My BF and I argue about this, he insists I am paying more.
My insurance situation is complicated by my rental properties, but still, she just saved me $500 on my car insurance (yeah, I know, it sounds like a commercial) buy having me sign a paper to allow the insurance co. to run my credit. They had still insanely old info. dating previous to my husbands death 16 years ago and considered me high risk because of that.
He was a great one for moving balances from credit card to credit card to take advantage of offers. When he died, I found a wad of cards and canceled all of them. But apparently the ins. co can’t run your credit without specific authorization. So all those card and available credit, even tho’ it wasn’t, pulled me into a high risk category.
It would be pretty easy to find out. Have your agent quote him with identical coverage and have him see if he can find you identical coverage on his own. Can either of you save the other money?
Personally, I have a broker. Every year or two (or when I call) she looks at quotes from all the insurance companies she does business with, presents me with the best deal, and asks me if I want to switch. When I first started with her I was moving everything I had from American Family to her. She had some higher coverage amounts because the company she works for has some minimums as a rule (don’t know if it’s so they get you better coverage or so they make more money), but even with that, I was saving a few hundred a year.
They’re also good and knowing what company is good at what. For example, last year she split my motorcycle off my homeowner/umbrella/car insurance. According to her, the company I’m with has high rates for bikes and it’s cheaper to put the bike on Progressive.
While I haven’t gone and quoted any of these things on my own, I’ve yet to find a downside.
Also, to clarify something, you mentioned an insurance agent. That’s someone that works for that company. I’m talking about a broker. They don’t work for a specific company. The nice part about that is that they don’t have any loyalty to that company. If you tell an agent your rates are getting to high, they’ll see how they can change your policy. Higher deductibles, lower coverage, do you really need an umbrella? If I tell my broker that my rates are too high, those questions might come up, buy they’ll also have 10 other insurance companies they can get quotes from in a matter of minutes.