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Amid White House threats to eliminate the Education Department and reports that Musk’s DOGE had gained access to student loan data, consumer advocates are issuing warnings to borrowers on ways to protect themselves.
Student loan holders should gather their account information now, in case their balances or payment progress are reported inaccurately in the future.
They should also take steps to protect their data.

Students walk through the University of Texas at Austin on February 22, 2024 in Austin, Texas. 
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Gather student loan records ASAP

If the Trump administration is successful in dismantling key parts of the Education Department, the Treasury Department would be the next most logical agency to administer student debt, said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit.
It’s also possible that the Justice Department or the Department of Labor could carry out some of the Education Department’s functions, according to a December blog post by The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
But the transfer of tens of millions of borrowers’ account information between agencies would likely lead to errors, experts said. As a result, borrowers should gather the latest information on their student loan balance now, and keep an updated record of it, Yu said.
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At Studentaid.gov, borrowers should be able to access data on their student loan balance and payment progress, Yu said. If you don’t know which company services your student debt, you can find that information on that site, as well.
Borrowers should also request a complete payment history of their student loans if their debt has been transferred between companies in the past, Yu said. All this documentation will come in handy if your loan balance or payment history is reported inaccurately in the future.
Those who are pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness should certify their work history with the Education Department now, Yu said, “to ensure all eligible periods of employment count toward PSLF.”(PSLF offers debt erasure for certain public servants after 10 years of payments, and borrowers have already long complained of inaccurate payment counts.)

Protecting your student loan data

Consumer and privacy advocates are also concerned by recent reports that Musk’s DOGE had entered the Department of Education and gained access to federal student loan data on tens of millions of borrowers.
In a Feb. 6 letter signed by 16 Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chuck Schumer of New York, the lawmakers said that the Education Department’s student loan database “contains millions of borrowers’ highly sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, marital status, and income data.”
That data “could be used to target financially vulnerable people for Musk’s upcoming financial services company, could be easily breached, or abused in any number of ways,” said Ben Winters, the director of artificial intelligence and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
A federal judge in Maryland on Monday granted a temporary restraining order barring DOGE staffers from accessing individuals’ sensitive data at the Education Department until March 10 while a lawsuit unfolds.

Unfortunately, “it’s nearly impossible to track a specific source of data, including how it’s leaked or used or sold,” Winters said. With that being said, people can check if certain information was included in a data breach on websites like, haveibeenpwned.com, he said.
Some services manage your online presence to try to limit where your data ends up, such as one offered by Discover, Winters said. Monitoring your credit score each month to ensure no unauthorized accounts have been opened in your name can also be useful, he added.
“Also carefully scan your card and account statements periodically,” Winters said.
If you’re worried about how your personal data with the Education Department may have been used, you can make a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. You may also report it to your state’s attorney general.

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While rent prices for apartment buildings are flattening out because of a supply increase, single-family rentals did not see that same level of construction.
That dynamic has kept available supply of single-family rentals low, and prices higher.
“Single family rentals are detached homes, perhaps with a yard,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. 

Oscar Wong | Moment | Getty Images

Renters looking for a better deal may need to rethink the kind of properties they’re focused on in their search. 
As of January, median single-family home rent prices are up about 41% since before the pandemic, according to a recent report by Zillow. Meanwhile, multi-family rents are up 26% in the same timeframe.

A construction boom of multi-family buildings helped rein in rent prices for apartment units in the U.S., prompting some economists to dub 2025 as a “renter’s market.”
But single-family rentals did not see that same level of construction, keeping the available supply low.  Single-family rent growth also remains strong amid high demand, as high mortgage rates keep would-be buyers out of the for-sale market, Zillow noted in the report.
Multi-family housing often includes many units or separated dwellings within the same building, whereas a single-family rental is often in the form of a detached house.
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The typical asking rent price for a single-family home in January was $2,179, up 0.3% from a month prior, and up 4.4% from a year ago, Zillow found. Meanwhile, the typical asking rent for a property in a multifamily home was $1,820, up 0.2% from a month ago and up 2.7% from a year prior.

The gap between the costs to rent a single-family home versus a unit in a multi-family apartment is the largest difference Zillow has recorded since it began tracking the metrics in 2015.
But while there’s a lack of single-family rentals compared to multi-family properties, “demographics play a huge role here,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.
If you can’t afford to buy a home yet, but need the space, here’s what the high cost of single-family rental housing means for you. 

