Insurance for what? Homeowners? Malpractice? Accidental death and dismemberment? Valuable personal property? Boat? Auto? Life? All of it?!

ETA: I’m almost positive I didn’t see the word ‘auto’ in the OP. But if I genuinely overlooked it, mea culpa

I assume auto.

The post specifically said auto.

Auto, homeowners tends to go hand and hand with it.

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UK here, mine just halved since last year, same company, mid 40s

Mine just went from $252 to $256/mo for 3 cars, and life insurance

I can speak to this recently. My car insurance had been going up at least $40 each 6-month policy renewal the past 1.5 years. I have Progressive and contacted them asking why if I haven’t changed any of my policy. They just told me it’s due to inflation and “increasing claim rates in my area”, so basically I’m subsidizing for the bozos who are actually getting into accidents around where I live lol.

Unfortunately I have a car with a reconstructed title, meaning some companies won’t even insure my car at all and others are exorbitantly more expensive than Progressive is.

Subsidizing bozos that get into accidents is literally how all insurance has worked since it began

Both my auto and home ins went up this month

On the topic of insurance, has anybody used an independent insurance agent to shop around for you? My home and auto are up for renewal next month and I don't really want to deal with the headache of sifting through 20 different quotes.

Yup, nothing new here. If the age pool I'm in gets into more accidents, i would expect my rates to climb. Since covid helped lower rates, it was inevitable they would eventually go back up.

I wonder why that is. My insurance went a little up, but nothing huge. I am with you here if your insurance goes up go hunt for a quote no need to stay loyal to an insurance company if they raise your rate for no reason. I am just fed up where you try to keep a clean record with 0 accidents and your insurance rate keeps going up when you are trying to stay on the clear.

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I do sometimes. Might as well let them do most of the legwork and see what they can do. Recently my guy found me a regional company with a better rate than my already cheap Progressive policy.

In the time it took you to write this you could have just read the very short post.

Do you just start by googling independent insurance agents in your area and reach out to a few of them? Anything good or bad to look out for?

I could be wrong, but I am assuming this is directed toward those of us in the US

Yeah google or word of mouth recommendations. I'd say just don't let them pressure you into anything - they are salesman so some might be aggressive.

Progressive wanted nearly $200/month for auto. I cancelled my policy and got an entirely new one with them that same day.

My rate went down to $110/month.

Your insurance went down during covid?

I have Geico, my rate is going up 25% next month. Absolutely nothing changed, same car, same address, no tickets/accidents/ claims. I spent the afternoon getting quotes. I understand raising rates but 25% when I've never had a claim?

I live in FL and homeowners and car insurance can be expensive.

My home policy was not going to renew so my Allstate agent called me and said I could get a new HO policy only if I included my car. They quoted me $230 a month for my car only, I was paying $80 through Progressive. Well I called Progressive and got my home bundled with them. My current car insurance is up to $101 a month.

Mine did.

>so basically I’m subsidizing for the bozos who are actually getting into accidents around where I live

That's the entire concept of how all insurance works.

My insurance company sent out a couple refund checks during the pandemic.

Because insurance is a pool. You might not be having claims but your neighbors might be. Auto thefts were up 16% last year and are up 30-80% this year in some jurisdictions that are already reporting numbers. Rates were artificially low during the pandemic because of a reduction of crime and driving, it’s back to business for criminals and commuters.

What coverages did you change? You didn’t get a 50% drop from rewriting it with matching coverages

That’s literally how insurance works…

Don’t carry collision if you’re so confident about your ability to avoid accidents…

I left progressive and found better coverage (included 1M umbrella policy for free) for a 30% discount. It’s always worth it to shop.

Oh yeah agreed. But he’s saying he stayed with the same company, just wrote a new policy.

The people who are causing the issues should be the ones paying additional into that pool. That's not fair to the people who don't file claims and get tickets

And here I was always under the assumption the older I got the cheaper insurance would get. Yet another thing I was lied too about

They spread it out because having your car stolen or wrecked when it wasn't your fault already sucks enough. Also my insurance got a lot more reasonable in my 30s YMMV.

Vehicles are also being destroyed/damaged at much higher rates with more and more severe weather events occurring.

For example imagine all the cars that are total losses from the Ian flooding.

I thought the same thing and checked again and again. Even had my SO check it. Same exact coverage, no change.

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You edited the post after my comment?

