Time to Shop Car Insurance. Reason to choose any certain carrier over another?

[Doc8404]

We are in different states that are worlds apart with business regulation(s). That matters!! For me in NY what I've found is that the big players offer teaser rates that are excellent but each year they incrementally up your costs and after about 3 years of 4 it's time to move on and repeat, and repeat.

Another factor affecting the big boys, natural disasters. After Katrina hit NO State Farm took a serious bath. So much so that the rest of the countries State Farm insured persons paid heavily over the next few years with rate increases. This came from an insurance agent friend of mine. Otherwise, I'd not have known.

I did find a smaller-sized insurer, NY Central Mutual (NYCM) and they have been excellent for the last 6 or 7 years. But they are hard-core about claims. I had my first claim of damage to a camper Upstate NY (5hr north of my home) and they sent an adjuster to the middle of nowhere over a 2k matter. Loved it!!!

nice. I have NYCM through GKG Insurance in New Hartford.

 

[t1snwrbrdr12]

My wife and I had been with State Farm since we started driving (well before we met each other). Our families had both been of the train of thought that you stick with your agent because they take better care of you.

I won’t lie, our State Farm agents all took great care of us. Any issue, call and explain it to them and they fight the fight for you.

Last house we bought, our friend is our mortgage guy and told us he though liberty could save us a lot of money. Turns out they did, for the same coverages, so we switched.

Liberty isn’t helpful in the event of a no fault accident. They record what happened and tell you to seek their help after you can’t get the case solved on your own. You don’t really have a personal agent or office to call, you call their call center. But it all works out, just more hassle for us.

For what it’s worth, also, I talked to my body shop manager I deal with (used to work with him for years so I feel I can trust his advice) and he said of all insurance agencies, State Farm and liberty are the easiest to deal with. They approve work easiest, approve supplements, and approve oem metal parts and oem plastic parts if aftermarket doesn’t fit

 

[CKN]

I had several policies through AAA (Home, Auto, Umbrella, Rentals). They have a bunch of discounts for first time customers, and in my case they raised the policies 10% a year-with ZERO CLAIMS after the first year. Obviously-got rid of them.

Insurance RISK is a state thing-and threads like this can only be of so much use,

 

[Aredeeem]

State Farm for 50 years. Never a problem, low rates. Overpaid based on my few claims? Absolutely. Knowing that my catastrophic claims are covered? Absolutely. Isn’t that what you’re paying for?

 

[Delta]

Another guy here vouching for State Farm. I've been with them forever, had a couple claims here and there. All of them were hassle free. Latest claim was in June 2020 when we got a pretty bad hailstorm that damaged my other Tacoma. Called the local agent and he transferred me to the claims center and it took all of 5 minutes and they even asked what shop I wanted to take it to. I had my grandmother switch to SF 6 months prior and her Jeep got hit by the same storm too. Same deal, easy claim and got to pick which shop. Both vehicles received OEM Toyota and Mopar hoods and other OEM parts, no qustions. Are my rates a little higher? Well, yea, but I'd not rather deal with some bargain company in an incident.

 

[Doc8404]

I prefer having a local agent that will not only shop the best coverage and company, but will be there for me when needed.

 

[john_pifer]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I ended up deciding, for now, to stick with Travelers, through Zander Insurance, here in Nashville.

I did decide to drop Collision, Comprehensive, Rental Reimbursement from my old Tacoma. However, we did decide to add the 5-Year New Car Replacement on the 4Runner. So, special thanks to @The Critic for alerting me to that coverage, which I was unaware of.

 

[repairman54]

I keep comprehensive on all my older vehicles. It covers deer hits and windshields and trees falling on them. Comp. isn't that expensive and one deer can total a older car or running over a critter can take out the condenser and radiator.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

So, I know "Bob's not the insurance guy", and all that, but, as I shop car insurance, I was just wondering if maybe some of you guys here have been with several different, or, maybe just a few different auto insurance companies, and have a preference for one particular company?

I've been with Travelers, through Zander Insurance Agency, here in Nashville (you may have heard of them if you listen to Dave Ramsey's show). Their claim to fame (or, at least, what's advertised) is that they shop you amongst up to a dozen different insurance carriers to get you the best rate.