‘Renters are stuck renting for longer’

The millennial generation — those born between 1981 and 1996 — has had a tough time getting into homeownership.
The typical first-time homebuyer in the U.S. is now 38 years old, an all-time high, according to a 2024 report by NAR.
“Renters are stuck renting for longer,” said Orphe Divounguy, an economist at Zillow. 
This means many people are staying renters for longer. Zillow found in a separate 2024 report that the median age of renters in the U.S. is 42, and millennials make up about 31% of renters in the U.S. In Zillow’s analysis, millennials were those age 30 to 44 at the time of the survey.
As homeownership has become “so unaffordable and out of reach,” the cohort has had to find bigger rental properties to accommodate major life changes, such as getting married, and having kids or pets.

The appeal of single-family rentals, experts say, is a homeownership experience without the same costs. That can be meaningful for buyers who are faced with affordability challenges in the for-sale market. Coming up with the down payment can be a hurdle, as well as navigating volatile mortgage rates and rising home prices.
The median sale price for homes nationwide was $375,475 in the four weeks ending February 16, up 3.7% from a year prior, according to Redfin.
Meanwhile, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage inched down to 6.87% the week ending Feb. 13, per Freddie Mac data. That’s the lowest so far in the year, and down from the latest peak of 7.04% in January.

What to do in the meantime

Factors like “having a strong income, strong credit score and lower debt-to-income ratios” are essential for renters in looking into single-family rental homes, Divounguy said.
Paying down debt can help improve your debt-to-income ratio, which measures your debt repayment obligations relative to your income.
When landlords look at your financials, it helps them gauge how easily you can afford the rent based on your current income.
This measure is even more important for renters looking into single-family rental properties, Divounguy said. If you plan to buy a home in the future, keeping this in check will increase your chances of having an approved mortgage application.

Overall, stay on top of your bills and make sure to keep tabs of your credit reports from the major bureaus to ensure there are no errors that could be problematic when you apply. Having a solid credit history makes you more competitive as a renter, and it can also set you up for success if you ever look at the for-sale market, experts say.  More

Social Security benefit cuts are off the table for now in the upcoming budget negotiations, experts say.
But without more funding, the agency will continue to struggle with customer service issues.

Richard Stephen | Istock | Getty Images

As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., work to rein in government spending, some advocates and consumers are concerned that Social Security could see cuts.
Congress faces a March 14 deadline to extend funding for the federal government in order to avoid a government shutdown. Meanwhile, the Trump administration had hoped to slash $2 trillion in government spending.

Because Social Security accounts for 21% of the budget, or $1.5 trillion in spending in 2024, there are concerns that the program could be a target.
Here’s what experts are keeping a watchful eye on with regard to Social Security in the upcoming negotiations.

Benefit cuts are off the table in budget reconciliation

Last year, the Republican Study Committee, a large group of House Republicans, released a budget proposal to cut federal spending by $17.1 trillion over 10 years.
That included a proposal to raise the Social Security retirement age to 69. Currently, retirees are eligible for the full benefits they’ve earned at age 66 to 67, depending on their date of birth.
With that change, anyone born after 1971 would see their benefit cuts an average of 13%, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Importantly, no changes can be made to Social Security benefits in upcoming budget reconciliation legislation, due to the Byrd Rule. That law prevents the addition of extraneous provisions, according to Maria Freese, senior legislative representative at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

But a proposal to raise the retirement age came up during last-minute Senate negotiations over the Social Security Fairness Act in December, and could come up again, experts say.
“Any opportunity that they [Congress] have, I could see it coming up,” Freese said. “They just can’t put it in reconciliation.”
For his part, President Donald Trump said he is opposed to cutting Social Security, except for any waste, fraud or abuse of the program.

Underfunding agency would hurt customer service

Efforts to renew federal spending will likely address the amount of funding the Social Security Administration has available to provide services including toll-free phone call center services and disability determinations.
Budget limitations put in place over the past decade have already put a strain on the agency’s customer service, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes in recent research. Social Security Administration staff dropped by 11% between 2010 and 2024, while the number of beneficiaries increased by 24% over that time, according to the research.
“Cuts that worsen the underfunding of SSA would further compromise its ability to provide the customer service that beneficiaries deserve,” the research states.

