topic Re: Auto Insurance in Personal Finance

Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 12:08:35 GMT

I'm looking for leads for auto insurance coverage for four drivers. We are currently insured through Progessive and the premiums will be due in just over a month so i'm looking to see if I can get less costly coverage.

We're a family of four with one "young" driver under the age of 25. We've had two cars totaled in the last two years so I'm actually surprised that Progressive hasn't dropped us from coverage but I'm sure our premiums reflect our costs to them and will rise again when renewed. In 2018 my wife was t-boned and her car totaled but she wasn't found at fault. Then last December my daughter was driving home from college, hit a patch of black ice on the freeway, lost control and ended up in the weeds in the median. Her car was totaled because water got into the engine compartment. She was cited by the state patrol for driving too fast for the conditions; the only violation among the four of us.

I'm aware that I can get insurance through a credit union and I'm a member of Baxter (BCU), Langley, NFCU, and PenFed credit unions. In the past I've gotten offers directly from credit unions and more recently from Travelers who I suspect is using a credit union marketing tie-in but I haven't kept any of the mailers. Any leads/options will be appreciated.

Re: Auto Insurance

Mv350 — Sat, 02 May 2020 12:36:36 GMT

I had good luck with Geico, and with certain Alumni associations, you could get discounts. I might end up switching back next year, I'm currently with AAA of southern california.

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 13:52:44 GMT

I did some comparison shopping since my Progressive policy renews in June and got a pretty good quote from Erie Insurance.

Re: Auto Insurance

Gmood1 — Sat, 02 May 2020 14:53:27 GMT

Maybe get a State Farm quote? I switched over from USAA last year. To my surprise, State Farm beat them by almost $300 a year on auto insurance. No one else came close in my state.

Glad my dear sis and illegitmate mother weren't serverely injured in their accidents.

Re: Auto Insurance

Adkins — Sat, 02 May 2020 14:51:43 GMT

We have county mutual (I think that's what it's called), through Travelers. Not even USAA has been able to match their price, but we've had them for years at this point.

Re: Auto Insurance

M_Smart007 — Sat, 02 May 2020 15:07:45 GMT

Find a good insurance broker!

I found one, they shopped hundreds of Insurance Companies ..

They ended up putting me with Mercury Insurance,

I pay around a little over $400 for (2) cars per year.

Less than 1/2 of what I had paid before.

Re: Auto Insurance

Mr_Mojo_Risin — Sat, 02 May 2020 15:12:50 GMT

I got a really discount for Geico from my NFCU membership. Saved me almost 50$ a month.

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 17:58:48 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:

Find a good insurance broker!

I found one, they shopped hundreds of Insurance Companies ..
They ended up putting me with Mercury Insurance,
I pay around a little over $400 for (2) cars per year.

Less than 1/2 of what I had paid before.

@M_Smart007 It figures, the best drivers get the best rates! There ought'a be a law!

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 19:24:00 GMT

Another mention for Geico, as they have an NFCU discount in addition to several others. I used to be with Progressive but after several years with no rate reduction and a clean record I finally switched. 2 cars runs me about $589 for 6 months. So it seems even I'm being raked over the coals based on Smartz rates.

Then again i'm not fond of small time offices that cannot assist you in the middle of the night on a Saturday on a cold and lonely road.

maybe its time for a rate renegotiation...

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 19:48:20 GMT

Try Progressive's web site. Last month I was able to substantially lower my premiums while keeping the exact same coverage. Second time I've done that.

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 19:59:57 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Maybe get a State Farm quote? I switched over from USAA last year. To my surprise, State Farm beat them by almost $300 a year on auto insurance. No one else came close in my state.

Glad my dear sis and illegitmate mother weren't serverely injured in their accidents.

@Gmood1 I plan to really take a good look at what's available; I just have the feeling that we could do better elsewhere. I'm surprised you'd switch from USAA since according to all I've heard they consistently have the best deals.

They are fine although your "mom" is still upset over the loss of her summer car. She was in the studio audience for Oprah's last Favorite Things show and got a redesigned Volkswagen Beetle as one of the gifts. Your sister was fine except for some slight bruising from the seatbelt. The next day she and the rest of the family flew to the Caribbean for a two week holiday and left me behind to clean up the insurance mess

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 20:01:21 GMT

@Adkins wrote:
We have county mutual (I think that's what it's called), through Travelers. Not even USAA has been able to match their price, but we've had them for years at this point.

Thanks for the recommendation; just by sheer coincidence I got a mailer from Travelers earlier today.

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 20:05:46 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:

Find a good insurance broker!

I found one, they shopped hundreds of Insurance Companies ..
They ended up putting me with Mercury Insurance,
I pay around a little over $400 for (2) cars per year.

Less than 1/2 of what I had paid before.

