Best Car Insurance for Drivers With
Bad Credit in Washington

With major metropolitan cities and a beautiful natural landscape, Washington manages to be an economic hub and a can't-miss tourist destination. But whether you're driving to the Space Needle or Mount Rainier, you'll want affordable car insurance. Will a bad credit score get in the way of that plan?

Washington's auto insurers can assess your credit score when determining your car insurance rates. It's not the only factor that comes into play, so don't feel that you're doomed to astronomical rates if your credit score is low. If you stay safe on the roads and work on gradually improving your credit, you too can find car insurance that fits your budget.

In Washington, car insurance companies are allowed to look at your credit score before determining your car insurance rate. So you'll most likely undergo a credit check as you shop for car insurance in Washington.

But Washington's drivers still have options, even with a less-than-perfect credit score. Some smaller regional car insurance companies boast that they don't check credit—though keep in mind they might have higher prices to offset the risk of insuring bad-credit drivers. National insurance carriers like GEICO have also been praised for offering reasonable prices to bad-credit drivers.

Nationwide, National General, The General, and Travelers provide the cheapest average rates to low-credit drivers in Washington. If you're a high-risk driver in other ways (e.g., a poor driving record), Kemper and Dairyland have been praised for providing affordable rates to these drivers.

Location often plays a big role in determining how much of an impact bad credit will have on car insurance rates. As can be seen in Washington, the cost in a city like Seattle, where coverage is $113 per month, is much lower than it is in Tacoma, where rates average $156.