Just got the bill to reup for 6 more months and started wondering, can I get this policy for less?
I’ve been with the current company for years and have no complaints. The two times they were needed they were there. But Good Lord these premiums are expensive and I’m feeling the hard times like most everyone else.
Has you or a close friend had a positive experience with any of the companies that advertise low cost, like GEICO or Progressive?
You would be well off to talk to an insurance broker who works with many companies. They will tell you which companies treat their customers well, and get you good rates.
The best advice is to get a 2nd vehicle that doesn’t need insurance, preferably a bicycle or moped. Then, tell the insurance company you drive your car 2-3 days a week and use the other vehicle the other days. This will cut your premiums in half.
I, for one, don’t agree that is the best advice; furthermore I’d be really surprised if it cuts your insurance premiums by half. You could say you work from home and I still don’t think it would cut your premiums by half.
I’ve been with Geico for years now and am as pleased as one can be with one’s auto insurance company.
Last year I took the bait on one of those “Lower your car insurance payment!” click-on ads. I gathered all of the info on the two vehicles, dutifully plugged it in and finally got rates from different agencies in my area. Geico was still cheaper than any of them.
One question is how old is your car. If it’s 10 years old, it’s probably not worth carrying comprehensive on. Hell, it may not be worth carrying collision on if the car is only worth a couple thousand. In El Paso, I’d probably carry uninsured motorist insurance if I was carrying either of the above, but you could get rid of that as well.
Worth looking around. I recently lowered my rate by about 70% by switching to Geico. (And I could have lowered it even more by switching to Travelers, but I had already signed up with Geico before someone got back to me with the Travelers quote.)
I was astonished - I simply didn’t imagine there was that much variation in rates. But apparently, different carriers vary widely in their assessment of different factors. (In my case, it was apparently the addition of a couple of teenage drivers to the policy.)
But the moral of the story is that it’s worth looking around.
The easiest method is to go to one (or more) of these online insurance pricing websites. (They turn around and sell your name to agents, who send you offers.)
I saved something like 40% by switching to GEICO from esurance. Then I added another car, and GEICO’s rates went up more than I expected, so I am about to switch to Progressive which is 10 or 20% less than GEICO.
Lotsa companies have longevity discounts that you can only earn with time. If you hop frequently, you stand to lose them and can end up paying more in the long run.
But if you’re all about the bucks, shop the coverage frequently and make sure you know what each of your line items covers. It’d suck if you thought something was covered only to find out you didn’t sign up for it on your new policy.
We’ve been with GEICO for a long time, and our rates keep going up, even tho the cars are older and we have one fewer driver on the account. I’m getting ready to shop again…
It looks like the Texas Department of Insurance has a pretty good online rate comparison here: http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/webinfo/onlserv9.html. You enter some basic information (location, gender, age range, etc) and it will give you sample rates from several companies.
My wife pays $800/year, I pay $400/year. I did it and I have a registered moped.
Thank you for the great advice. And Nuveena, that site is fantastic. I didn’t realize that rates are all over the board!
I’ve been with Geico for nearly 2 years and I went with them because they were cheaper for combo home/auto insurance. During the fall of the first year we got a letter from our mortgage company saying our mortgage insurance was being cancelled in Feb and wanted to know who our new provider would be. Come to find out, Geico/Travelers had cancelled us because we did not make the required improvements and submit proof to them in time. Needless to say, we were in complete shock as the only prior correspondence we had received from them was that our wood stove passed inspection and no further action was required. After speaking to someone from their “retention team” I eventually was told that there was a second letter which according to their records was mistakenly not sent out. That letter addressed issues with our deck being of a height that it would require a railing to prevent liability hazards. Well, since they never sent us that notice and they canceled us because of it, they apologized and renewed us for a year until we could build a railing. The problem is that they said that their rules state that if a deck is above 3 feet high it needs a railing. The funny thing is that our deck has two equal sized levels, one is 30" high and the other is 19" high and they said we needed a railing for the whole thing. They could never get me any specs for the railing so that I could build it to their expectations. Then to top it off I recently purchased a new car and was told that my insurance was going up $30 dollars a month which I halfway expected. I decided to call State farm and low and behold, No deck railing necessary in my case, and even with the new car our insurance is $20 less a month than what we’ve been paying Geico. That turned out to be a 22% savings for us! The slogan should read “Stray from Geico and you’ll save 15% or more on car insurance.” Thanks for reading! I had to vent.
My car just got smashed (totalled) by a fallen tree and Progressive was excellent. They offered me a very fair settlement and did it quickly. I reported the claim on .monday evening, spoke with an adjuster on the phone Tuesday morning; they had it towed wednesday (they could have done it sooner but I had to get my crap out of it); on thursday night I could read the inspection report online, and spoke with the adjuster; I mailed my title on saturday and had the check on wednesday.
I thought it all went very smoothly, they didn’t dither. As these things go, I thought it was pretty painless.
My wife works for an insurance company. My recommendation would be to talk to your agent first. Have someone at the agency check to see if you are getting the lowest rates. Sometimes things change, discounts did not get applied, etc.
If they are not helpful, then it is time to start looking.
I have GEICO, 2 cars, and nobody has been able to beat their rate.
Now keep in mind, I do not have wrecks. So if anything happened, I don’t know how good they’d be or how much hassle they’d give me.
But I do keep getting quotes.
We almost changed a couple of years ago, when Farmers had some kind of deal where they said it would be lower if we moved our homeowners and both vehicles…luckily we didn’t cancel GEICO because, despite the lower quote, when we got the actual bill, it wasn’t lower.
Once the cars were out of the picture, other places were lower for homeowners, too. And we couldn’t do our homeowners with whoever GEICO is paired with–they gave us a quote, but said we needed a new furnace (which we did).
But we have friends who switched from GEICO to (I think) American Family because they got a better rate. They don’t have wrecks either but one of them had a DUI in the last decade. YMMV.
These rates are crazy!
I was paying PEMCO about $127 a month. I then priced out a policy with Ameriprise through Costco…$86 a month. 32% savings.