Yeah, car insurance is a tricky thing. There’s not only your vehicle specifications and value (e.g. sports car, luxury car, or economy car), but also where you live.
I used to have GEICO but prices kept going up and after 20 years of being with them, I wasn’t getting any long-term customer discount. I had NO ACCIDENTS and just ONE speeding ticket across that whole time. So I ditched them for Flo’s company (Progressive). And pricing was 30% cheaper.
On top of the good starting price, I signed up for their good driver discount which entails installing a device in your OBDII socket. It monitors your driving for a couple of months, then you send it back to the company. It not only detects how much mileage you put on the car, but also can detect speed and sudden movement like rapid acceleration and hard braking. I sent it back and got a nice discount.
But over the course of 6 years now, I’m paying MORE than I did when I started and I’m driving LESS. Not only that, I’m in a town that has a zone for higher accidents and vandalism, but I don’t live in that zone. Plus, my car is in a protected garage. My rates are up 25% higher than when I started.
Has inflation caused those rates to go up, or are some states experiencing insurance gouging more since the pandemic? Or maybe my insurance company just started me with a lower rate and raised it as part of their plan for profit taking? I’m now thinking of shopping around again.
Gotta shop every 4 or 5 years as you did. I’ve been with most companies once and some twice. You could possibly find a cheaper to insure car, move to better zip code or bundle. Reduce coverage or raise deductible. That’s all you can do.
They’re all crooks. Get into a fenderbender, and they aren’t even willing to go to trial to fight quite obviously bogus claims, claiming “he said he said” and just paying out to make the other person go away.
But they’ll happily stick you with at least partial (and sometimes all) fault in doing so.
They (FloCo) tried doing that with me, trying to hit me with 90% fault (10% to the other guy for being on the phone[!!]), until I spelled out that once they raise my rates, I’ll multiply it out over N years and then I’ll have an actual dollar amount to sue them for, as well as howling loud’n’long to the state insurance commissioner, etc., to cause them problems for throwing me under the bus so readily.
They dropped my fault to 0% “as a customer courtesy”. F them.
Oh, and I was at a full stop, and could’ve had engine off, parking brake on, chocks on all 4 wheels, and still they were / he was claiming that somehow I dragged the corner of my bumper along the side of his car. Tf??
It’s about “expediency”, read, laziness. That’s at least a partial reason why rates are so high.
My mom’s place got hit once by a speeding car that jumped the curb and I guess her place was moving so fast that the insurance company felt compelled to raise her home insurance rate
Here’s a picture of her place and you can tell that it takes quite a bit of effort to hit it.
Yeah, I’d heard of something like this before. House at the end of a T intersection, but not “dead on.” Just 1 house to the left. But the claims is since that left turn puts a car on their side of the street, it meant they have a slight bitt more chance of being hit by a reckless driver, versus on the right side of the “T.” Allegedly the insurance company said that it “failed to realize this” at the time their home insurance rate was set, so they “got a huge discount for many years” because of it. Now, after the crash, they were paying 30% more. THIRTY PERCENT… and it wasn’t even their fault. It was one clumsy idiot. Check the records? That house NEVER had a collision upon it, for the 30 years it had been there. Just this one freak accident. Still, the insurance company “reset” the risk assessment because of it.
They were going to take the company to court, but after looking at the fees involved and the odds of their winning, they realized it was too big a gamble. They paid their insurance through that year, and then switched companies. And no, that new insurance company didn’t have any “adjusted risk” on the books for it.
Old car … just liability low mileage , low miles per year
Hit someone 3 months ago . Not my fault
Progressive told me that since I wasn’t at fault technically I never needed to call them and it was between me and Liberty mutual .
Liberty totaled my car sent me a check , I bought a lower mileage newer model of the same make… and Progressive doubled my insurance rate.
I’m sure there’s some logic behind thinking that a person in an accident who’s not at fault should have their insurance rates increased … but double ???
How does this make any sense. ?
DOUBLE! For just another used car of the same make that is a little newer and with lower mileage. That’s crazy. And you know, seeing these huge disparities, I’m going to try my luck at getting my rate re-evaluated. I’m just such a low risk. My car is 16 years old and just a few thousand miles away from 100k. It’s in phenomenal shape and running condition. I don’t have collision insurance (for my car) because if it’s my fault the car is going to be totaled anyway due to the low value. I put on maybe 4k miles per year. Sometimes a little less or more, depending upon trips.