My truck has 240,000 miles now, and, while still in good shape, I've made the decision to cut the fat out, and just maintain liability and uninsured motorist.

Of course, we have full coverage on the 4Runner.

100K/300K limits, which, I was told, are sort of "middle of the road" limits.

Neither the wife nor I have any tickets or accidents or any kind of claims, and a recent quote from Zander, through Travelers, was $1284/yr, with full coverage on the 4Runner and just liability and uninsured motorist on the Taco.

State Farm quoted a bit less, at $1178, with the same coverages.

The quote from Zander was an initial quote, without asking them to shop around - just asking them how much it would reduce it just by cutting comp, rental coverage, etc. I have asked them to do some checking and see how much they can get it down from there.

I think we're pretty low risk - I'm 41 and my wife is 27 and pregnant. I figure we should be able to qualify for some pretty good rates.

Anyway, I'm not looking to necessarily compare rates, because everyone's situation is different, and it doesn't really do any good to compare rates. But, have any of you had experience with several different companies, and have a preference for (or an aversion to) any particular company or companies, as far as the service received, or any other reason?

Why should I go with State Farm over Travelers, or Liberty Mutual over GEICO?

I've asked a couple of different agents, and neither could give me any real reason to choose one carrier over another.

Your experience?

I have been with SF for almost 35 years. Before SF, GEICO.

 

[john_pifer]

I keep comprehensive on all my older vehicles. It covers deer hits and windshields and trees falling on them. Comp. isn't that expensive and one deer can total a older car or running over a critter can take out the condenser and radiator.

Depends on one’s individual situation. In my particular use case, I’m unlikely to need it.

 

[meep]

@john_pifer, did you check the value of your Tacoma? My boss has a 98 short cab 4x4 4cyl with 240k on the odometer. He got cut off in traffic 2 weeks ago, mangled the bumper, grill, hood, radiator, and support. He was pretty sad about it… he’d bought it for his son for 5300 like 6 years ago, and kept it after getting his son something newer later on. He’s been using it to restore an old home. He loves the little truck, but it looked like about 4-5k in damage. Insurance told him that the blue book on it right now is between 6k-15k….. again, for a 98 4 banger with 240,000 miles! They are fixing it. Yours might be worth more than you think.

 

[Wolf359]

Depends on one’s individual situation. In my particular use case, I’m unlikely to need it.

Well Comprehensive would also cover floods, tornados, hail, etc. Also while your area might be fine, you might visit an area that has undesirables and they might try a window smash for loose change. On average, I get a new windshield or window glass every 5-10 years. On one car that I have, I've replaced the windshield and that's 7 years worth of ownership and the other car has had a window smashed out and that's 5 years of ownership.

 

[john_pifer]

Well Comprehensive would also cover floods, tornados, hail, etc. Also while your area might be fine, you might visit an area that has undesirables and they might try a window smash for loose change. On average, I get a new windshield or window glass every 5-10 years. On one car that I have, I've replaced the windshield and that's 7 years worth of ownership and the other car has had a window smashed out and that's 5 years of ownership.

I’ve had 1 window smash in the 27 years I’ve been driving. Not to say it’ll never happen again, but, at that rate, I’ll pay out of pocket if it happens, rather than file a claim that has a high potential to raise my rates.

 

[Wolf359]

I’ve had 1 window smash in the 27 years I’ve been driving. Not to say it’ll never happen again, but, at that rate, I’ll pay out of pocket if it happens, rather than file a claim that has a high potential to raise my rates.

I've had at least 4, kinda lost track. Seems like every 5-10 years. And every car pretty much had a windshield although I keep my cars for at least 5-12 years. Sometimes I'm glad to get a new windshield, I had one car for so long, the windshield was all pitted, once I got the new one I was glad to get it, couldn't believe how clear new glass was vs the old one. I skipped comprehensive once and someone smashed my rear glass. Was a real pain trying to find a way to get it done cheap, took a while to get junkyard glass and find a shop to do it locally. Comprehensive for a few years would have been cheaper. I think it was probably the kids in the neighborhood, they used to throw a football around and it was a hatchback so I think the ball probably landed on it because nothing was taken, just the back glass smashed.

