My apologies if this has been done before but I didn’t see anything in my search.
All of my expenses - rent, telephone, internet, electric - are billed monthly. Except for car insurance, which must be paid every six months*. Who on earth decided that was a good idea, and why?
*To be fair, I have arrangements with my car insurance company to make monthly payments, but it’s still a six-month policy.
I don’t know. My insurance is annual, but then I don’t live “East of Lake Wobegone”. Also, my power is quarterly.
Telephone, electric and, depending on your ISP, internet vary in cost based on usage so there’s really no convenient way to do annual or semi-annual billing. Rent/mortgage is usually such a large expense that most people would be unable to pay any more than one month of it at a time. Car insurance falls somewhere in the middle. It doesn’t vary by month and it usually isn’t so much that a person can’t afford to pay half of it at a shot.
I asked this question some time ago and was told that one year policies would be in violation of state (Georgia) law.
I live in MA and my policy is for 1 year - July 1 to July 1. I do my boss’s insurance for his cars in three different states (FL, RI, and MA) and they are all 6-month policies - even the MA one. Different insurance company than the one I have, though.
I live in MA and my policy is for 1 year - July 1 to July 1. I do my boss’s insurance for his cars in three different states (FL, RI, and MA) and they are all 6-month policies - even the MA one. Different insurance company than the one I have, though.
I live in NJ. We have annual policies and have the option of paying the premium in installments over 8 months. At any time I can pay ahead or pay the whole thing. I can’t imagine why there would be any kind of law saying a particular contract has to be for 6 months.
I’m in PA, and appreciate being raped only twice per year.
Oh, I don’t think there’s a law of any sort; just custom. Everyone I know pays car insurance semi-annually, but from the comments I see here that could just be a Minnesota thing.
And I’m not talking about the length of a policy, either - just payment arrangements. Why pay for a policy, as you do, over eight months, rather than 12 monthly payments?
Those are just the options my company offers. Each month’s payment has a $3 service fee added. I can’t take any MORE than 8 (or maybe it’s 9) months to pay, but if I want to I can pay it all at once and have no service fee. It’s kinda nice at the end of the policy year to have some months with no payments to make. I am guessing that the company finds it more profitable to do it that way.
I have no complaints if they are more profitable because at the end of the year they give back a bonus to all policyholders based on the year’s profits. So in addition to having the lowest rates in NJ, I get a Christmas present of a few hundred dollars every year. The company is NJ Manufacturer’s and you can’t get their prime insurance unless you are accident- and ticket-free for 3 years, have no teenagers in the house, and your employer is a member of a particular organization.
What’s interesting is that I have my car and renter’s insurance through the same carrier, and the car is semi-annual and the renter’s is annual.
Hmmmm…Triple A offers me the option of paying monthly or less often, so I just pay up the whole thing for a year so I don’t have to think about it.
Likewise I have AAA. You can get either a 6-month policy or a 12-month policy. I get the 12-monther, and pay it all at once. I used to get the six-monther when I didn’t know there was a 12-month policy available. But in both policy terms, you can take the option to pay for a certain number of months – I think five months and eight months, with a $3.00 for each month you choose to make a payment.
More anecdata, from the right side of the pond… car insurance is usually annual, although mine is 10 months (“bonus accelerator” they call it - you earn one year’s no-claims bonus in 10 months, plus of course they get the benefit that you are comparing their price for 10 months’ cover with rivals’ prices for a year… :rolleyes: )
Power, water and telephone bills are quarterly, generally.
I pay monthly off my CC (air miles). I don’t pay any service charge but my insurance renews every 90 days. It’s both a good and bad thing, as my insurance goes down randomly throughout the year, but will go up if I get a ticket rather quickly 
My policy renews every year, and I make payments monthly all year for it. I could pay it off sooner or all at once and it’d be cheaper, but the money thing doesn’t quite work out that way right now. Other people I know have 6-month policies; it’s just a matter of personal preference. If you maintain a clean driving record I doubt it matters much: X dollars twice a year vs. 2X dollars once a year.
I am also in PA. My car insurance company accepts only cash or check for payment, none of this biannual rape nonsense.
Same here. I take the ‘minimum amount due’ option with both, though (despite the stupid service fee), so I have a car insurance payment every month, but renter’s insurance payments only 6-8 months of every year. Someday I will be able to afford to pay both premiums when they are first billed. 
FWIW, my water bill comes quarterly but everything else is monthly. Oh, and I live in the DC area.
Ontario here - I pay car insurance monthly (well, 11 months out of the year, as the first payment is a double payment). I also pay renter’s insurance monthly, with the same insurance company. Both are direct withdrawl from my bank account, so I only have to remember to check that it’s on each bank statement I receive. Works well for me.
Phone and cable internet are billed monthly as well, hydro bi-monthly, and water is included in our rent, so I don’t know when the actual bill is due, but I suppose you could say we pay for it monthly.
With a six month policy, they can raise your rate twice a year instead of once a year. :smack: