Any advice on shopping vehicle insurance rates?

What about 2020-2022 when claims were at record lows because people were not driving? We kept paying the same and they paid out way way less. Seems corrupt

 

Correct, carriers claimed to be lowering rates due to record profits (no one was driving) but that didnt happen.

w.o going too offtopic, I would just really shop around. I was able to recently get a great policy from progressive for less than what I was paying at geico, and im in CA.

 

Counting my blessings regarding insurance after reading this thread. I've been with State Farm since 2001. Full coverage on my (small) home, 2020 Tacoma and 2014 Ford Fusion is costing just under $1900 a year. No claims, no tickets and I'm retired and driving maybe 10K a year with the Tacoma. I was hosed by Nationwide many years ago on a bait and switch but otherwise, I guess I've been lucky with insurance.

 

This was me a handful of days ago...

 

All of the major insurers refunded billions in premiums.

Claims are measured in 2 ways. Frequency (how many claims are there), and severity (how much does the claim cost). During Covid, frequency plummeted, which was expected, and which is what led to the premuim refunds. However, severity actually increased during Covid, which insurance companies did not expect. When things started opening back up, frequency increased, which was expected, but severity took off like a rocket, which was not expected, at least not to that degree. Driving habits took a turn for the worse during Covid. Then, severity continued to increase due to part delays, which caused increased repair timeframes and subsequent huge rental car bills. It also resulted in more total losses.

The supply chain aspect has only (mostly) shaken itself out in the past year. Severity is still much higher than in 2019, but is not really trending upward now. It's mostly leveled off. Frequency is actually dropping.

What all of us as consumers are now experiencing is that most companies still have not figured out how to underwrite auto risks in the post-Covid world. There are currently 3 major/mid-level auto insurers making a profit on their auto insurance. Progressive, Sentry, and Geico. That's it. And as noted earlier by another poster, Geico doesn't really want new business right now. They are growing, but very slowly, and that was intentional on their part.

Homeowners is an absolute mess in CA and FL. In FL, I don't think it's fixable. When you have huge companies like Farmers and State Farm walking away, it's terrible for consumers.

The bottom line is that every company has raised rates, and most of them will continue to do so for at least the next year or two. The ONLY way to know if you are getting the best price for YOU is to get multiple quotes for the same coverages from multiple companies and compare them. Anyone who tells you "This company is the cheapest," or "Around here, Allstate's rates are best" has no clue what they're talking about, and you shouldn't listen to them about anything, ever.

 

Yeah just shop around.

Check with insurance brokers as well, however my luck was abysmal with them.

Also PSA don't lie to insurance carriers

 

So I called my second carrier and it was 600$ off, same vehicle. Using a broker is key.

I have been with the same carrier for 20 years and its time to cancel.

 

You cant use the same carriers for long periods of time, deals go to new customers. Adjustments ensure you pay more over time.

Realistically, you should be shopping around every 1-2 years.

 

In Canada its a lot less competitive, but since 2020 its become more like the states where you cant sit still.

I was married to an agent and my policy was cheaper than her own company rates, so I was doing good for years.

I was surprised but also not, so I'll get into the new routine, 1-2 years for sure.

 

Auto insurance has an interesting position in this recent list (Jun 12 2024):



from here:
https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/price-inflation-222903168.html

 

claims are measured in WAY more than just two “ways”. not sure where you get your info from?

do you ever watch berkshire’s investor meetings??? have you seen geico’s numbers?

only three profitable insurance companies? please show me a citation for this information.

 

i dropped tons of pro tips here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ask-an-insurance-expert-the-insurance-non-bs-thread.620973/

 

I have seen GEICO's numbers. In fact, my director and his management group (including me) just reviewed them with our Head of Claims 2 weeks ago. 3 companies are in the upper right quadrant of the growth/profitability matrix. Those 3. I didn't say there were only 3 profitable insurance companies. I said currently, only 3 of the major/mid-level auto insurers are turning a profit on their auto insurance, as in on the product itself. There were no companies in the lower right quadrant, which would be profitability/negative growth (an oxymoron indeed). State Farm was profitable due to their investment income, but had a combined ratio in the 1.18 range, which is high even for them.

There are all sorts of internal metrics that we use to track claims info, but everything is driven off of frequency and severity. Always will be. If you can forecast frequency and control severity, you're golden.

 

cite?

“we” use way more than two metrics to rate claims.

 

I'll see if I can get the screen shot of that portion of the presentation when we had our discussion. It was really eye opening. There are a handful of pretty well known companies who are really in a bad spot when it comes to auto profitability.

We could discuss LAE, cost per feature, and any other number of internal metrics I suppose. But again, Del Griffith-level of boredom would ensue.

By we, I meant my employer.

 

Don't be a bad driver.

No accidents, records, etc.

 

That sure does help, but even that's not enough to guarantee anything. Especially in this climate.

 

not arguing with you but would like to see the data. especially if you had combined ratios for all of the companies involved.

 

true. you also have to worry about your neighbor’s accidents.

 

We did. Very eye opening. Sentry had the lowest CR of any company listed. Progressive and Geico had comparable CR's, still under a 1.00 though. Progressive's growth is way ahead of Geico's. Sentry's growth was in between the 2.

SF has never cared about losing money on their auto product itself, but even they won't tolerate a 1.18 CR. There was one company in particular...Erie, IIRC (??) that had a ridiculously bad CR. Like in the 1.30 range. We'd fire everyone if our CR was 1.30. Hell, we went over .96 back in late 2016, and we were told...and I swear on my kids this is true..."No one is allowed to order 2017 desk calendars!" The calendars were like $2.29 each.