Auto Insurance, Renewal next month

[Duffyjr]

I had Columbia insurance for many years and they just kept increasing my premiums little by little each year even though I have had no accidents in my life that were my fault and the only speeding ticked I've had was in 1996. Then a couple years ago they sent me a letter saying they were pulling out of our area and I would need to find a new insurance company. Best thing that could of happened, I didn't realize how much cheaper my premiums were with the new company. I pay $408 a year for full coverage on the Buick and liability on the truck, this saved me about $150 a year.

Oh and just to comment on the guy who said never buy insurance from a company that has commercials on TV, sorry it's with Flow and have you ever seen a Columbia Insurance commercial.

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: Duffyjr
Oh and just to comment on the guy who said never buy insurance from a company that has commercials on TV, sorry it's with Flow and have you ever seen a Columbia Insurance commercial.


And Flo is spending your premium dollars on advertising, not on fixing your car properly. That's why you stay away from the big advertisers.

 

[DBMaster]

I use an insurance broker. I have been with Safeco for a very long time. The premiums haven't increased too unreasonably over the years. Of course, they took a big leap when I added my sixteen year old son to my policy (about a $3,600 jump). The broker shopped my policies this year due to the larger than usual increase and as a result I am switching to Travelers. We are talking about a $2,300 savings on the auto policy. Holy sheep dip.

 

[Schmoe]

Nobody has mentioned State Farm. I'm paying 1600 a year for all those in my sig block, and that's full coverage on all, 500 deductible and with roadside assistance. I thought they were robbing me, but after reading what some of ya'll are paying, I guess it's not that bad. I also have my house with them and includes earthquake insurance because Oklahoma has been really active lately. Slowed down a whole bunch since they've reduced the amount of injection wells, but you just never know. What a lot of folks don't realize that most homeowners policies don't cover earthquake insurance.

 

[SevenBizzos]

Originally Posted By: Schmoe
Nobody has mentioned State Farm. I'm paying 1600 a year for all those in my sig block, and that's full coverage on all, 500 deductible and with roadside assistance. I thought they were robbing me, but after reading what some of ya'll are paying, I guess it's not that bad. I also have my house with them and includes earthquake insurance because Oklahoma has been really active lately. Slowed down a whole bunch since they've reduced the amount of injection wells, but you just never know. What a lot of folks don't realize that most homeowners policies don't cover earthquake insurance.


Yes, I've been with SF for 15 years because they had reasonable rates for my Mustang. The Mustang freaked out Sentry whom I was with because my Probe GT freaked out Allstate. When you have anything with a "GT" in it's name the rates vary wildly between companies. It paid to shop around.

Fifteen years and four claims later (none my fault) my experience has been very positive with them.

 

[SeaJay]

Originally Posted By: Donald
GEICO. They have paid the few claims I submitted. Even two marginal ones 1) rear glass for pickup cap 2) Jeep hatchback glass when defrost broke, glass had not broken.


GEICO had no issue paying two collision claims for where my older vehicles with $5K blue book values were considered to be a total loss. They also addressed promptly some minor damage that I caused to someone else's parked vehicle. They were very easy to deal with over the phone on these three incidents.

 

[Aichiguy]

2 years ago on a whim I decided to shop my auto/homeowners insurance and I'm sure glad I did. I had been with Safeco for years and thought my independent agent was taking care of me. I switched to Progressive and saved about $1100 first year. The 2nd year the home owners spiked so I switched to Esurance and saved$500. Insurance companies are like cell phone and Satellite TV companies,etc.who buy new business with great initial pricing. I'll be switching here again soon to save several hundred dollars again next year. I'll play that game. I may even go back to Progressive. They send me a letter every other week!!!

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: Audios
Liberty Mutual has been the cheapest for me, I have full coverage on the cars in my sig besides the Audi, which I sold. runs about 230 a month for full with $1000 deductibles. The M is really what drove it up, when I had the Audi on there instead of the M it was about 600 less a year.


You are paying 2760/year to insure one car??? I have to wonder about your driving record!

 

[DBMaster]

To be able to compare apples to apples you'd have to have people of the same gender and age, living in the same area, and with the same driving records and levels of coverage. In Texas there is a huge difference between minimum liability coverage and GOOD coverage.

 

[Ethan1]

Safeco was bought by Liberty Mutual. They continued to operate independently for a while, but Liberty Mutual eventually merged operations and Safeco went down the tubes. Probably the nastiest surprise since National General bought GMAC's personal auto business.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: Ethan1
Safeco was bought by Liberty Mutual. They continued to operate independently for a while, but Liberty Mutual eventually merged operations and Safeco went down the tubes. Probably the nastiest surprise since National General bought GMAC's personal auto business.


I wonder if that's why they had such a large premium increase compared to last year. My policy had no claims and my son and I both have clean driving records. I knew about LM purchasing Safeco. Since that happened several years ago and I still had "Safeco" all over my documents I figured they were just going forward with it as a separate entity. But, insurance companies do funny things with that. Ever notice how the company indicated on your insurance card is usually some generic name like "County Mutual Insurance Co?"

 

[MoneyJohn]

Originally Posted By: Spector

If you want to reduce the cost of insurance then look at deductibles, this can have a significant bearing on cost. Do you need catastrophic coverage and can afford a higher ded or do you need that low ded because you have no cash in the event of an accident.


I wanted the deductible to be $1000 in any event but the premium difference between $500 and $1000 deductible was about $40 annually, so didn't make sense to ramp up the deductible. Now since I am enrolled in something called as Erie Plus, my deductible reduces by $100 every year with no claim. So my current deductible is just $300.

State Farm, when we were new in the US, we started with State Farm. It took a while for us to get a hang of auto insurance in the US. Until then State Farm royally ripped us. We used to pay the same amount that we pay now for 2 vehicles for one pre-owned vehicle, abt $230/month. When we switched to Erie, we paid less for 2 vehicles. Honestly, since then I just lost faith in them. Still, I get their quote and now its more than what Erie has been asking for..

I have contacted a few brokers to see if anyone has anything better to offer. I am not going to leave Erie just for a couple of hundred dollars.