Learn me: Auto Insurance

Us: Currently owns two newer cars, insured with Allstate. Wife has one minor at fault accident claim just over four years ago. I have one minor not-at-fault claim from just over three years ago. We overpay at $875 6 mo. We have excellent credit, excellent length of insurance, own home etc...

Tunakid 1 joins the game soon. He will bring our insurance up $1000 and change. He got his permit yesterday. We don't have to do anything until he is licensed.

From brief internet quoting, not worrying about home insurance bundles for now:

Amica: 1427

Progressive: 1116

Geico: 1476

Liberty: 5000 (I have nooooo idea what their quoting thing was doing)

What say the hive, and especially our resident car insurance experts?

Your level of coverage is important, what coverages are those for and are they the same?  "Full coverage" is inconsistent, we need actual numbers.  
 

I suggest engaging a local multi line independent agent and have them quote your business through their companies to see what you get.  This is what I do, works well.  What one person gets for a rate has nothing to do with another person, all about the underwriting models and location and actual risk.  Shop quality carriers for your specifics.  Make sure you have appropriate coverage for your situation.  If not sure, post up what you have and we can advise. 
 

Every company will have good and bad reviews.  Your current carrier is my least favorite of all.  

I am not married to these levels

I have an indy guy working on it as well. Thanks for that advice.

If you think you'll ignore or pay out-of-pocket for the inevitable slow speed scrapes tunakiddo will incur, consider increasing the collision and comprehensive deductibles (to ~2 k) and see what happens. Those are the largest levers you can pull to affect your quotes it seems.

I personally increased the uninsured coverage amounts to match our liability insurance (so 100/300/50 in your case) for peace of mind.

My opinion is that you are under insured.  I say that based on you being a guy who wants to protect his family, who has a good job, a house you've put a lot of work into, and two cars, and the insurance climate in your state.  
 

I would recommend going to 250/500 for injury, and at least $100k for property damage, as your current $50k goes away really quickly with a hard hit on even one newer car.  An alternative is what I have, $500k combined single limit for PD and BI, it gives your carrier a bit more flexibility in how to use the policy to defend you.  
 

I also recommend that you match your under/uninsured motorist to your BI limits, as you are the sole provider for your family, if you get hit and hurt by one of the fairly high number of uninsured or underinsured drivers in your state that you are protected.   
 

You'll be surprised at how little more it costs for higher liability limits if you are a responsible person like you.  You can also consider a $1m umbrella policy to really protect you, probably only $300/year.  
 

I also agree with the above comment about raising the collision deductible, likely to $1k, if you could swing it if something happened.  It will pay for itself fairly quickly.  I keep my own comprehensive deductible low as it doesn't matter as much and that covers glass damage from the regular rock hit windshield replacements we have here in the northeast.  

That's helpful. Thanks.

Indy guy came back with $1987 or Progressive.

Might be worth a call to an independent insurer. I changed my company to one when my partner retired. That dropped my rates by about 4k a year. 

My personal insurance is through State Farm. Since they carry all my policies the multi-policy deductions are fairly significant. 

Toyman! said:

Might be worth a call to an independent insurer. I changed my company to one when my partner retired. That dropped my rates by about 4k a year. 

My personal insurance is through State Farm. Since they carry all my policies the multi-policy deductions are fairly significant. 

 

Read above. I did.

In reply to tuna55 :

Ahh, I thought you were saying Indy-Guy, forum member. My bad. Reading fail on my end. 

Keep checking other carriers.  Mine went up $6000/yr with twin boys.  My friend also has two teenage boys and four cars insured for $6000 less, I called his agent and got the same price.

An insurance insider told me rates are going up because the funds they are holding in investments are not doing well.  WHAT!!!  yes they have enough cash as required my the gubmint, but the extra gets invested we pay for their lack of profits. 

tuna55 said:

I have an indy guy working on it as well. Thanks for that advice.

Sorry.  Didn't get any message from you about insurance. 

Toyman! said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Ahh, I thought you were saying Indy-Guy, forum member. My bad. Reading fail on my end. 

 

 

 

See post above

Rates are going up because insurers are paying out more. When a mirror for a Lexus SUV costs $1500 and front cruise control radars are $3000 you will quickly understand why. My average claim payment has skyrocketed in the last ten years.

As a guy who has worked for a half dozen different insurers in my career, my one main take-away rule is this:  the more they advertise, the poorer their service. 

I agree with Sonic on the liability coverage. I wouldn't want less than $100,000 property damage coverage these days. Your kid hits a new F-series diesel and sends him into a tree and that money will get used up real quick. When the liability coverage bucket gets emptied, the other party then sues you for the difference. Not good.