Without additional funding, it may take the agency more time to implement the Social Security Fairness Act, a new law that provides benefit increases to more than 3 million beneficiaries, experts have said.
“Congress has consistently and repeatedly underfunded that agency,” Freese said.
That has left the agency more susceptible to criticism, particularly with recent scrutiny of beneficiaries over age 100, she said.
“Part of what is among the first things to go are upgrades to computer systems and things that are considered non essential,” Freese added. More

In 2022, roughly 5.8% of returns claimed the retirement savings contributions credit, or saver’s credit, a tax break for low- to moderate-income taxpayers.
The credit can help offset funds added to an individual retirement account, 401(k) plan or another workplace plan.

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images

There’s a lesser-known tax break for low- to moderate-income Americans who save for retirement. However, most eligible taxpayers don’t claim it, experts say.
The retirement savings contributions credit, or saver’s credit, helps offset funds added to an individual retirement account, 401(k) plan or another workplace plan. The tax break is worth up to $1,000 per filer.

It’s not too late if you didn’t make a qualifying contribution last year. There’s still time to make IRA deposits before April 15 to claim the credit on 2024 returns.
However, “the saver’s credit is a well-kept secret,” Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies said in a February report. 
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Only about half of U.S. workers know about the saver’s credit, according to a survey from Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which polled more than 10,000 U.S. adults in September and October. 
That percentage drops to 44% among taxpayers with a household income of less than $50,000. 

Awareness of the credit is very low across the board.

Emerson Sprick
Associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Program

“Awareness of the credit is very low across the board,” but it’s even lower among taxpayers who could qualify to use it, said Emerson Sprick, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Program.
To that point, roughly 5.8% of returns claimed the saver’s credit in 2022, according to a the most recent IRS data. The average credit value that year was $194, according to a Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies analysis.

How the saver’s credit works

The saver’s credit can offset as much as 50% of retirement contributions up to $2,000 for single filers or $4,000 for married couples filing jointly, for maximum credits of $1,000 or $2,000, respectively.
The credit provides a dollar-for-dollar reduction of levies owed, which could reduce your tax bill or boost your refund. But the tax break is not “refundable,” which means there’s no benefit with $0 tax liability, Sprick explained.

“The way it’s calculated is fairly complex,” he said. 
There are income phase-outs to claim 50%, 20% or 10% of your contribution, depending on your filing status and adjusted gross income. You can use an IRS tool to see if you’re eligible. 
For 2024, your adjusted gross income can’t exceed $23,000 for single filers or $46,000 for married couples for the 50% credit. The percentages drop to 20% and 10%, respectively, as earnings increase, with a complete phase-out above $38,250 for individuals or $76,500 for joint filers.

Credit will soon be replaced

Because of the credit’s design and workers’ lack of awareness, “the uptake of this is really low,” Sprick said.
That’s part of the motivation for the “saver’s match” enacted via Secure 2.0, which will replace the saver’s credit in 2027 and deposit money directly into taxpayers accounts, he said.
“Everyone hopes that it’s going to be easier,” Sprick said. But “there are a lot of logistics that remain to be worked out.” More

Traders work on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor on Feb. 20, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Spend some time looking at trading volumes, and you’ll notice something interesting: A lot of investors recently are making outsized bets on the stock market.
Most of them are long bets, but some are short.

It’s easy to see this because there is a growing segment of the ETF business that caters to investors who want to make short-term outsized bets on the stock market.
These are leveraged and inverse ETFs. Leveraged ETFs amplify the daily returns of an index or stock using financial derivatives. For example, if an index rose by 1% in a day, a 2x leveraged ETF would deliver a 2% return, a 3x would deliver a 3% return.
An inverse ETF delivers the opposite daily performance. So a 2x inverse ETF would be down 2% on a day when the index rose 1%, and vice-versa.
These leveraged/inverse ETFs are not just growing in assets. They are becoming a greater part of the daily trading volume of the ETF universe, which is becoming a larger part of overall trading.
Who is using these products? It has a lot to do with the general rise in speculative behavior in the market. Trading in options, bitcoin, and other more speculative products has been rising.

“We’re continuing to see more investors lean into leveraged as a way to express short-term views on the market, and given all the volatility and daily market-moving headlines, it’s not surprising we are seeing higher volume and more assets entering the space,” Douglas Yones, CEO of Direxion, one of the largest providers of leveraged/inverse ETFs, told CNBC.