I’m pretty sure it was edited after my reply…

Ooh where? I would love an included umbrella

Yep, that's what I recommend, also a dash cam so you have some proof if someone else runs a red light or stop sign so you're not in a situation of 'your word against theirs' on what happened, what color the light was, etc.

Only thing I can think of would be credit. It’s generally run at new business and never again unless you request it. If your credit improved since the last time, you initially started a policy that could do it. It’s a huge impact to your premium.

Not sure why you got down voted, yes this sub is US focused usually, but you specified UK and the market may be totally different over there.

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Just to add, this is also not the time to slash your coverages if you can afford it. Yes shop arround, but don't go from 100k limits to state minimums. The reason premiums are going up is because costs are going up and people are becoming ever more litigious, and you don't want to become personally on the hook for those higher costs.

Yeah this isn't true. Plenty of insurance companies just walk the prices up for existing members every month until they leave and go elsewhere. They'll sign you up for cheap with all sorts of new member discounts. Once they have you as a customer they couldn't care less.

I did the same. My progressive policy went from $560/6mo to $850/6mo by the third renewal. Canceled and went elsewhere. Have equivalent insurance for $600/mo.

Have my motorcycle with progressive. My renewal was 200 less than last year and i have high end coverage. No change to anything and accident free just a simple note of congratulations, your premium is 200 less this year. Whenever insurance goes up just a little i start shopping around.

>The people who are causing the issues should be the ones paying additional into that pool. That's not fair to the people who don't file claims and get tickets

So you're basically just trying to eliminate insurance entirely? I mean, that's how a non-insurance world works -- those who have an issue, pay. Those who have no issues, don't.

The point of insurance is to spread costs across a wider group -- so when you do get hit with something, you don't have to pay the full amount out of pocket.

And you realize, right, that not everyone who has an issue "caused" it -- it's not like they did a hail dance to call up a storm or something.

It does get RELATIVELY cheaper but I'm sure no one actually told you insuarance would be less actual money ten years in the future.

You don't pay more because of other people. You pay more because the math the insuarance did is saying your probability of having an accident is going up.

That said in this instance it's mostly lazy people getting affected. In many cases related on this sub recently (and actually I haven't posted but in my case too) switching insuarance has not only negated the increase but often resulted in a lower premium than the old rate was before the increase. YMMV.

I use an independent agent and would recommend it, particularly if you have multiple insurance needs.

They shop around every year when I am up for renewal. They go through and discuss my coverage in detail with me if I change anything, that is one thing I like particular. They actually know about me and my day to day life so they make sure I'm not underinsured. Also, when there is an issue I have someone who will help with all the paperwork and let me know what I need to do. Even when someone hit my car and it was on their insurance, my broker handled dealing with their insurance for me to ensure they paid for everything they were supposed to.

I have checked what I was paying against going directly to places like progressive and they have never beaten what I pay unless they are reducing my coverage on something.

Cost of labor, parts, repairs, severe weather like Ian, and trying to raise back after having to take cuts from covid

The independent guys should be like a financial advisor in that they should be asking you questions about the whole picture. Does an umbrella policy make sense? What are your goals - cheapest or best coverage for your family, etc. They'll be sales-y, but thats expected... just without pressure.

Yeah significantly

I found the same, especially when you're into umbrella policies. The stage in life where they make sense easily coincides with appreciating the help and legwork they do for you.

State Farm offered 85 while progressive wanted 180. Fuck progressive

I work for a small insurer and build our rating plans based heavily on Progressives rate plan. The only diminishing discount they have is their advanced quote discount. starts out around 13% and decreases to 0% overtime. Diminishing discounts vary between insurers but that 50% difference isn’t all from regular policy aging.

Agreed. I finally got to a point where having "people" for some stuff is just worth it, even if it costs a little more. With insurance you usually end up paying less, hell even if I just get the same deal or really close that's a hell of a value with the additional support I get.

What kind of coverage is a good minimum to have? I got fucked on repair costs recently when somebody hit my parked car and didn't leave a note, so I upped my coverage but hate paying so much for a car I rarely drive.

I used to have allstate for car insurance in my 20s. It slowly went up each time and I never thought much of it, but eventually it was too much and I started shopping around.

Every other company quoted me less than 50% of what I was paying allstate. I called my allstate agent and asked if they could match these quotes and they said no.

I switched companies. The NEXT DAY I went to allstate's website for a quote (which wouldn't run a credit check I don't think?), and the quote was in line with every other insurance company. Less than 50% of what I was paying them just 2 days prior.