We went through an agent (not broker) who placed us with Progressive. Someone in that agent's office is one of my wife's patients so she choose to give them our business but I sense we could do better.

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 20:06:53 GMT

@Mr_Mojo_Risin wrote:
I got a really discount for Geico from my NFCU membership. Saved me almost 50$ a month.

Thanks for that suggestion; I just found out about the tie-in between Geico and NFCU so I sent them a request for a quote.

Re: Auto Insurance

Gmood1 — Sat, 02 May 2020 20:27:52 GMT

@Anonymous

Good to hear they're all fine. Sucks you were left out of the Caribbean excursion! lol

Yeah, I had to cut USAA loose!

USAA got a bit too carried away on home insurance around here after tornadoes ripped thru my area last year.

That's what got me to looking around. If it weren't for that. I'd likely still have them. They are a top notch outfit!

I didn't want to go with too small of a insurance company.So I picked the largest in the country.

Rates have stayed the same with no uptick.

USAA began raising my home insurance several hundred dollars a year, for 3 years straight!

Re: Auto Insurance

Duke_Nukem — Sat, 02 May 2020 21:02:12 GMT

We had Progressive for years, but they kept climbing and climbing. My youngest had an accident that got entered into Progressive's system twice, but they never could delete the duplicate for some reason. Even though we were Diamond status (which included major accident forgiveness), the duplicate counted as 2 incidents jacking up our rates... essentially counted the accident anyway. Had to call in every renewal period to have it waived... meanwhile rates kept skyrocketing even though the Progressive agent said we were in the top rating for them. 4 cars @$4200 every 6 months (cars are 2004, 2009, 2014, 2017 and not expensive type at all... 2 young drivers causing this I guess).

Early last year I shopped around all carriers I could think of and found Geico and Esurance to be less than half (with the accident included). Most others were a few hundred around Progressive. Went with Geico. Geico even dropped in premium at renewal!

Interestingly, finally became a member of USAA last Summer and got a quote from them. They were over $6000 every 6 months!

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 22:49:46 GMT

Heck, I thought that removing my Mom as driver after her passing would reduce my rate. Nope, it even increased a few Dollars. I figures that driver over 65 were penalized just as drivers under 25 were, but I guess not. Also tried to remove the second vehicle, that would haev cost me 25 a month so I kept it on the policy.

Re: Auto Insurance

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2020 00:21:50 GMT

@Duke_Nukem wrote:
We had Progressive for years, but they kept climbing and climbing. My youngest had an accident that got entered into Progressive's system twice, but they never could delete the duplicate for some reason.

I work for one of the big insurance companies and hear stuff like this semi-frequently. Underwriting departments often just pull information from third-party databases like LexisNexis and sometimes duplicate claims get pulled for whatever reason. If this happens, you can usually track down the agency reporting the data and get them to fix it on their end. Same deal when at-fault decisions are recorded indirectly - likely a clerical error with a reporting agency.

GEICO and Progressive seem to offer the best rates for people with credit issues or stuff on their driving records. Injury claims (even if you're not at fault) will really jack up your premiums too.

Re: Auto Insurance

sccredit — Tue, 05 May 2020 19:14:07 GMT

I have had great luck with Progressive. We had Mercury, then switched to AAA to save some $$. Had a homeowner claim with AAA (water damage) and our home rates went up 100%. Switched to Progressive, saved $200 a year on auto and the homeowner rate was 50% of AAA. Had a homeowner claim with Progressive (Homesite, also water damage) and the rate didn't move at renewal. I have shopped USAA every year and they are NEVER competitive, DW and my driving records are spotless. Our policy is up for renewal in August and I will shop again.

Re: Auto Insurance

iced — Tue, 05 May 2020 19:20:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@M_Smart007 wrote:

Find a good insurance broker!

I found one, they shopped hundreds of Insurance Companies ..
They ended up putting me with Mercury Insurance,
I pay around a little over $400 for (2) cars per year.

Less than 1/2 of what I had paid before.
@M_Smart007 It figures, the best drivers get the best rates! There ought'a be a law!

Best rates doesn't always mean cheapest rates!

Our policy (Travelers) is two drivers (both 25+), clean records, two accidents (both times the other party was cited) and our insurance for one car is around $2,200/year. Happy with our policy, though. In both accidents, we had a concierge basically take care of everything. Offered to pick up car and took care of all repairs and paperwork/phone calls with other insurance company. They similarly make minor things like chipped windshields easy to deal with, down to calling up and making the appointments at a glass shop (or house call).

It'd be a rip-off if I never used it, but once you actually have to file a claim, my experience has been that the cheapo insurance companies (General, Geico, etc) are quick to weasel out of responsibility, lowball claims, and otherwise leave the entire hassle as an exercise to the policyholder.

If rates are the one and only factor in making the choice of who to go with, it obviously won't be a good fit.