Insurance advice

isn't it based off your credit too ? every time iv'e tried to shop around they wanted to run my credit

 

Not sure.
There's an odometer form in the renewal packet and if it's not filled out and returned I guess they move your annual mileage up.

 

Thats what I am saying... I dont see where she clarified this wasnt a new vehicle comparison to old. Sorry I dont assume anything these days.... lol

 

I was replying to the post right above mine.

 

Try Travelers. About as cheap as I could find.

 

Insurance is kind of a Joke. You just have to keep swapping until you find a good one. I had GEICO for a few years and my insurance on my 2008 Focus years ago went up. I called and asked why my premium went up, they said and quote, "Because your year and model car had a higher insurance payout over the last year." So because everyone else was crashing their cars I had to pay more for insurance despite the fact I was not getting into accidents...dropped them for USAA and never looked back.

 

468/6 months all state

 

Had the same thing happen to me with USAA. Premium kept going up and they could not tell me why. They have great customer service, but at some point it comes down to the money. Told them I got quoted $45 cheaper a month for the same coverage and they wouldn't match, so I switched to Geico. Haven't had any problems with them through one accident and 2 glass claims (got to love Colorado roads and all the rocks).

With Geico, 300/500k bodily, 100k property with emergency roadside, rental reimbursement, mechanical breakdown, and glass coverage. $100 comp and $500 collision deductibles. Pay $85 a month.

 

In addition to the other posts:
o If you have other ins. needs (i.e. homeowners, renters, motorcycle etc.) get a bundle quote. Allstate gives me a pretty good multi-policy discount.
o Allstate also gives discounts for prepaying the whole 6 months in advance, e-policy (It's on-line, you can download you policy and print or save if you want). and e-pay (No bill in the mail, pay on-line or print bill and mail in).
o Check the details of the policy to see if there is any BS line items on there like travel ins.
o My daughter took an easy on-line smart driver course for ~$80 but reduces 6 mo premium for ~$45/6mo x 3 years
o Go see a real insurance agent, not [xxx].com they are fighting the .coms even with the same name and will compete for your business.

 

Allstate was the only one I've had ask me, but I haven't shopped them in almost 15 years.

 

Yes. Insurers use credit. The last time I checked about 95% of insurers use credit information in either rating or eligibility.

Before anyone calls bullshit, you should know that it's my area of expertise. I'm the poor bastard that has to explain to insureds why their credit information impacts their insurance rates. Basically, I get my ass chewed on a regular basis.

If you look at it using only the math part of your brain it's obvious that using credit information works. Statistically it's the single best predictor of risk. It's better at predicting risk than age, gender, or even prior loss history. All that is from a purely statistical standpoint and relies on the law of large numbers. It can't say that you as an individual have a 50% chance of having a loss in the next year, it can only say that 100,000 people with the same credit stats as you have a higher chance of filing a claim that 100,000 people with different credit statistics.

Every few years a state department of insurance spends millions trying to prove it doesn't work only to prove that it does. Texas did a huge study a few years back that had overwhelming results and shows it works better than any other tool. That doesn't mean that people like it though.

Ultimately it makes perfect sense from a math standpoint but has a significantly negative impact on the customer service side. People with poor credit get offended, leave, and end up with another carrier that is probably also using credit but being less forthcoming about it.

By the way, I know damn well that this post won't get 'liked' and I'll probably get crucified by people that just don't like insurance companies but I'm posting it anyway so people know how it works and can plan accordingly.

 

Not in California. Other states can use your credit to check for credit worthiness, but I don't know if that translates to higher or lower premium based on your score.

 

You're right. California doesn't allow it. They've admitted that it works but say that using it adversely impacts minorities since minorities have lower scores on average.

That means that responsible people in California that pay their bills have to pay a larger portion of the insurance load because the insurance companies aren't allowed to credit them for their diligence.

 

FTFY. And to OP in general, insurance isnt like a cable bill-- if they need more money for whatever reason, they raise price... nevermind, it is exactly like a cable bill. Question you need to ask yourself is: has ANYTHING changed whatsoever (mileage, vehicle, more crimes in the area, moved to a new area, etc) since they charged you last or has it just hit you out of the blue? If the latter, start shopping around but keep in mind, you do get what you pay for. Some cutrate insurance companies are nothing more than a phone number and a lost check when it comes to paying out. State farm I actually like their diligence after an accident... but I like AAA more.

 

we have progressive insurance, same thing, no accidents or claims, goes up and up,,, been with them for over 15 yrs,, wife had them quote us a new price as a new customer, it dropped 300.00 for 6 months,, my 17 pro and wife's 2016 cross-trek runs 608.00 every 6 months now. Geico quoted us 510.00 for 6 months,, we decided to stay with progressive for now,, Geico was the best rate she found..

 

Great advice here regarding uninsured/underinsured. And as a rep for country, thanks for your business.

 

I'm not disputing this, I'm just saying that is the only one that asked and made me sign anything. I actually agree with all of this. My wife and I have excellent credit, although we rarely use it since I'm not big on payments. I rather suffered through paying for the taco with cash.

I'll also confess that since that time, I chose State Farm over allstate, and then Farmers when we moved. So, I've had 2 companies in about 20 years.

Edit for thought 2: Despite credit, we actually got dropped for auto by State Farm. Claimed way too many windshields, and my wife had a few speeding tickets. "But we'd like to keep your house though!!" HA! I bet you guys would. I was upset at the time, but I feel like I owe them a huge favor. We got WAY more insurance, plus a much larger umbrella for quite a bit less after switching. No way to repay the favor unfortunately as the actuarial office in Greeley that made the decision was closed and outsourced out of state. Which I guess is a favor too since Greeley sucks.

You seem to be quite sensitive about the criticism based on your concern for being liked and description of being "crucified." Incidentally, I do like insurance companies. Granted, not auto, but I've worked for two of them (HMOs) in the past and my wife continues to do the same.

 

100% correct. I believe your occupation can have a big effect also. Some news outlet got quotes from a bunch of companies, and used different occupations, and the rates were all over the place. So I had a career change mid-life. As far as they know. I shop Progressive and GEICO every few years. I would go with GEICO because Progressive was higher, then a year later, Progressive would be cheaper than GEICO, and their own quote from a year ago. I bounced back and forth and now I've been with GEICO for 5 years. I've have had great service through a couple accidents. For the most part, having a personal agent seems to be a waste. They are nice people, that are nice to work with, but can't do anything if you have a claim. I am fine saving the extra cost of going through an agent and doing everything online.

 

There's a backstory to my mentality there and I wasn't digging at you by saying that.

There have been a number of insurance threads pop up lately. I've given some advice and cleared up some misconceptions and in every one of those threads there were people that would chime in and say things like 'insurance companies are crooks', 'insurance is a joke', 'they're out to rip you off', etc. Even outside of the forums there are a lot of people I know that think that insurance companies are borderline criminal institutions.

When I've said anything in the past defending insurance practices or attempted to explain how it all works, I have been verbally crucified. I really did expect the same to happen when I posted that and I'm shocked that it didn't happen.

 

Should we fix that for you?