Growing as a share of assets

The first leveraged/inverse ETFs in the U.S. started in 2006 and allowed long or short bets on indexes like the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq 100. Leverage and inverse single-stock ETFs came into existence in 2022, and they too have grown fast.
The largest, ProSharesUltraPro QQQ (TQQQ), which provides 3x leveraged exposure to the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), has nearly $26 billion in assets. Single-stock ETFs that leverage Nvidia and Tesla also now have substantial assets.
Largest leveraged/inverse ETFs
(assets under management)
ProSharesUltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) $25.7 billion
Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x (SOXL) $8.5 billion
ProShares Ultra QQQ (QLD) $7.9 billion
ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (SSO) $5.5 billion
Direxion Daily S&P Bull 3x (SPXL) $5.0 billion
Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2x (TSLL) $3.5 billion
GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA (NVDL) $4.2 billion

Part of this is a bull market effect: Stocks are up meaningfully in the last few years, so overall assets are higher. However, these leveraged/inverse ETFs are not just growing assets, they are becoming a larger part of the ETF universe.
In 2016, when ETFs had about $2 trillion in assets under management (AUM), leveraged/inverse ETFs were about 2% of that AUM, according to Strategas.
Today, ETFs have about $11 trillion in assets under management, but leveraged/inverse ETFs make up about $81 billion of that, or almost 8% of total AUM.

Why are these products growing?

“I do believe there is a generational effect at play, I think there is major appetite among younger traders wanting to play with leverage due to the gains it can provide,” Todd Sohn, head of ETFs at Strategas, told CNBC. “The barriers to entry are extremely low, you can buy these products on your phone.”
Yones estimated that 75% of the ownership of these products were retail traders, and 25% institutional, which included hedge funds, trade desks, large brokerage firms, and “anyone who has a book of positions that wants to be neutral the market.”
He estimated that a small but significant percentage of the retail traders (12%-15% of the total) were from outside the U.S., which aligns with previous reports about growing demand for 24-hour trading coming in part from retail traders in South Korea, Japan, and Europe.

Growing part of daily trading volume

Leverage and inverse ETFs, including leveraged and inverse single-stock ETFs, now routinely show up among the most heavily traded ETFs on a daily basis.
A simple way to look at this is by average daily dollar volume, the total amount of money traded in the ETF on a daily basis.
The top ETFs by daily dollar volume are still ETFs tied to the biggest indexes, mainly the S&P 500, Russell 2000, and Nasdaq 100.
Top ETFs by average 3-month daily dollar volume
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) $27.7 billion
Invesco QQQ (QQQ) $15.3 billion
iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) $5.7 billion
iShares Core S&P 500 (IVV) $3.9 billion
Source: Strategas
However, the fifth-largest ETF by average daily dollar volume in the last three months is the ProSharesUltraPro QQQ, which provides three times leveraged exposure to the Nasdaq 100.
Altogether, five of the top 20 ETFs by average daily dollar volume are leveraged/inverse.
Leveraged/inverse ETFs: largest avg. 3-month daily dollar volume
ProSharesUltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) $3.8 billion
Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3X (SOXL)$2.1 billion
Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2x (TSLL) $1.5 billion
ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ) $1.4 billion
GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA (NVDL) $1.3 billion
Source: Strategas

The daily reset

These products are bets on short-term momentum, but they have one additional feature that has proven difficult for investors to wrap their head around: they reset on a daily basis.
Because of compounding effects, it can be fiendishly difficult to figure out what actual returns will be on anything more than a daily basis. This means that holding a 2x leveraged product for anything more than a day may result in making substantially less than a 2x return, depending on the direction of the market.
Here’s an example: Suppose the S&P 500 was up 10% one day, then down 10% the next day.
A $100 investment would look like this:
S&P 500: hypothetical $100 investment
Day 0 $100
Day 1 (up 10%): $110
Day 2 (down 10%). $99
After two days of this, you have $99, so you are down 1%. If you had a leveraged product over those two days, it would seem like you would be down 2%, or that you would have $98.
But because of the daily reset, that’s not what happens.
S&P 500: hypothetical $100 investment in 2x leveraged
Day 0 $100
Day 1 (up 10%, leveraged up 20%): $120
Day 2 (down 10%, leveraged down 20%) $96
You actually have $96, instead of $98, and bear in mind this excludes fees.
As time goes on, these calculations get progressively more complex.
As a result, those offering these products routinely state that they are not meant for buy-and-hold investors.
These funds have very large daily turnovers, so most investors seem to understand the risk of holding these products on anything more than a daily basis.
But Sohn told CNBC that all investors in leveraged products needed to be very careful.
“At some point though, it helps to take stock of the risks involved whenever the market takes a turn south,” Sohn told CNBC.
Doug Yones, CEO of Direxion, will be on the ETF Edge portion of Halftime at 12:35 PM ET on Monday, and will also livestream on ETF Edge from 1:30 PM ET. He will be joined by Todd Rosenbluth, Head of Research at Vettafi. More

