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Calling all Auto Insurance Experts

Cyinthenorth said:
I got hooked up with Progressive from an independent agent. I went back and talked to the same agent when Progressive bumped my premiums up by about $80/month after my 1-car incident on an icy road. I asked him if he could find any better deals for me. He basically told me that my premiums had gone up because of my accident (duh) and that it would stay on the scale/record that insurance companies use to determine risk for at least 3 years, possibly 5, so I'm probably stuck paying these high premiums for at least that long. No effort at all on his part to check with the 4 (at least) other companies he can sell insurance for. That kind of weakened my faith in him and his independent company. Couldn't help me out despite being a loyal customer of the agency for 8 years or more.
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As I said earlier, if you're not satisfied with the job your agent is doing then find a new agent. The way a claim is handled and the way a premium increase is handled are the two biggest measuring sticks in determining whether you have a good agent or not.

These guys get 15% commissions out of the premium you pay. Anyone can sit at a desk, type in your information, issue your policy, and sit back and collect $150-200. It takes a good agent who will make sure you have adequate protection, responsive claims handling, and still get you a low premium that doesn't jump ridiculously high due to one accident/violation.

BTW - are you willing to share how much you pay to Progressive per month? $80/month increase seems rather high for a one-vehicle policy.
 
BillyClone said:
As I said earlier, if you're not satisfied with the job your agent is doing then find a new agent. The way a claim is handled and the way a premium increase is handled are the two biggest measuring sticks in determining whether you have a good agent or not.

These guys get 15% commissions out of the premium you pay. Anyone can sit at a desk, type in your information, issue your policy, and sit back and collect $150-200. It takes a good agent who will make sure you have adequate protection, responsive claims handling, and still get you a low premium that doesn't jump ridiculously high due to one accident/violation.

BTW - are you willing to share how much you pay to Progressive per month? $80/month increase seems rather high for a one-vehicle policy.
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Yeah no problem sharing. I pay $175 approximately now. That has gone down about $5/month since it renewed in February. 180/month after the accident, when I had been paying 104 prior to.
 
Cyinthenorth said:
I've been shopping around for awhile, simply because Progressive started to fleece me after a little one car accident I had on an icy road in Feb of '19. The best quote I've gotten is from GEICO. Now, the kicker is I don't have a GEICO insurance agent anywhere remotely close to Dubuque, where I live. How big of a deal are we talking about here?

My Dad and Father in Law both think I should shop local for car insurance, talk to my insurance agent face to face etc. Is this some old fogey, boomer mind set or not? When I suggested it was a generational difference to my Dad (I got the GEICO quote online, obviously, and have only spoken to one of their agents over the phone and email) he told me it was simply a ME and HIM difference.

Lastly, the GEICO quote matches roughly what Progressive had me at coverage wise. The wife's policy through Farm Bureau has a little bit higher coverage, but also a higher deductible. But maybe her coverage is too much, or maybe mine isn't enough. What is an easy way to tell?
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Not going to read what everybody else said, but there are a couple things you need to consider.

1) assets to protect. Do you have a lot of worth? You want higher liability the more stuff you have to protect.

2) are you able to come up with 500 or 1000 if you have an accident? Higher deductibles assume more risk on your end, and your premium will be lower

3) bundle, if you rent or own combine everything with one company. Add your fiancé if you live together, multi vehicle and driver give discounts too.

and figure out where you want to be and stay there. The more you jump around, the lower your insurance score will be. Just like your credit score, that impacts what’s available to you.
 
Cat Stevens said:
Not going to read what everybody else said, but there are a couple things you need to consider.

1) assets to protect. Do you have a lot of worth? You want higher liability the more stuff you have to protect.

2) are you able to come up with 500 or 1000 if you have an accident? Higher deductibles assume more risk on your end, and your premium will be lower

3) bundle, if you rent or own combine everything with one company. Add your fiancé if you live together, multi vehicle and driver give discounts too.

and figure out where you want to be and stay there. The more you jump around, the lower your insurance score will be. Just like your credit score, that impacts what’s available to you.
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The answer to questions 1 is not really. We have the title on 1 of the 2 vehicles, rent as far as our living situation, and don't really have a lot of non-liquid assets besides 401k's (I have a little tied up in mutual funds, but <5,000) So in a case like this, maybe 250k/500k for liability would be unnecessary? This is what I'm struggling with.

The deductible is tough for me. I've only had to use it once in my life (the incident last winter) and I was thankful at the time it was only $500. $1,000 would have been a much more serious blow to us, as we were saving for a wedding at the time. Now, however, I think we could swing it no problem, but it would still suck to cough that up if something happened.

And for 3, yes I was planning on bundling our renters policy wherever we decide to go. Also adding her seems to be the only way to really get my premium to come down, but it also will save her $10-15 a month as well.
 
Nothing wrong with GEICO.

My personal opinion is that your limits are too low for this day and age. The last agency I worked at would not sell anything below 100/300.

I'm surprised you and your wife have separate insurers. Most companies will require that all drivers in the household be listed on the policy, which negates any perceived benefit of insuring separately. Also, in some states, you're required to carry the same liability limits on all your vehicles.
 
BillyClone said:
As I said earlier, if you're not satisfied with the job your agent is doing then find a new agent. The way a claim is handled and the way a premium increase is handled are the two biggest measuring sticks in determining whether you have a good agent or not.

