I was just given a new (used) car by a grandparent who is giving up driving.
I went online to update my insurance policy and was a little taken aback at how much more it was going to cost me per month; basically double.
So, for kicks, I went to a different company’s website and put in my info, and came out with a premium for two vehicles that is slightly less than what I currently am paying for one.
I didn’t pull the trigger because I want to read a little and see if there are any downsides to changing insurance providers, but I was floored at the difference. I had kind of assumed that all providers basically charged the same amount. Guess I was wrong.
Kind of mundane and pointless, but the moral is: periodically compare premiums, occasionally the difference might surprise you!
If you stay with that insurer, the price will climb to a higher rate than a new customer would get, even if you make no claims.
If you continually switch to get the lowest rates, you soon won’t get them. Insurers share information on some things and allowing someone to consistently get low rates isn’t in their best interest.
I compare rates every four years. I end up switching about every eight.
Back when I was selling the stuff I was constantly reminded, “If you sell on price alone, you’ll die.” That’s because every company has good years and bad years, and their premiums will fluctuate to maintain the balance between being competetively-priced and remaining solvent.
Different people want different things from their insurer. Some are concerned only with staying legal for the lowest cost possible, others are willing to pay a little more for a company that will educate them on the product and have a human being available at a moment’s notice when things go wrong.
With regard to jumping from company to company, I’ve found that by remaining with the same folks for a very long time I’ve accrued some serious discounts. Of the companies I would consider doing business with, nobody can come close to enticing me based on cost alone.
I’ll second the “caveat emptor” message. I have been with the same company for over 20 years. I am sure I could find cheaper coverage, but over the years my agent has provided great service when I needed it. He will walk me through the options and has, on more than one occasion, saved me from unnecessary hassle and expense. To me, that’s worth paying for.
I’m not so sure about staying with the same company…
My son will be 18 in February, I added him and his 1997 Ford Ranger to my policy when he got his license, total for that and my 2001 toyota was 480.00/6 months. The next year, despite no claims, they wanted 950.00 for exactly the same thing. I was able to get it back to 450.00 by going with another company. He won’t be a new driver forever, nor will he be on my insurance for much longer, so if you’re throwing a kid into the mix, my suggestion is to shop around.
My rates had pushed up too high about 6-7 years back so I switched companies (through the same agent). All is well, right?
Nope. My policy number was my social security number. :eek:
Holy fucking hell. You mean I get into an accident and I give the other driver my insurance and drivers license and I’ve just handed him everything necessary to steal my identity? I complained to our state Attorney General’s Office about it and they said that it wasn’t illegal, so there wasn’t anything they could do about it, but that they would definitely take it up with that company and strongly advise them that this was a Bad Idea™.
Needless to say, I switched back.
I’m struggling to remember what company that was, but I can’t think of it.
Years ago I worked in the brokerage office of a large insurance company. Agents would call our office when their customer’s auto policy was being cancelled by the parent company due to too many accidents, driving violations and/or claims.
My job was to write auto policies through other companies which would accept these high risk policies. This allowed the agent to provide options for customers who threatened to take all their insurance (homeowner’s, business liability, and more) elsewhere.
The company I placed those polices with only counted the worst violation related to a given incident on a given day. So if a customer got busted for Speeding while Fleeing from Police while Driving Under the Influence resulting in an At Fault Accident the company I wrote through only counted the Fleeing from Police. Our home company counted them all.
Occasionally this underwriting quirk resulted in my quote coming back cheaper than what the agent’s customer was paying even before the latest violation that caused the policy cancellation. Agents were not always happy with this since the customers obviously expected premiums to rise with a new violation.
I looked at different insurance rates last year. Turned out the least expensive available was only $20 less than what I’d been paying. Somebody told me it’s because of where I live as opposed to the car I drive.
I’ve been with the same company for almost 20 years. I’ve accrued many discounts for being “a valued customer”. Still, I like to keep my options open.
I had the same insurance for about 15 years (over two different cars) finally days before I was due to pay my 6 month premium I decided for the hell of it to get a quote from another company. It was unbelievable, they actually offered me slightly better coverage for literally half the cost. I had asked my previous company several times to review what I had and see if there was something they could do and they always just said my premium “is what it is”. I dropped them immediately after getting the quote and haven’t looked back.
Along this line when you have a claim and need the insurance company there can be a huge difference in claims handling between the cheap guy and one of the majors.
Being in the auto repair business I have seen this first hand. I have seen the majors bend over backwards to please a customer after a claim. The cheap guys? Not so much.
My husband and I changed insurance companies when we got married, due to annoyance with our old companies, and have a single policy. Several years into our coverage, I got into a minor fender-bender that was my fault, and was ticketed for failure to yield to a traffic signal. I didn’t make a claim on the insurance, but the other driver did, plus dragged out a potential lawsuit for years. Around 3-4 years (IIRC) after the accident, she finally filed suit. Through this whole thing, our company was really supportive, the agents were always reassuring (with at least one “I know this is new for you, but trust me, we deal with worse every day” talk). Once the summons was served, they assigned me a lawyer who assured me I didn’t have to show for the first proceeding, explained everything, and finally got it dismissed (under some legal explanation that basically meant something like “this was a simple thing and you fucked around and dragged it out forever apparently just to be a jerk”). It’s been about 5 years (again IIRC) since the accident and not only did our rates never go up, but we also have a good driver discount! That was our only claim/ticket/anything. I’m pretty sure that if we had been a new customer, we might not have been treated so well.
“Hello, my insurance sales person!”
“Hi and how may we help you?”
“It has come to my attention that XYZ insurance company is about $100 cheaper per quarter than you guys so I’m thinking I should change…”
<frantic keyboard clicking and some heavy breathing>
“We can do better than that. How does this deal sound”?
Seriously I’ve done this several times. No need to change companies. Just casually toss out the notion and they’ll be licking your toes, trying to figure out how to stay competitive.
We have the same insurance for house and car. We had two claims for cars and one for the house in the same year. Our rates went up, but, we got great service, but our rates went up. We’ll try calling to see if we can get them back down.
I’ve seen some big differences between insurers. I looked into the gecko company and they had a rate that was a bit less than I was paying, but then I saw that it was for 6 months, not a year! I thought that was a sneaky way to quote, who buys insurance for 6 months?
Also check the amount you’re insured for! When I was insurance shopping, I found some great rates, but they were for the minimum amount of insurance in my state, which is $20,000 per accident. Even with a simple accident, fixing one or more cars and even a couple medical visits will exceed that very quickly, and then you are personally liable for the remainder. I called places and got quotes for $100,000 per accident, which seems much more reasonable.