Just cancelled my Insurance with a company I have been with for 40 years

We left GEICO, went to Erie. Two cars, full tort, stacked, $200 deductible, and still a 150/mo savings.

 

I could he wrong but I was under the impression that rate increases have almost nothing to do with your driving history/insurance history.

I live in a high populated area so people be gettin in accidents every hour or so which causes the insurance companies to payout causing my rate to go up :shrug: like I said maybe i have that wrong.

Fair is another topic.

 

That is what they told me. On the first major rate increase, I asked what the cause was and they said it’s uninsured drivers, increasing body shop and replacement parts cost, and inflation in general. I live in a low crime rural area and me and gf only drive like 8k miles a year between the two of us.

My last 6 month renewal offer was $1250 for two vehicles with Farmer’s, switched to progressive and it was $760. I bought and added a brand new Tacoma and it bumped to $995. Same coverage in both policies, and Farmer’s even had my homeowner’s insurance bundled in.

 

My family had been with AllState for many, many years. When I became an adult, with my own vehicle, I stayed with them as well. They took good care of me for close to 20 years. Then... I got hit in a grocery store parking lot as I was backing out of a parking space. Didn't even dent the rear bumper of my Dodge 3/4 ton 4x4 truck, but the guy that hit me had some hood and grill damage. We exchanged insurance info. I never even bothered to submit a claim for my truck. Well, several months later, when my policy was coming up for renewal, I got the new invoice - it had almost doubled! This was in 2007. AllState was running toms of TV commercials about "accident forgiveness" and all that happy shit. I had never had any accidents until that day, so silly me, I assumed I would receive this "forgiveness" benefit. I sent a letter back with my normal payment, reminding them of the "forgiveness" benefit, and also that I had never once had any claims filed against my policy. A couple weeks later, my Agent called me and says "you need to understand, AllState only offers that 'forgiveness' in certain States, and California is not one of them. So you are stuck with the new, higher rate." I responded "No, I'm not. If that is the BS game AllState is playing, false advertising and all, I will drop you and go with another carrier immediately", which is exactly what I did.

Up until that point, the AllState TV commercials touting their "accident forgiveness" did not have any written disclaimers. A few months after I fired off a very harsh letter to their CEO, I started to see they had indeed added the "Not available in California" tag to their TV adds. I can't say it was directly because of me, but I don't care any more.

 

$2,000 is a lot of creeping.....We shall see what we shall see.

 

Its weird how companies would rather take better care recruiting new members vs retention of current one. I never understood that.

Im with state farm and pay 960/6mo just for my tacoma.

 

Let's not forget all the insurance companies that have their names on stadiums and arenas.

 

And less likely to leave as well..

Yup. Be it that my mom's insurance replaced her vehicle after an unlicensed/uninsured hit her and ran, and was not cited or arrested when caught..or that they go by your place of residence in general.

I think sometimes insurance companies jack rates in part trying to get out of certain states, hoping you'll just drop them and hasten the exit.

I'm not sure what you mean by "full tort"?

It's your driving history, claim history, the place you live in (even just for basic insurance) among other things. Even if I only had basic, if I'm in a high accident area then in theory I could still cause an accident and my insurance is paying for the other vehicle/people and whatnot.

That's insane, so this person hits you and it's his fault, you didn't file, how did that work? I might be missing something of course.

I think that great wise man Al Bundy said it all..."Insurance is like marriage..you pay, pay, pay, you never get anything back!"

 

Let’s not forget your late model car might be spying on you.
I saw USAA did an inquiry to my credit report. When I called they said people with bad credit are typically high risk.
My credit had just jumped from 750 to 805 in the past 6 months so I asked a where my discount was. They said it doesn’t work “that way” but I guarantee if my credit had gone down they would have popped my premium.

 

They don't. Retention is king for any well run insurance company. It costs a ton of money to acquire a new customer. It's much cheaper to retain a good existing customer. We talk about retention on a daily basis at work, and have for years and years.

 

Advertising, how does it work?

 

You’d never know by the way they piss all over existing policyholders. I’m constantly being courted by other companies. If you call and tell your current insurance company that you’re leaving for 50 dollars a month they just don’t care.
I switch companies every five years or so.

 

I'm not saying none of them do that. I'm saying the well run companies don't. Customer acquisition is expensive. Customer retention is not.

 

I treat insurance like refinancing a loan, I'll rate shop every so often to see who offers best rates, benefits etc
Easy to be a loyal customer, corps can be not so loyal

 

^ every consumer should do this.

 

Same. I comparison shop every November. I have not had an insurance policy last longer than three years since 2014.

 

I have a Bro in law who has sold Allstate my entire adult life and he said don't be loyal to them (any of them) 10 yrs. ago. They are ALL about profits for the next 6 mths, not your well being.

 

Damn, that seems like solid advice actually, its just such a pain in the ass to always change companies. But I like money soooo

 

I'm no insurance expert, but my guess is, the other person contacted my insurance to report it to them. No idea what he may have said to them, but they did become aware of the matter somehow. It definitely was BS that my rates went up when my carrier didn't have to pay out anything, they just raised my rate because I had been involved in a small fender bender.

 

I was referring to the money insurance companies spend on naming rights.
Example,The Milwaukee Brewers stadium used to called Miller Park. Now it's American Family Stadium.