K, so heres what I have. We have three cars, three drivers. One driver is my daughter who is 17, great record so far and none of us have had a speeding ticket or filed a claim in more than 8 years or more, on anything. I also have my homeowners insurance through State Farm and have never filed as well.
So my payments when I added my daughter were 385.00 per month and just recently shot up to 450.00. Agent could not justify why just said she does not control rate increases. So in order to not pay that enormous amount i had to drop my liabilities to 25/50/25 till I can find something better. Any suggestions? Does the price seem average?
It pays to shop around. You may find you are getting a really good price, or maybe you could save a little. Compare coverages, though, as some will try to stick you with just the minimums. I recently switched over to all USAA, saved a little on my car insurance, but saved a ton on homeowner’s.
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your rate will vary wildly, depending on the type of vehicles you are covering. but any way you look at it, a 17% increase with no explanation of why, would make me switch companies immediately.
Ever since I had my own business a few years back, ive always gone through a local broker of mine to cover my house, cars, motorcycles, equipment, boats, everything. He’s is very good. he has called me several times, randomly, just to tell me that he found a better deal for my package, without me even asking. so whenever this kind of topic comes up with my friends, i always tell them to look at using an insurance broker, especially when you have multiple items that need to be covered. a broker may see savings that we never even think of.
My wife and I had homeowner/car insurance with state farm for close to 30yrs. We had one minor lightening strike claim and no car accidents. We had a major sewage backup into the house. State Farm did absolutely nothing…didn’t even send out a appraiser to assess the damage. We had a rental property covered by State Farm ins. When we sold the rental property there was six months of premiums that we were due as a refund. State FArm never sent the refund balance. When we sold our primary residence we were also due a homeowner’s premium refund. They didn’t send that one either until I hounded them for it and even they it took a few months to get it.
We no longer use State Farm.
We went to a broker and got all our insurances from them, car/home/flood…all at reasonable cost.
Check with a broker…
We used Nick Latto and R.A. Wright on St. Andrew’s Blvd.
I don’t have a 17 year old, but I have 2 tickets in the past 3 years, and 300K coverage for like $1100-1200 year for each car… I don’t pay monthly though. I pay twice a year… I also bought an umbrella policy which may have given me some discounts. What kind of cars do you have (that matters)… I’ve got a 2016 Suburban, and a 2016 Tundra…
The first thing I would look at is how much extra does it cost you to be on a monthly plan?
I’ve been with USAA for more than 25 years (home and auto). They are not always the cheapest but their service in unparalleled and you will not ever have a problem with a claim. You can’t compare one person’s rates with anothers as it will vary by car, coverage, etc… but, my monthly rate for me, my wife and 20 year old son is $230 a month.
No way in heck I’d pay $450/month.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”, but really, who cares?
If you’re eligible to use usaa, I’d definitely include them in my search
Its probably because he has a Dodge Viper.
I HAVE A 2011 ALTIMA PAID OFF, SUZUKI EQUATOR 2009, AND DAUGHTER DRIVES A CHEVY CLASSIC 4 DOOR 2006
Yeah, something sounds odd about your rates then.
Rates going up in SC for most, if not all, this year. SC has bad drivers…insurance just catching up this year.
Is USSAA military? I will check it out
State Farm tried to jerk me around on my homeowners. Dropped them right quick like, along with 4 cars, a boat, extension for the garage and tools and several other insurable items. Needless to say the agent was surprized. I asked him THREE times over the phone…“Are you SURE there is NOTHING you can do to HELP me?”, he said “No, sorry” I told him too bad. For sure shop around, I don’t have all the toys and stuff I though I needed back then, using All State right now, so far no prolems.
The general rule of thumb is that you should shop around insurances every couple years anyway.
I use Pat Zeigler at Independent Insurance Brokers. They are here in columbia but work all over the state. Their number is (803) 749-8210. they are worth a call, super nice people to work with.
quote:
The general rule of thumb is that you should shop around insurances every couple years anyway.
I do and always end up back at USAA. Tried AIG about 15 years ago when their rate was too low to say no. I was assured that wasn’t some rate quote to snag me and only a claim would drive up my rate. A year later, rate increase. They outright lied, I went back to USAA and never looked back.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”, but really, who cares?
my rates went up this year and this is what I learned talking to Liberty Mutual:
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each person and type car is risk rated, a high risk driver in a household is assigned to the most expensive or highest rated car
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your credit score is part of your risk rating
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rates change based on their expense history, they will go up even if you don’t have a claim if the insurance company is paying out large claims to others
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some folks carry low deductibles and treat insurance as a savings account and file claims all the time for little things, this increases your risk rating
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insurance is for major issues, carry a high deductible and think before you call them, take the money you save in premiums and put it in the bank for the little stuff, you will come out far ahead
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some companies “specialize” in certain types of insurance, others can specifically have high rates because they don’t prefer to insure certain things
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an example is boats, Progressive and one other (forget the name) tend to specialize in watercraft, the rates are low and coverage is good, adding watercraft to your existing policy may be a bad idea
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about waterfront property, some companies have a high rate and Auto Owners (for example) has a low rate, Auto Owners recognizes the lake as a water source and if your fire department has a pumper truck then they risk rate it as if a fire hydrant is in your yard, the other company does not
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when shopping insurance find out your risk rating and it will make it easier to understand the premiums
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shopping rates over the years, in general, I’ve found that the big ones State Farm, Allstate and Nationwide are the most expensive
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from my personal experience Travelers is a terrible company
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I’ve been with Liberty Mutual for 7+ years and luv em, great customer service, a pleasant voice that you can understand answers the phone (mostly mid western females), they have always done exactly what they said they would do, if they don’t know the answer they won’t BS you, they will find someone who does know
As an insurance agent with one of the big companies I can tell you industry wide, nation wide there have been many increases due to gas prices being down + more people are driving = more claims (also people playing on their phones). Also the cost to repair the new cars has increased. Take a 2006 Toyota Camery, you could get a front bumper repaired for $1500, now with all the sensors and so forth it is close to $6000. Unfortunately the insured’s have to make up for the difference. We all are feeling it.
As for young kids being on a policy, I tell my clients when they have a young driver they are adding to the policy I am sorry for what is going to happen to the premium. It isn’t that the child has done anything wrong but statistically they are going to have a wreck, hopefully not a bad one, because they are inexperienced. They are also building insurance history just like building credit history. The best thing I can tell you is to make your kids take driver training and make a 3.0 in school as these are big discounts. It shows responsibility.
Now when I have a young driver I check to see what car they will be the least expensive on because they have to be listed on a car. Each person in the household just has to be listed on a car, as they are covered.
Also, I am not afraid to tell my clients if I know there is a better deal out there to shop. Not that I want to loose the clients but the way I do business is I don’t want to see one of my clients walking down the sidewalk and I feel like I need to cross the road to the other side because I did something wrong.
As for the experience with the agent not helping or explaining, there isn’t any excuse for that. I always make sure my office answers all questions and if we don’t know the answer we tell the client we will find out and get back to them ASAP.
One thing I do tell clients if they are shopping and looking at other companies that are them big names like State Farm, Nationwide, Allstate, USAA, do your homework on their financials
Run away from State Farm. They are the highest by far, and they suck at claims. Get yourself a broker, and have him shop. We are on Travelers for house and cars now, and I think Progressive or Geico on the boat. You think they can pay Peyton and Rodgers for their ads and not charge you more for insurance, Pfff.
I was with State Farm for 15 years, until they crept so high they couldn’t touch any competitors rates. Switched and never have given them another chance.
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