Auto Insurance Used to Be a Bargain

Believe it or not, there was a time when insurance companies offered terrific rates on auto policies.

Back in the early days of the automobile, not many insurance companies anticipated the great market they would one day see as a result of people crashing cars into things.

Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo did see what was coming, and took steps to protect himself. In 1898, he took out the nation’s first auto insurance policy.

The premium, from the Traveler’s Insurance Company, was just $12.25 for $5,000 in coverage.

Now, $5,000 was a healthy amount of coverage to have (worth more than $120,000 in today’s money). The premium, on the other hand, would cost less than $300 in today’s dollars – for an entire year.

As we all know, insurance companies eventually found out just how much they could charge for auto policies.