These guys get 15% commissions out of the premium you pay. Anyone can sit at a desk, type in your information, issue your policy, and sit back and collect $150-200. It takes a good agent who will make sure you have adequate protection, responsive claims handling, and still get you a low premium that doesn't jump ridiculously high due to one accident/violation.

BTW - are you willing to share how much you pay to Progressive per month? $80/month increase seems rather high for a one-vehicle policy.
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Just to clarify this part. The agents get 25-40% on a new policy that is written. Then the amount drops to 8-10% on continuing policies. This is for a major insurer. That is why you see them come after new people and then sit back and not service as much as they should or try to get you to change enough so they can count it as new.
 
ruxCYtable said:
Nothing wrong with GEICO.

My personal opinion is that your limits are too low for this day and age. The last agency I worked at would not sell anything below 100/300.

I'm surprised you and your wife have separate insurers. Most companies will require that all drivers in the household be listed on the policy, which negates any perceived benefit of insuring separately. Also, in some states, you're required to carry the same liability limits on all your vehicles.
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Yeah, don't go off just what a person is worth in regards to the 100/300. They can put a claim on your wages and then you will be paying that off over many years or the rest of your life. Not saying you are mentioning this, just a response in general.
 
ruxCYtable said:
Nothing wrong with GEICO.

My personal opinion is that your limits are too low for this day and age. The last agency I worked at would not sell anything below 100/300.

I'm surprised you and your wife have separate insurers. Most companies will require that all drivers in the household be listed on the policy, which negates any perceived benefit of insuring separately. Also, in some states, you're required to carry the same liability limits on all your vehicles.
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We just got married last September, and didn't report it to our insurance companies. So guessing they had no idea.
 
another vote for the independent agent. they are licensed to write with multiple companies and quote you multiple options and know what it's like to work with various companies beyond just initial premiums.
 
Cyinthenorth said:
The answer to questions 1 is not really. We have the title on 1 of the 2 vehicles, rent as far as our living situation, and don't really have a lot of non-liquid assets besides 401k's (I have a little tied up in mutual funds, but <5,000) So in a case like this, maybe 250k/500k for liability would be unnecessary? This is what I'm struggling with.

The deductible is tough for me. I've only had to use it once in my life (the incident last winter) and I was thankful at the time it was only $500. $1,000 would have been a much more serious blow to us, as we were saving for a wedding at the time. Now, however, I think we could swing it no problem, but it would still suck to cough that up if something happened.

And for 3, yes I was planning on bundling our renters policy wherever we decide to go. Also adding her seems to be the only way to really get my premium to come down, but it also will save her $10-15 a month as well.
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Auto insurance policies are not like signing up for health care through your employer. You can always make updates and changes.

if you’re young and just starting out, you don’t need the protection you parents have.

Add to it as you get more stuff to protect.

and yeah the deductible sucks, two ways to look at it. Some folks don’t want to be bothered if they have a loss, and have low a deductible . So they actually prepay for any potential claims they may make in the future.

Others, want to save money every month, and figure they can come up with money if they have a claim.

Also the acv (bluebook minus miles and depreciation) of your vehicles should be considered as well.
 
Yes, this
BCClone said:
Just to clarify this part. The agents get 25-40% on a new policy that is written. Then the amount drops to 8-10% on continuing policies. This is for a major insurer. That is why you see them come after new people and then sit back and not service as much as they should or try to get you to change enough so they can count it as new.
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Yes, this is true for most exclusive agents (agents who only represent one company - major insurers such as State Farm, Farmers, Allstate, etc.). However, for most independent agents (agents who represent multiple companies) the commission is 15% for both new and continuing policies. Independent agents own the renewal rights to their books of business so companies pay a level commission in order to keep them from moving large amounts of policies to a different company each year.
 
Due to the age of my vehicles I ended up recently dropping full coverage. However, I did install front and rear cameras in all of them.

Hasn't helped me in an accident I was directly involved in, but I did capture footage of an accident in an intersection in front of me, and did provide the footage of that to both drivers. I've just heard too many stories about insurance companies going above and beyond to not have to pay out money.
 
Cyinthenorth said:
We just got married last September, and didn't report it to our insurance companies. So guessing they had no idea.
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This is something you should probably be looking into - one policy for both of you. The rating factors for married males vs single males can be 30-50% lower. A smaller decrease for females as well.
 
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BillyClone said:
Yes, this


Yes, this is true for most exclusive agents (agents who only represent one company - major insurers such as State Farm, Farmers, Allstate, etc.). However, for most independent agents (agents who represent multiple companies) the commission is 15% for both new and continuing policies. Independent agents own the renewal rights to their books of business so companies pay a level commission in order to keep them from moving large amounts of policies to a different company each year.
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That makes sense. I didn’t think about it but if an independent agent had new policies worth more there would be agents that would move people every year for the double income.
 
I've never met any of my insurance people face to face. Just read your policy well and call in for help with questions. GEICO is great been using them for a long time.
 
Gorm said:
Due to the age of my vehicles I ended up recently dropping full coverage. However, I did install front and rear cameras in all of them.

Hasn't helped me in an accident I was directly involved in, but I did capture footage of an accident in an intersection in front of me, and did provide the footage of that to both drivers. I've just heard too many stories about insurance companies going above and beyond to not have to pay out money.
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Smart! For some reason it's just not in our nature to tell the whole truth after an auto accident. Without a witness or these cameras, a lot of he said/she said disputes go unresolved.
 
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