I’m not a meek driver, but I am cautious and always double-check directions while always anticipating that cars near me may present a collision challenge. I left my competitive driving instincts back with the younger version of me over 10 years ago (I no longer feel triggered by cars who deliberately cut me off or try to prevent me from gradually passing them). I love sports cars, but I refuse to drive like I’m in one on public roads–it’s just a conveyance from A to B. So, I’m the best kind of driver an auto insurance company can ask for. If Progressive is going to play games, then I’m going to move on.
For many in Calif one has to just pay whatever the insurance company wants because many companies aren’t writing new auto policies here. It’s especially bad for those of use who have umbrella polices because in order to get one the auto and home policies have to be with the same company. Since it’s virtually impossible to get new home policies here that means we’re stuck with the insurance company regardless of what they do with the auto or home rates.
It’s kind of amazing, in a bad way, that changing to a new insurance company for auto or home coverage is basically impossible.
Usually when I shop I can save money but lately that does not seem to be the case. I’m reading car insurance is up 20%. I feel for the people in California and Florida. They really are taking a hit.
Well, I’m going to stick with my old car for a few more years then. I saw one person say that they upgraded to another used car that was a few years younger and with lower mileage… and their rate DOUBLED! Unbelievable.
My car and house are coming up for renewal in the spring. Now I’m scared. The house has been holding steady for a couple years and the car always goes up about $25 every 6 months. I know people in Florida that don’t have homeowners insurance.
Yep mine went up considerably this year from £215 comprehensive to £419. Phoned them up and got £22 less - £397 but even using the comparison sites I could only get £3 less than that so wasn’t worth the hassle of switching, this is actually still a bargain when comparing it to living in a big city, I’m lucky I’m rural!.
Governments need to heavily look into this/regulate it better - as it’s a legal requirement you are pretty much stuffed and HAVE to pay what they demand. I understand things go up (reasonably) but it is simply not right to load the claims of others on to people with FULL no claims bonus - especially by 100%!!!.
Of course one big issue is uninsured drivers (here at least) - some of them never intend to get insurance, but I’d imagine there is also a large number who simply can’t afford it and take the risk through necessity, genuine people who have always paid but now can’t but still need to get to work etc of which there are plenty in this cost of living crisis.
The more they put the premium up, the more people drive uninsured, the more money they have to pay out claims involving uninsured drivers and we are back to them having to put it up again…each year they put it up, more genuine people will drive uninsured and so the circle continues but gets worse each time…for those who actually pay that is.
The remedy seems clear to me…make insurance affordable for all, you have a much bigger chance of those genuine drivers actually getting insurance then - as it is at the moment, every year affording it gets further out of their reach. Over here 18’s insrance is CRAZY! like £3000 third party only crazy! it’s obvious a good portion of those just won’t bother.
I’d like to look at it from an eco point of view, where ideally those who can’t afford it means 1 more car off the road and 1 more person in a bus/train, but it doesn’t work like that (largely because the bus/train service is dire, and getting worse here plus that is not cheap either!)… a worrying percentage will carry on driving uninsured - worse still they may give up trying to work as the cost of getting there is too much of a % of their already tiny wage and just go on benefits…and still drive uninsured! so now I’m paying not only their insurance but their benefits too.
Talk about catch 22…
Car crash/storm Repair bills have skyrocketed from the already ripoff level.
Greedy Auto body repair shops charging even more and the fact that the new cars parts are outrageous from the Factory Dealer which is where the latest models need to be sourced.
Takes a while for aftermarket panels/lens/ etc. to be made up.
Once a couple insurance companies raise rates they all jump on the bandwagon.
It’s a rigged system folks.
I live next to an ankle deep stream yet happen to be on the very corner of a “Flood Plain” so am straddled with Flood Ins.
Every time a Katrina or my favorite “Super Storm Sandy” comes along they spread the love around on paying for that.
What I have put out over the last 20+ years would have dang near paid off my house.
Never had a claim and chances of needing claim are near 0.
May as well set the money on fire, result is the same.
Mandatory Insurance = Legalized Extortion.
It certainly is . I think our home, auto, and umbrella insurance went up > 25% this year with promises of more to come. Our agent said that that was to cover 1) the fires up north from us, and 2) the car thefts and break-ins though-out Calif. Since we’ve never filed a claim in our lives that seems unfair to me but there’s really no options for us.
Right now we’re paying around $10,000/yr in total for our home/auto/umbrella coverage, with the auto being half of that. I’ve been retired for 6 years now so I don’t let these things bother me but it sure does seem like it’s a rigged system.
. I think our home, auto, and umbrella insurance went up > 25% this year with promises of more to come. Our agent said that that was to cover 1) the fires up north from us, and 2) the car thefts and break-ins though-out Calif. Since we’ve never filed a claim in our lives that seems unfair to me but there’s really no options for us.