Elon Musk’s government-slashing effort, DOGE, is temporarily barred from accessing personal data on student loan borrowers, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
The order, issued by Federal Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland, marks a significant limitation on DOGE’s access to Americans’ personal data.
The judge took issue with DOGE staffers’ ability to see people’s income data and Social Security numbers.

Elon Musk speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., Feb. 20, 2025. 
Nathan Howard | Reuters

A federal judge in Maryland on Monday granted a temporary restraining order barring staffers from Elon Musk’s secretive government-slashing effort, the Department of Government Efficiency, from accessing the personal information of millions of student loan borrowers.
The order, issued by Judge Deborah Boardman, ruled that the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management — the government’s HR department — must stop sharing federal employees’ and student borrowers’ personal data with DOGE officials. It marks a significant limitation on DOGE’s access to Americans’ personal data.

Boardman’s order bars DOGE from the personal information at the Education Department until March 10 at 8 a.m.
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Workers for DOGE have entered government offices in recent weeks, looking to make deep cuts to federal spending.
Boardman’s order came in response to a lawsuit led by The American Federation of Teachers, a union representing 1.8 million members. The AFT sued several federal agencies, including the Education Department, for permitting DOGE access to individuals’ private data.
AFT president Randi Weingarten applauded Boardman’s decision.

“When people give their financial and other personal information to the federal government — namely to secure financial aid for their kids to go to college, or to get a student loan — they expect that data to be protected and used for the reasons it was intended,” Weingarten said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from CNBC for comment.
There are currently six DOGE “affiliates” working at the Education Department, according to the court order. DOGE has claimed that it needed access to student loan programs to investigate waste, fraud and abuse, Boardman said.

However, the judge said the order that the government didn’t explain why DOGE affiliates at the Education Department “need such comprehensive, sweeping access to the plaintiffs’ records to audit student loan programs.”
Boardman expressed concern that DOGE had access to people’s income information and Social Security numbers.
And she wrote that the plaintiffs would likely be successful in their claim that the Education Department’s disclosure of their records to DOGE staffers violates The Privacy Act, a federal law that applies to federal agencies and is meant to protect individuals’ personal information.
“The data in question includes really sensitive information on a population of people who had to give that information for one clear purpose: borrow money to get an education,” said Ben Winters, the director of artificial intelligence and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
“It’s crucial that institutions like governments only allow your data to be used for strictly the purpose you gave it for,” Winters said. More

Some Medicare beneficiaries have until March 31 to make coverage changes.
Here’s what experts say are key factors to consider when comparing your options.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Although a broader window for Medicare enrollment has closed, some retirees have another opportunity to make changes to their coverage.
Medicare Advantage open enrollment is available from Jan. 1 through March 31.

Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurers as an alternative to original Medicare. Generally, Medicare Advantage may cover Medicare Parts A and B, as well as Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage and other potential extra benefits.
During this open enrollment period, individuals who are already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan may switch to another Medicare Advantage plan. Alternatively, they may drop their current Medicare Advantage plan and opt for Medicare original coverage.
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To be sure, there will be more options later in the year during a broader open enrollment period that lasts from October to December, when Medicare original enrollees may also opt to change plans.
For beneficiaries who are eligible to make changes during this time, it’s important not to ignore this window, according to Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, a provider of health policy research.

“Plans can change considerably from one year to the next,” Cubanski said. “If people don’t compare their coverage to other options, they may not know that they’re going to be faced with higher costs.”

Check for significant changes

In order to be confident that you’re getting the best deal, it helps to evaluate how your current Advantage plan may have changed since last year.
You may be faced with higher costs if your personal prescriptions have gone up, for example, or your preferred medical provider is no longer in network.
Digging into those plan changes now can help avoid “bad surprises” later, according to Cubanski.
“Make sure the coverage that you have is going to continue to be the coverage that works best for you,” Cubanski said.

