-injury limit factor — 100/300, prior-insured (Branch, TX) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Mar 2026) | 1.72× | ≈ $2,064 | Branch Insurance Exchange — TX PPA filing BRFI-134880802, eff. Mar 27, 2026 (Texas Department of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #BRFI-134880802 · effective Mar 27, 2026 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Medical-payments limit factor — $5,000 (Branch, TX) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Mar 2026) | 2.07× | ≈ $2,484 | Branch Insurance Exchange — TX PPA filing BRFI-134880802, eff. Mar 27, 2026 (Texas Department of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #BRFI-134880802 · effective Mar 27, 2026 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Property-damage limit factor — $100,000 (Branch, TX) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Mar 2026) | 1.08× | ≈ $1,296 | Branch Insurance Exchange — TX PPA filing BRFI-134880802, eff. Mar 27, 2026 (Texas Department of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #BRFI-134880802 · effective Mar 27, 2026 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
| Bodily-injury increased-limit factor — 250/500 vs 50/100 base (CURE, MI) (Factor · filed Rate/Rule · eff Jul 2026) | 2.050× | ≈ $2,460 | Citizens United Reciprocal Exchange — MI PPA filing CURE-134790932, eff. Jul 3, 2026 (Michigan DIFS via SERFF Filing Access) · Jun 2026Filed rate · SERFF #CURE-134790932 · effective Jul 3, 2026 · reviewed by Jason Wootton, NPN 7694718 |
Illustrative only — each filed factor applied to a $1,200 baseline premium (the 1.00 reference), not a quote. Your actual premium depends on the insurer's base rate and your full profile.
Property-damage limits are cheap to raise
The single most useful pattern in the data is how gently property-damage limits are priced. Branch's 1.08 factor at $100,000 and The General's 1.10 at $50,000 mean that carrying much more property-damage protection costs only a few percent more on that coverage. The reason is structural: property-damage claims are bounded by the value of what you can physically hit, so the insurer's exposure grows slowly as the limit rises, and the filed factor reflects that.
This matters because a single at-fault crash into a late-model vehicle - or a multi-car pileup - can easily blow through a low property-damage limit, leaving you personally on the hook for the difference. Given how little the filed factors charge to raise this coverage, property damage is one of the easiest and cheapest places to buy real peace of mind. If you carry a state-minimum property-damage limit, the filings suggest raising it is close to free relative to the protection it adds.
Bodily-injury limits: the core trade-off
Bodily-injury liability - which pays for injuries you cause others - is where limit choice matters most, because those claims are open-ended and can reach six figures. The filed factors climb steadily but not punishingly: The General's 1.26 at 50/100 and 1.60 at 100/300, Branch's 1.72 at 100/300, and CURE's 2.050 at 250/500. Across carriers the pattern is the same - the biggest single step is off the state-minimum floor, and once you have stepped up, buying substantially more protection costs comparatively little more.
That shape is the practical argument against defaulting to the bare minimum. If a serious at-fault crash exhausts your bodily-injury limit, the injured party can pursue your personal assets for the rest, so the limit is what stands between a claim and your savings. The filed factors show that stepping up from the floor to a solid 100/300 - the level many advisors recommend - is affordable relative to the exposure it closes, which is why raising bodily-injury limits is one of the highest-value moves a driver can make.
Uninsured-motorist limits are the steepest
The priciest limit factor we found anywhere is on uninsured-motorist coverage: The General's 2.10 factor at 100/300. Uninsured/underinsured-motorist coverage pays your own injuries when an at-fault driver has no insurance or too little, and its steep pricing is not a penalty - it reflects the real cost of a coverage that substitutes for the protection a negligent, uninsured driver failed to buy. Mercury's Nevada filing prices the same protection similarly steeply, a pattern that holds across carriers.
The counterintuitive takeaway is that uninsured-motorist coverage is often where a premium dollar does the most good, precisely because it is priced closest to its true value. In states where a meaningful share of drivers are uninsured, this is the coverage most exposed to other people's choices - and the filed factor, high as it is, is the price of not being left paying for someone else's missing insurance out of your own pocket.
Why higher limits cost more - but not proportionally
A natural question is why doubling a limit does not double the price. The answer is that most claims never approach the limit at all. Raising your bodily-injury limit from 100/300 to 250/500 only changes what the insurer pays on the rare, severe claims that exceed the lower limit - and those are a small slice of all claims. So the insurer's added expected cost is modest, and the filed factor rises only modestly to match. That is why the limit curve flattens as you climb: each additional layer of protection covers increasingly rare losses, so it costs less to add.
