Most liked posts in thread: Insurance rates- thinking of changing

I use Erie Insurance for everything because they just don't accept high risk drivers and the rates are very good.

Here is the funny little story I will share. I was accepted by Eric Insurance as an exceptional driver when I was in my late 30's and have earned a preferred drivers status since.

My mother, who has passed years ago, was excepted at age 65 and dropped after she had 2 accidents. (Unsafe driver) Now granted she never drove in her entire life until my father passed and at that time she was 63. It took her 2 years to buy a car and "learn" how to drive. She was like a 16 year old girl behind the wheel in a 65 year old body and gave up driving two years later after 4 accidents and several other "driving" problems.

She hit a gas station, Home Depot, her hair dressers salon ( yes 3 separate buildings ) and drove over a high curb. Those we just the accidents she also did among several other things like driving 30 miles with the parking break on, leave her windows down in the rain and snow, and locked the keys in the car with it still running several times for hours. Oh when I say hours I should say several hour for several days. Once she filled up the car took it home and parked it but did not turn it off and it ran for 4 days straight until it ran the tank bone dry. Seriously you can't make up the stuff she did.

It just goes to show driving is not for everyone. :lol:

I ended up being her personal driver after we sold her Tank / Ford Taurus back to the dealer ship with only 4K miles on it in 4 years. :lol:

God bless her soul and I hope she is not driving in heaven.

 

If you have been with the same company for more than a few years and have no claims I can just about guarantee that you are getting the best rates possible with your current company. I occasionally shop around for bundled insurance and can never beat my current rate by enough ( if at all) to justify changing.

 

Since I retired from USAA it makes sense that everything I have is insured with USAA. I've had them since 1976. I stopped comparing rates with other companies a long time ago. Being with one insurance company for roughly 40 years is worth more than a few dollars I might save by jumping around from company to company every year or so.

 

I have Travelers (homeowners, too).
Lately, every couple years, the rate goes up a couple hundred a year
for the both of us, and when I ask my agent to look at other alternatives,
they offer me a rate for Travelers again pretty close to the previous rate.

Funny how these things work. I really think they make it up as they go along
and see what they can get away with.

 

It is about more than the low price....
If you qualify for USAA (usually ex military, or the child of on, etc) they are routely rated number 1, and often 2 or 3 best prices....heck, they gave me a rebate last year for $75 since they had less payouts than expected....yes, it is run for the benefits of the customers, aka, owners....great to deal with...even do my banking with them...yes, they are also a bank....What's America's Favorite Insurance Company? | Credit.com
Here is a listing of the top 15 companies by customer satisfaction...

 

I have always bundled my homeowners, cars, and bikes with State Farm. Every time I have refi'd my house or purchased a new house, the mortgage people would tell me that my homeowners rates seemed high. I was tempted to shop around, but then I had a bad accident a couple years ago when an uninsured driver basically ran me over while I was on one of my cycles. A week in the trauma unit, two surgeries, months of rehab....that was not fun at all.

State Farm went above and beyond my expectations for customer service during that big mess and I ended up with basically my full policy limits for a settlement in the end. So for me customer service is a higher priority now than having the absolute cheapest rate.

 

I have had State Farm since '79 except for 4 years in Michigan. They insure the 4 cars, the house, the business, and 2 life policies. The service is great every time I've needed it and a lot of it comes from the agent. I've looked at different prices over the years and never found a reason to change.

If the price is going up talk to your agent. They can find ways to get it back down. (I found VWs are always more expensive to insure)

Here's an example: My wife's car get broken into at Riverfront parking when she worked in downtown Cincy. It was a Friday evening. She called me and I called the agent. The next morning I GOT a call from a local glass shop that I had an appointment for anytime that day to get the window replaced. That is a great agent.

 

You are correct a good agent can make all the difference. We have stuck with ours for 32 years.

 

I shopped around a lot a couple of years ago and found no better combination of coverage, service and cost than a bundled policy from Nationwide. I changed from American Family because the company screwed me on a storm damage claim on my house; after I filed a complaint, AmFam started giving me problems with my life insurance policies too.

 

Just be glad you have a choice.
We have provincial run insurance.

For example. My 2014 ram 2500 is about $1500 a year. Sticker was about $70K.

My 06 jcw is $1300 a year. Paid 10k for it.

There's no rhyme or reason.

 

USAA for everything here.....have been extremely pleased with them.

 

I've been with GEICO for several years now and have been happy with them. I Joined USAA on recommendation from a good friend who uses them for everything from banking to insurance. They couldn't come close enough to matching the rates I have with GEICO for the same coverage for me to consider changing. I do all my banking with a local Credit Union so that was not a factor.

 

Google has launched a website for auto insurance comparison shopping:

https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance/form?p=home

Google Launches A New Tool To Sell Car Insurance To U.S Web Searchers | TechCrunch

 

Tossed in an Ohio and a Texas zip code. Neither state has this available yet from Google.

 

We've had State Farm for over 25 years. We currently bundle two cars and a truck, along with our home. That has seemed to work very well for us, although we may make an adjustment to the bundling aspect of our policy in a few weeks...

 

I tried Michigan and the Google tool failed there too.

 

My homeowner's insurance seems high. I have pointed out that the dwelling is
insured for about 3 x its market value, but they say they have to base it on
full replacement cost (i.e. total rebuild after a disaster or fire) which is much higher
than its current worth.

 

I am shopping for insurance as we speak. The rate for insurance of my 'new to me' 2005 R52 S, if I bundle it with my current home/auto policy, is aprox. $850.00 per year. When I was into restoring air-cooled VW's, I used Hagerty Insurance as the VW's were not daily drivers, but just 'pleasure and hobby' drivers. I called Hagarty and the rate was $440.00 per year, for comparable coverage. One of the requirements is that you have another car to use as a daily driver. As I plan to use my MINI as a 'fun' car, this works for me.

 

I've had Farmer's insurance for almost forty years. I've shopped around and haven't seen any savings big enough to get me to switch companies.

 

When we were in Michigan the insurance was so expensive that we joined the farm co-op and got farm insurance for the cars. We didn't have a farm but they didn't care.