Study: filed auto rate changes ran from -30% to +24% — and insurtechs swung hardest
There is no single "rate increase" in auto insurance. Reading carriers' own filed rate-change filings directly, FastAutoQuote found overall changes spanning from -30% (Branch, MD) to +24% (Clearcover, WI) in the same window — and the widest swings, in both directions, came from insurtech carriers, not the household names. Every figure below cites the primary SERFF filing it came from.
The finding
Before a carrier can change what it charges, it files the overall rate change — and its justification — with the state through SERFF, where it becomes a public record. We transcribed those filed overall changes directly from the filings. Two things stand out.
1. The band is enormous. The deepest cut we found was -30% (Branch in MD, SERFF BRFI-134878874) and the steepest hike was +24% (Clearcover in WI, SERFF CLEA-134069508) — a spread of roughly 54 points for the "same" product in the same period. What happens to your premium depends far more on which carrier you are with, in which state, than on any market-wide trend.
2. Insurtechs swing hardest. Both extremes belong to insurtech carriers, and the same names appear at the top and bottom of the list — sometimes cutting deeply in one state while raising in another the same year. The established national names in our set moved in a noticeably tighter band.
Biggest filed cuts
| Carrier | State | Filed change | Effective | SERFF filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Branch (insurtech) | MD | −30.0% | Mar 2026 | SERFF BRFI-134878874 |
| Branch (insurtech) | IN | −19.0% | Dec 2025 | SERFF BRFI-134803384 |
| Branch (insurtech) | IL | −15.0% | Dec 2025 | SERFF BRFI-134759959 |
| Branch (insurtech) | TX | −15.0% | Mar 2026 | SERFF BRFI-134880802 |
| Branch (insurtech) | WI | −15.0% | Feb 2026 | SERFF BRFI-134821316 |
| State Farm | IL | −9.4% | Dec 2025 | SERFF SFMA-134704563 |
Biggest filed hikes
| Carrier | State | Filed change | Effective | SERFF filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearcover (insurtech) | WI | +24.0% | May 2024 | SERFF CLEA-134069508 |
| Lemonade (insurtech) | OR | +19.7% | Jul 2022 | SERFF METR-133271549 |
| The General | MO | +14.7% | Nov 2022 | SERFF PGAC-133433802 |
| Clearcover (insurtech) | WV | +14.3% | Dec 2024 | SERFF CLEA-134251496 |
| Branch (insurtech) | MT | +12.7% | Mar 2026 | SERFF BRFI-134854615 |
| Branch (insurtech) | AR | +9.9% | Mar 2025 | SERFF BRFI-134416938 |
See the full, filterable set — by state and carrier — on our filed rate-change tracker. This corpus grows as we mine more filings, so these tables update with it.
Why it matters
Two practical lessons fall out of this. First, a national headline like "auto rates are up X%" tells you almost nothing about your renewal — a driver at one carrier saw a double-digit cut while a neighbor at another absorbed a double-digit hike, in the same months. Second, because a change hits the public filing the day it is filed — long before it shows up in averaged, republished market reports — the moment your carrier files an increase is the moment it pays to re-shop. The filing is the earliest possible signal, and it is free to read.
Expert commentary
“This spread is exactly why 'loyalty' is expensive in auto insurance. Carriers re-price at different times, in different states, for their own book — a company correcting an under-priced state can file a big increase while a competitor that grew too fast files a big cut. None of it is about how you drive. The move that consistently works is to re-quote the moment you hear your rate is changing, because the carrier that is cheapest for your profile this year often is not the same one as last year.”
Methodology
Each figure is the overall rate-level change the carrier filed with the state's insurance department through the SERFF system, transcribed by hand from the filing's own memo or exhibit and cited to its SERFF tracking number. These are real, individual filed changes across a range of carriers and states — not a market-wide average, and not every filing in the market. Split filings (liability up, physical damage down) and revenue-neutral filings are excluded from the extremes. Full method: our methodology. The complete, filterable dataset lives on our rate-change tracker.
Cite this study
Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite this analysis with attribution. We can point you to the exact public filing behind any figure. Suggested citation:
FastAutoQuote, “Filed auto rate changes ran from -30% to +24%” (2026), analysis of carriers' filed SERFF rate-change filings.