This is the same actuarial logic behind deductibles and most other coverage choices: price tracks expected claim cost, not the headline limit. For a shopper it is genuinely good news - it means the most valuable increases, from a thin state minimum to a solid mid-tier limit, are also the ones the filings price most affordably, because they close the exposures that are both serious and not that rare.
How much coverage do you actually need
The filed factors tell you what more coverage costs; how much to buy depends on what you have to protect. A common rule of thumb is to carry liability limits high enough to cover your net worth, since that is what is exposed in an at-fault judgment, and to treat 100/300/100 as a sensible floor for most households rather than the bare state minimum. The Insurance Information Institute and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners both offer guidance on setting limits, and many drivers who want protection beyond auto limits add an umbrella policy.
What the filed data adds to that guidance is price. Because raising property-damage and stepping up bodily-injury limits is filed so affordably, and uninsured-motorist coverage - though pricier - protects against a risk you do not control, the numbers point most drivers toward carrying more than the minimum rather than less. The limits are a lever you fully control, and the filings let you price each notch before you choose.
How to shop limits across carriers
Because limit factors are filed and differ by carrier, the practical move is to compare. Ask each insurer to quote the same limits, note how the price changes as you step a limit up, and remember that the carrier that prices one limit steeply may price another gently - The General's bodily-injury and uninsured-motorist ladders, Branch's flat property-damage step, and CURE's higher-limit bodily-injury factor are all different shapes. Hold your coverage identical across quotes so you are comparing the same protection, and pay attention to uninsured-motorist limits specifically, since carriers weight them very differently.
The bottom line: higher limits cost more, but the filed factors show the increases are usually modest relative to the protection they add - cheapest on property damage, steady on bodily injury, and steepest on uninsured-motorist coverage. Reading the filings turns the limits decision from a guess into a priced choice, and comparing several carriers is the only way to find which one prices the coverage you want most favorably.
Frequently asked questions
How much do higher coverage limits cost?
Less than most drivers expect, and it depends on the coverage. In filed rate manuals we read, bodily-injury limits run about 1.26 at 50/100 to 1.60 at 100/300 (The General, VA) and 2.050 at 250/500 (CURE, MI); property damage barely moves (Branch files 1.08 at $100,000); and uninsured-motorist limits are steepest, at 2.10 for 100/300 (The General, VA).
Is it worth raising my liability limits?
Usually yes. The filed factors show the biggest cost step is off the state minimum; once you're at 50/100, moving up to 100/300 or beyond costs comparatively little more. Since an at-fault crash that exhausts your limit can put your personal assets at risk, stepping up from the minimum is one of the highest-value moves in a policy.
Why is uninsured-motorist coverage so expensive to raise?
Because it substitutes for another driver's missing insurance. The steepest limit factor we found anywhere is The General's 2.10 at 100/300 uninsured-motorist bodily injury. It pays your own injuries when an at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured - a real risk you don't control - so it's priced close to its true value.
Are property-damage limits cheap to raise?
Yes. Branch files just a 1.08 factor at a $100,000 property-damage limit, and The General 1.10 at $50,000 - so even doubling this protection adds only single-digit percentages. Property-damage claims are bounded by what you can physically hit, so higher limits are inexpensive and one of the easiest places to add protection.
Why doesn't doubling my limit double my premium?
Because most claims never approach the limit. Raising a limit only changes what the insurer pays on the rare, severe claims that exceed the lower limit, so its added expected cost - and the filed factor - rises only modestly. That's why the limit curve flattens as you climb: each layer covers increasingly rare losses.
What coverage limits should I carry?
A common guideline is to carry liability high enough to cover your net worth, with 100/300/100 a sensible floor for most households rather than the bare state minimum. Because the filed factors price stepping up so affordably, the numbers point most drivers toward more than the minimum. Compare carriers, since each files its own limit factors.
Sources cited
- Permanent General Assurance Corporation — VA PPA filing PGAC-134300891, eff. Jan 1, 2025 (Virginia Bureau of Insurance via SERFF Filing Access) — captured Jun 2026
- Insurance Information Institute (III) — how much auto coverage you need — captured Jul 2026
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) — captured Jul 2026
- Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) — captured Jul 2026
- Texas Department of Insurance — auto liability limits — captured Jul 2026