 

[HowAboutThis]

I’ve never understood those that shop around. I’ve tried to and no company has ever come close to what I pay State Farm.

I’ve tried several times through the 33 years I’ve had my own policy through SF (since I was 17), SF is generally 1/2 of what all these other companies quote me.

Here’s my current premiums-

2014 Tundra $300/ 6 mo
2019 Highlander $345/ 6 mo
2015 RX 350 $400 / 6 mo

All have the same coverage.

$300k property liability
$500 deduct collision
$200 deduct comp
$5k medical per person

We have $300k in liability because it’s required under the Umbrella. They say the RX is high because it’s a policy that was started the latest (some gobbly gook, tied to a car we initially insured in 2012???)

Anyway, most of you are paying twice what we are for less coverage. And I constantly gripe to SF my rates are too high in that I’m not the problem on the roads.

Note that I get an unreal amount of discounts through SF that no one else will give. I get 25% off the top because I was accident free for at least 10 years. I’m grandfathered into that, it won’t go away.

As I said, we also have an umbrella that gives a discount across cars and homeowners. We also have homeowners that gives a multi line discount to the cars. Also have a boat with them. So they get 6 fat checks a year from us but we are paying about 60% of what it seems most people do for it all.

I just paid $512 for the 6 month premiums on 2 cars with very similar coverages as yours. I shop around because every insurer I've had randomly doubles their premiums within 3-5 years, it seems. I'm just waiting for my current insurer to send a $1000 bill next spring and then I have to go through the process again. Hope they don't, it's annoying.

 

[MoneyJohn]

Looks like I am the only one that dislikes State Farm.

In our experience, State Farm ripped us off very well. Our life priorities were different at that time so we didn't have time (or energy) to deal with day-to-day issues. We used to just get whatever was easiest. State Farm gradually increased rate so much that when we got another car, I shopped around. Since then I have been paying less than 50% to Erie of what State Farm used to charge us for 1 car for half the coverage.

And even the wife had a crash during the very first year with Erie, they charged a $100 penalty for the crash for 3 years but insurance cost kept dropping. We started with ~$2400/yr in 2014 and on Monday I will be paying $1560 for the next year of coverage. State Farm keeps spamming my mailbox but doesn't come close to what Erie charges us.

Mind you, I am just outside NYC. Our area is not exactly known for our good driving habits but we are super defensive in our driving.

 

[tbm5690]

Also consider your deductible. I've stuck with $1000 for a few years now, the break even point in rate savings compared to $500 comes after not too much time. I constantly get new quotes every year, both bundled and not. No one was ever able to beat Geico for me until just this month..cancelled after nearly 10 years because I'm saving a little (about $100 per year) but tripled my liability coverage.

For the record, USAA has never been too competitive for me on home or auto.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

I had to pay the ~$415 for the RX350 but then I get a $224 refund check from State Farm last week for overpayment.

Anyway, for the poster that said they paid $512 for coverage similar to mine, are you sure? I’m paying ~$600/ 6 months for two vehicles worth about $55k combined with 300k liability ?

 

[tbm5690]

I had to pay the ~$415 for the RX350 but then I get a $224 refund check from State Farm last week for overpayment.

Anyway, for the poster that said they paid $512 for coverage similar to mine, are you sure? I’m paying ~$600/ 6 months for two vehicles worth about $55k combined with 300k liability ?

There are way too many factors that go into pricing...age of insured and location being included. I'm a young(ish) male (31) and I pay $550 every 6 months for the two vehicles in my sig (not the bike...separate policy). I have 500K in liability and $30K medical each person, but I opted for the $1K deductible. My coverage is better (minus the deductible of course) and I pay less even though I assume I am quite a bit younger than you and therefore a "higher liability". Why? My guess is because I live in ND. I only say all this to point out that it's really hard to compare rates person to person.

 

[JTK]

Sorry if I missed it, but what's your deductible? ~$1200/year is very reasonable for 100/300 coverage on two vehicles.

Wait 'till the kiddo grows up. Adding a 19yr/old and 3rd cheap vehicle to my policy changed that $1200 to $3600.