Consider extra benefits

To be sure, Medicare Advantage plans have received negative attention because in some cases coverage was denied for necessary care.
Medicare Advantage plans are more likely than traditional Medicare to use prior authorization, approval needed before a patient can receive certain services or medications. However, because prior authorizations that have been denied are frequently overturned when they are appealed, that has prompted questions as to whether the plans are avoiding coverage obligations.
Medicare Advantage plans are more likely than original Medicare to offer extra benefits — such as dental, vision and hearing — that elderly beneficiaries need.
Most Medicare beneficiaries — 83% — consider supplemental benefits to be important to their coverage, according to a recent survey from The Commonwealth Fund, a provider of independent research on health care issues.
Notably, a larger share of Medicare Advantage enrollees — 89% — said supplemental benefits are important to them, versus 74% of traditional Medicare enrollees, The Commonwealth Fund found.

“People on Medicare, both older adults and those with disabilities, generally really need dental, hearing and vision services, as well as other benefits that are typically offered by Medicare Advantage plans,” said Gretchen Jacobson, vice president of Medicare at The Commonwealth Fund.
Beneficiaries who are in traditional Medicare may not have coverage for those same services unless they are able to purchase a supplemental plan or they qualify for Medicaid, Jacobson said.

Seek outside help

When it comes to comparing Advantage plans, beneficiaries do not have to go it alone, Cubanski noted.
State-based organizations — the State Health Insurance Program, or SHIP — provide assistance to Medicare beneficiaries to help sort through their plan options.
Unlike insurance brokers or other professionals, these organizations do not have a financial interest to sign people up for certain plans, Cubanski said. More

Annual car insurance premiums would rise by 8% in 2025 if tariffs on Canada and Mexico take effect, according to Insurify. They would rise by 5% without such duties, it said.
Trump proposed a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, which may start in March.
Tariffs are expected to raise costs for cars and parts, making it more expensive for insurers to repair or replace automobiles after a wreck.

Nitat Termmee | Moment | Getty Images

The Trump administration’s tariff policies may raise auto insurance premiums for motorists, according to a new Insurify analysis. This at a time when drivers continue to see costs soar amid pandemic-era inflation.
A 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico — which may take effect as soon as March — would increase annual full-coverage car insurance premiums by 8% to $2,502, on average, by the end of 2025, according to Insurify.

It estimates average annual premiums would rise 5% by year-end, to $2,435, without tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Tariffs are expected to make cars and auto parts imported from Canada and Mexico — which are major suppliers for the U.S. market — more expensive. As a result, insurers pay out more money in claims when policyholders get into car accidents, and they pass on that financial risk to consumers via higher premiums.
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“When people think about tariffs, they typically think about goods they might get from somewhere else,” said Matt Brannon, a data journalist at Insurify who authored the analysis. “Many times, we don’t think about services like car insurance.”
He called the estimates of tariff impact “conservative.”

Trump tariffs proposed so far

The Trump administration has proposed tariffs on several fronts during its first month in power.
Trump imposed a 10% additional tariff on all imports from China, starting on Feb. 4. Across-the-board tariffs on Canada and Mexico were also set to take effect that day, before the White House delayed them by a month.
About six out of every 10 auto replacement parts used in U.S. auto shop repairs are imported from Mexico, Canada and China, according to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. Some car components cross the border multiple times before final assembly.
Trump also signed a sweeping plan for retaliatory tariffs on global trading partners, after a review set to be completed by early April. He signed an order to raise duties on aluminum and steel to 25%, up from 10%, and called for a 25% tariff on automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Economists don’t necessarily expect all tariffs to take effect. Trump may be wielding them as a tool to extract concessions from trading partners, they said.
“However, using tariffs as a negotiation tool doesn’t mean no imposition of tariffs,” Bank of America Securities economists wrote Friday in a research note. Those experts don’t anticipate Canada or Mexico tariffs will come to pass.
However, if they do, they’d likely exacerbate already soaring premiums for cars, parts and insurance premiums, experts said.

“Threats of 25% tariffs on the North American borders — proposed, now delayed — would disrupt more than three decades of free trade across North America and rattle every corner of the automobile business, while proposed ‘reciprocal’ tariffs would add further price pressure to an auto industry already facing affordability issues,” Cox Automotive wrote in a recent commentary.
Motor vehicle insurance premiums are up by 12% in the past year, according to the consumer price index.
Insurance costs began to rise quickly in 2022 and 2023 as Americans worked from home less often and commuted to work more frequently, Brannon said.
“A lot more people hit the road at the same time, which led to more accidents,” he said. More