Collision deductible as high as you can financially tolerate. A $1000 deductible saves you money, but you'd better have that $1000 always available should your car get wrecked. Remember, that deductible also applies if someone hit/runs you and it wasn't your fault. You only get deductibles back if the insurer can collect it from the guilty party. (There is UMPD and other coverages in some states but that's getting into the weeds)

Do NOT increase deductibles on comprehensive (fire, theft, natural disaster) coverage. The coverage is generally cheap and it covers all sorts of perils you have no control over. Deer hits, for example. Windshields. A $500 deductible makes the coverage useless for a glass claim.

You can also save money by having Junior exempt from some of your vehicles. But he must NEVER drive those exempted vehicles, because if he does he's basically driving it with NO insurance.

Indy - Guy said:

Toyman! said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Ahh, I thought you were saying Indy-Guy, forum member. My bad. Reading fail on my end. 

 

 

 

See post above

Ha!

ddavidv said:

Rates are going up because insurers are paying out more. When a mirror for a Lexus SUV costs $1500 and front cruise control radars are $3000 you will quickly understand why. My average claim payment has skyrocketed in the last ten years.

As a guy who has worked for a half dozen different insurers in my career, my one main take-away rule is this:  the more they advertise, the poorer their service. 

I agree with Sonic on the liability coverage. I wouldn't want less than $100,000 property damage coverage these days. Your kid hits a new F-series diesel and sends him into a tree and that money will get used up real quick. When the liability coverage bucket gets emptied, the other party then sues you for the difference. Not good.

Collision deductible as high as you can financially tolerate. A $1000 deductible saves you money, but you'd better have that $1000 always available should your car get wrecked. Remember, that deductible also applies if someone hit/runs you and it wasn't your fault. You only get deductibles back if the insurer can collect it from the guilty party. (There is UMPD and other coverages in some states but that's getting into the weeds)

Do NOT increase deductibles on comprehensive (fire, theft, natural disaster) coverage. The coverage is generally cheap and it covers all sorts of perils you have no control over. Deer hits, for example. Windshields. A $500 deductible makes the coverage useless for a glass claim.

You can also save money by having Junior exempt from some of your vehicles. But he must NEVER drive those exempted vehicles, because if he does he's basically driving it with NO insurance.

Thanks, that's helpful

Here's where I am with Progressive:

and $1022 for 6 mos with kid on there. We'll likely switch without kid for a time because Flo will save me $200/6mo over Allstate. I also have to shop homeowners to see what that does. Allstate saves $60/6mo because of both homeowner and auto.

Does "full glass" mean 0 deductible on a glass only claim? I've never seen that. Otherwise, I'd like to see the comp deductible lower. Rental coverage is good; that should cover a daily rate fully. Collision with 1000 ded is where you save money. Just remember, you need to have that 1000 available at any given time. If your car gets crashed and fixed, the shop won't release the car back to you until that is paid. Not all shops accept credit cards for deductibles. PD looks okay; higher is always better but that's not hateful. 

In reply to ddavidv :

Agree all around 

In reply to ddavidv :

What comp deductible do you suggest? I'm looking at mine (which is about to renew) and I've got 500 deductibles on both comp and collision, as well as full glass coverage (which is listed as a separate line item on my policy). It sounds like I should make some changes before I pay the bill and maybe save a few bucks.

If you have full glass coverage (confirm that it means no deductible) then I think $500 is OK for comprehensive.  In PA where I live that is not an option, so I have a $100 comp deductible and the cost difference has more than paid for itself.  When I lived in MA then glass had no deductible so I had $500 and it was fine. 

Whut Sonic said. I like to see comp deductibles as low as possible for the best coverage, because that coverage is pretty inexpensive. If you have full glass replacement it's less important to have a low deductible on it. That would be nice if we had that option here in PA.

ddavidv said:

Does "full glass" mean 0 deductible on a glass only claim? I've never seen that. Otherwise, I'd like to see the comp deductible lower. Rental coverage is good; that should cover a daily rate fully. Collision with 1000 ded is where you save money. Just remember, you need to have that 1000 available at any given time. If your car gets crashed and fixed, the shop won't release the car back to you until that is paid. Not all shops accept credit cards for deductibles. PD looks okay; higher is always better but that's not hateful. 

SC law requires no deductible glass coverage if you have a comprehensive policy. 

Another reason not to live in PA. 

Good discussion. I need to review this with my wife.