My wife has used Progressive to insure her cars from before we married. My car, our house and other items are insured by another national insurance carrier. I have tried unsuccessfully tried to get her to switch several times, but the cost savings has always been negligible. I am listed as a driver on her policy, as I drive her car occasionally.
During this past year, my wife put a scratch along the passenger side doors of her car after picking up the mail from the mail box and the box door falling open as she pulled away. At the time we decided to not file a claim as we didn’t want her insurance to go up because of a small claim such as this.
Also about six months ago, I got a speeding ticket, going 45 in a 35.
Now our renewal comes up and the semi-annual premium increased from $350 to $550 (57% increase). When talking to the customer service rep at Progressive, I learned that the increase is due to my one ticket. I said it was ridiculous. He said that there was nothing they could do about, as that the one ticket counted against me according to their policies.
I called my insurance agent, and had the policy priced with them, whom I have had insurance with for the last 23 years. My speeding ticket didn’t count against me since it is the only one I have had in the last 5 years. The priced the semi-annual premium at $250, a $300 difference. Needless to say, we switched to my carrier upon the expiration of the policy.
I also filed the claim for the scratch along the car. Turns out the total cost to repair was $1,500. We paid our $500 deductible and got the car repaired.
Progressive called yesterday and left a message they were sad to hear that we had left them, and want us to call them back so they can discuss a more competitive rate. You should have been willing to discuss that when I called you in the first place. Now they’re out the original $350 premium plus the $1000 claim cost.