Really Flo? Really?

Trying to buy a one year old 136" WB Promaster. 

Progressive says no can do for personal insurance cause it's a commercial vehicle. 

Progressive commercial division says no can do cause too big. As in physically?  Yep. 

We're trying to replace the 05 Astro with something that can more easily deal with four dogs. No funny business. Nothing commercial about it. Stupid vehicle classifications. 

Been a customer in good standing since 2004. Doesn't matter. 

Thoughts? 

Dump Flo go with the Gecko.

Someone will take your business, you aren't the first people to have a van for personal use.

State Farm will insure it. They covered the E450 bus for me with no issues besides cost. It wasn't cheap. Almost to $100 a month. 

I had three cars.  I got rid of the Nissan Sentra.  State Farm Insurance policy ends on 8/28 and I’m driving it 1000 miles to sell it to my son on 9/1 and 9/2.  Wisdom says to renew it and try not to run uninsured.   I’m too old for hassles.  

I call and cancel it on 9/5.  I already paid for August and today I get a four month bill to cancel?  Really?   

This is the reason a broker is getting my business in 5 months.   

The lizard is no better. When I got the last bill for my 128i my rates had jumped almost 20%. No tickets, no claims, nothing. 10+ years in good standing. I haven't cost them a dime. I called for an explanation and was given the most unsatisfactory recitation of insurance double-speak I've heard in a while. I told them in no uncertain terms that I was tired of subsidizing their incessant ad campaigns and found a highly-rated and fairly selective local company that was willing to give me better coverage for less money.

Man, I'm glad I have a good broker. She called me to tell me that my rates were going up a not-so-fair amount, and she shopped around, and found a new company that's less than half what I had been paying previously. 

Look up RV requirements. You might be shocked at how easy it is to get it registered and insured as an RV. The motoIQ guys turned a box truck into an "RV" by putting in a tiny sink, fridge, microwave, and A/C inverter. While a sink might be going too far for you, maybe another simple sidestep to the rules would work.

http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/id/2425/the-ultimate-no-budget-racecar-transporter.aspx

RV insurance and registration is vastly, vastly cheaper than commercial registration and insurance. Plus any neighborhood restrictions are neatly sidestepped at the same time.

This reminds me that I need to find a new agency. Our current one is utterly baffled as to why anybody would own, say 4-5 vehicles, most older and not doing much mileage. I swear there was an audible sigh when the E28 temporarily pushed us to five and apparently required us to add a separate second policy from The Hartford (same broker now has us on Safeco) because four was the limit...

We just failed to leave when the one really good broker there who was all over finding the best fit turned out to be much to good to stay at that agency.

Sorry, if there's a useful thought here it's that if you can find a good broker, they may work with multiple companies and actually do the legwork to figure out the best fit. I feel like they really can be useful.

Having worked for 5 different insurance companies my opinion is, the more they advertise the less good they are.

Those five years with the gecko were some of the worst of my life.

ddavidv said:

Having worked for 5 different insurance companies my opinion is, the more they advertise the less good they are.

Those five years with the gecko were some of the worst of my life.

Based on this statement, I take comfort in the fact that my new carrier doesn't advertise.

My experience with insurance companies is basically, unlike with a wife or husband, it generally pays to be unfaithful.  Shop around.  Loyalty is dead.  

I was insured through Enumclaw. I had really good rates because no tickets or accidents. One day they just sent me a letter saying they were terminating my policy. I called my agent and she said they figured I was due for a claim.

RealMiniNoMore said:

Man, I'm glad I have a good broker. She called me to tell me that my rates were going up a not-so-fair amount, and she shopped around, and found a new company that's less than half what I had been paying previously. 

This. Find a good (heavy emphasis on GOOD) broker.

Flo and I had a thing many years ago.  Then she screwed me over and I dumped her like a load of trash.  You can do better.

Progressive screwed me out of a total of $16,000 by denying claims.  One was hail damage that I said happened at 6pm.  They denied the claim because the NWS said the hail happened at 6:30pm.  I called all my friends and got copies of their claims that all said 6 - 6:15 pm and got a lawyer.  No dice.  The other claim was someone breaking into my car and stealing the radio.  I was at my neighbor's for game night.  They denied the claim because they couldn't corroborate my story with the neighbor.  Since when is that a thing?  Again, lawyers got nowhere.

There is a reason they can spend billions of dollars every year on ads.  Sucker you in with an ad, take your money, then not pay out claims.

I'm with state farm and love it.

You may also be at the mercy of your state.  In CA, if you buy a passenger van it gets regular insurance.  If you buy a cargo van (which includes something like a PT cruiser or Astro), it must be insured commercially.  The line is drawn with windows in the back (not just the rear doors, but side windows) and seats in the back.  No seats or no windows?  Commercial.

PA has some funny ones too.  Here I can't insure the motorcycle on the same policy as the car.  Motorcycles have to have a separate policy, which (depending on the insurance company) affects multi-car discount.  State farm lets me qualify for multi-car and includes the motorcycle.

In reply to Curtis :

PA can be extra funny with vans.  My giant E-350 diesel conversion van - a vehicle that probably weighs around 6000 lbs with something like a 10,000 lb towing capacity - is titled as a "station wagon" and the yearly fee ($42) is the same as my 2006 MINI Cooper S - vs. the $154/year I paid for my old Cummins truck that weighed about the same.  If I keep it I may still get it re-titled as an RV at some point, but mostly for the insurance.  Although I may see if I can get "antique" tags for it since it's over 25 years old.... but I doubt I can get classic car insurance for it.

PA can be weird.... 

Ian F said:

PA can be weird.... 

As a relatively recent resident, I can confirm.

So a friend suggested calling Flo back and asking for Jamie or someone over their head. 

So I did. They manually added it after asking about use, number of windows, and primary vehicle. With being a customer from 04 they were inclined to keep me. 

In reply to vwcorvette :

It might pay to shop around anyway. We had State Farm for quite a while until the premiums went a little too high for my liking and there "is nothing we can do about that". Switching companies netted a nice savings.

I'm shopping around myself. I've been with State Farm for about six years and was less than happy how they handled my accident in May. Still haven't gotten my deductible back. 

for the "shop around" types, do you have your homeowners and car insurance policies through the same insurance company?  I do need to shop around, as adding my 16YO took me from $250/mo to $480/mo.  dig this though:  that's for two cars with broad form collision.   when i add my C6 with broad form and change the E60 to PLPD, my bill drops to $425/mo.   

In reply to AngryCorvair :

My homeowners and auto is together with Encompass.  My broker shops around every year but we've been with them for quite a while. 

D2W said:

I was insured through Enumclaw. I had really good rates because no tickets or accidents. One day they just sent me a letter saying they were terminating my policy. I called my agent and she said they figured I was due for a claim.

that has to be one of the stupidest reasons I have heard for terminating somebody's police.