Lurker ? about auto insurance

[countrygrl14]

Hi I have been a long time lurker on TN & now here. I thought it was time to come out of lurkdom, since you all can be so helpful on a number of topics.

Anyway my H & I are looking around for new auto insurance b/c ours seems high. We currently have Allstate & they have been fine. They've paid out a couple times without a problem. It seems our rates have been gradually creeping up, even before our claims. My H asked them about this & they told him they don't like to insure vehicles over 10yrs old. Well his truck is 12yrs & mine is 10yrs. I would think the older the vehicle the cheaper it would be to insure.

I was getting online quotes today & Progressive was almost half the cost. I was looking at the coverage & it looks the same. Is this possible? Does anyone have Progressive? Good/bad things about them? State Farm was barely less. We have renters insurance too so I will be bundling that. Good/bad things about other companies? Thanks!

[Deleted]

I had Progressive for 4 years before I moved from MD to TX. When I chanaged my address to TX only policy my rates jumped so I left them for Liberty Mutual. In my adult life I have had insurance with Esurance (before they were owned by progressive), Progressive and Liberty Mutual. I have had great services and great rates with all 3.

I hear Gieco is great by they always quote me way higher so I have no personal experince with them.

[puppiesandrainbows]

Based on your post, I am going to assume you have comprehensive and collision coverage on both of those vehicles, correct? And if so, do you have loans on either of those vehicles?

The reason why Allstate "doesn't like" to insure vehicles more than ten years old is because they are more likely to be totaled in an accident. In order for a vehicle to be totaled, (this is dependent on the company), typically the repairs have to exceed the value by around 50-60%.

So if you have a $5000 car, and it sustains $2500 in damages, it's usually considered a total loss. So then they have to pay the $5000 plus tax/tag/title fees, plus rental costs if you have the coverage. So basically the overall "severity" (cost) of the claim goes up the older the vehicle is, hence the higher premium.

Each insurance company has different underwriting standards. Underwriting standards are the way that they calculate premiums, so for one company, insuring an older vehicle is a liability, while another company might not think it's so bad, and that will be reflected in the premium they charge.

If you have carefully reviewed the quotes, and are sure that it is ample for your needs, and the deductible is affordable in the event of a loss, then by all means go with the lower premium with Geico.

I would like to point out that you might want to review your financial situation. If your 10 and 12 yr old cars have no loans on them, and you have ample savings to buy a new car in the event of a loss, you may want to weigh the cost of carrying the comprehensive and collision coverage (and their deductibles) against just paying for liability coverage. This could save you even more money in the long run, as long as you totally understand that if you get into a car accident or if your car is stolen/vandalized whatever, then there is no coverage for that under YOUR policy. And even if you do away with comprehensive and collision coverage, I would check to see if they would allow you to keep Under/Uninsured motorist coverage, the laws on this vary by state.

Just a thought.

[countrygrl14]

Yes we have full coverage on both. They are owned outright. I would rather keep the full coverage on both. We are not in a position to buy another truck outright. We thought they were going to total my husband's truck after the last accident. The parking brake failed & it went down a hill thru a bunch of trees. The $ they offered for totaling it was about 3K under what it would cost to buy another one of that same model. They paid to fix it, to the tune of almost 9K. It's worth about 12K. My truck is in very good shape & we're going to keep both of them as long as possible. I am going to re-review everything to make sure it is the same and make the switch if it is.

[SJ]

We have had Progressive for years and have been happy with the service and cost.

[AAM2012]

If the quotes are for the same exact coverage then I would say switch companies. But make sure you double check because I was recently getting a quote online and put the specific coverages I wanted and because they couldn't match my current premium they changed the coverages to show a lower quote. It was very shady and I think a normal person who doesn't have an insurance background would't have noticed it.

Also you may want to check on whether they charge extra to make monthly payments versus payments on a 6 month basis.

[puppiesandrainbows]

To the OP, if you are ever in a position of having your car totaled, please understand that the sum they are offering you is just that, an "offer". If you disagree you can dispute it, but it will take some legwork on your part. And don't forget to factor in the deductible, that is your cost to bear.

I can't tell you the number of times I had this conversation:

Customer: But you're only giving me $4000! It will take $5000 to get a new one!
Me: No, we are giving you $5000-$1000 deductible =$4000. Once you chip in your deductible you will enough funds.
Customer: But you're only giving me $4k!
Me: ::sigh::

[countrygrl14]

Puppiesandrainbows-we did try to dispute it, but they wouldn't come up in price. Our deductible was only $400, which we did pay of course. My H really loves that truck so it was fine that they fixed it. Thanks for all your insight in the insurance world. It is quite helpful.

[puppiesandrainbows]

I have never seen a $400 deductible, lol. $250, $500 and $1000 are the most common. What company was this?

[countrygrl14]

We have Allstate. They have the deductible that decreases $100 per yr w/o an accident. In 2010 it was down to $0 until my H had an accident. It went back to $500, then had dropped down to $400 a year after the accident. It's back to $500 now. It will drop to $400 again in Sept when we hit the year mark of the last claim.

[Norticprincess]

Only problem we've had with Progressive involved adding a car and a second person (they were on a different progessive policy)to a policy while that policy needed to be moved to a different state. Things on one veichle ended up with a double policy for two weeks (a no no on their side) with them canceling the first state policy back to the date the second state's policy was issued. Which resulted in a nastygram from the first state about driving without insurance. Car registration had already been transferred to second state (that had been delayed while waiting for the title from first state) and second state policy was active. The first state plates were off the car and in the mail when we got the letter. I'm not sure were communication broke down on that, but it did get worked out.

Claims, they've covered both of DH's deer accidents very quickly. The second one we just had to drop it off did everything in one place.

We have our home owners' through Erie, some odd quark it is actually $60 cheaper to have them separate.

[RoxMonster]

I have State Farm for mine, probably switching soon since H has Country and we have that bundled with our home insurance and I might be able to get a better rate. We've been very happy with both Country and State Farm. Country gave us the lowest rates for car and home than any other company but still provided the same coverage.

I also can speak to American Family though it isn't my insurance. Someone rammed into the back of me in my brand new car in July who had AmFam. They have been very good to deal with and paid for all my car repairs in a quick and timely manner. It actually wasn't the hassle I had thought it would be.

[roselis]

I have Progressive insurance and love them. They have been incredibly helpful. Plus my premium drops every year it seems. I have been with them for 9 years now.

[statlerwaldorf]

We have State Farm. I've been happy with them. It was the cheapest when I called around when bundling. We do not have full coverage.