So, seems to me that insurance companies just like screwing their existing customers.

Also, no I did not lower my coverage.

I used to work at Safeco pricing auto insurance. (I had two west coast states I was responsible for.) Every company has different formulas to calculate your premium. Just shop around and call multiple companies for quotes. At safeco, we would take into consideration what other companies charged in our pricing model, but there was still the possibility of a huge difference in rates compared to other companies. Loss ratios are prescribed by state legislation, it's a highly regulated industry. All insurance companies are required to provide a document detailing their pricing formula to the state insurance commission that could be accessed by the public.

I really don't care what it's from. Another insurer was basically able to take me down to where I was before. The problem is low risk people can get better insurance. Jacking up rates on low risk individuals just increases the risk and thus loss of their portfolio. Which means they have to raise rates even more.

"I got fucked on repair costs recently when somebody hit my parked car"

How much damage did they cause? Was the cost issue due to your deductible or you being underinsured?

My go-to is getting a high deductible and saving the difference. For smaller repairs I will just pay out of pocket and not use insurance. All I really care about are large accidents, comprehensive, and liability.

Laughs in public insurance that has given me rebates last 2 years and has been less then 800cad a year for 200 dollar deductible on a mustang.

My insurance went way down. I'm paying at least 15% less than I was pre COVID. I haven't changed providers. My car has gotten older and so have I though lol.

It was like 4k out of pocket, I didn't have any coverage for this.

I did this exact same thing. It was great cause me and my fiancé both got to lower our monthly but kept our “continuous customer discounts” cause they just let you keep your same account. I thought it was so bizarre but reading this clearly this is their business modelc

Might be partially credit. Especially based on your age (assuming less credit history in your 20s). It’s a soft pull but they do use it in basically every state.

By that logic let’s just get rid of insurance entirely and the people whose cars get totaled can go buy a new car. My car’s not totaled, why should I be paying insurance premiums for the insurance company to replace theirs?

Literally the whole point of insurance is to take random risks like that and spread the cost to everyone regardless of who is personally affected.

If you’ve bought a home recently, your realtor likely knows an insurance agent/broker that can shop around for you

Even though I am happy with my current insurance. I shop every year at renewal. Loyalty to me doesn't seem to matter. What matters is when you need them most and they pick up the phone and write you a check.

>I’m almost positive I didn’t see the word ‘auto’ in the OP.

Afaik Auto is one of the only insurances people keep in the back of their mind to change every 6 months depending on price.

“Gotta take advantage of this low deductible, get me my rain stick and some ice”

Yep! That’s not an issue where I live, but given that you can barely get home insurance in Florida now I wonder what car insurance is like. The fires on the west coast must be pretty hard for rates too.

Here's a big one that people never think of.

If you now work from home but you used to go into the office before, you're driving less per year. That alone will drop your insurance cost substantially.

Couple weeks ago I went in with my wife to talk to our state farm agent. We ended up almost doubling our medical policies on our car insurance, added something like $50k of coverage on our house and our overall payment only went up by $5 because we dropped out total estimated driving amount from 13k miles each per year to <5k for me and <8k for my wife along with getting those Bluetooth things that track your driving habits and mileage to real world.

Even if we didn't do the Bluetooth tracking things we only would've ended up paying $25 more total per month with all the extra coverage.

I just changed my auto policy since mine is up today. I went from $1540/year to $1290/year. Saved $250. Pays to shop around.

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It's highly area-dependent. I switched from State Farm to Progressive and cut my rate from $130/mo. to $96/mo. for identical coverage.

I did when I got my house. Surprised by how well it worked out too. They got me discounts on the house especially because they went through all the little details that could affect repairs like flooring type and when were upgrades done for me. It saved me at least a couple hours of work and I like that they put it into escrow for me so I don't have to think about anything additional beyond printing my info. I did check some of their findings against online pricing portals and they did get more coverage for me for less money compare to those results. I used a company that does flat rate for the broker, not a percentage of insurance cost, and I'll likely use them again when I get next years rates assuming cost still increasing.

If you live in NY, you're in luck! I used this list and ended up paying 1/3 what I was paying for auto insurance, and greatly increased my coverage in the process:

NY State provided list of car insurers

I did this in NY because some of the carriers I was interested in did not write policies themselves. I ended up saving over $2K per year over GEICO with the carrier I used for 2 cars (for my wife and I), with hugely increased coverage, and we have a perfect driving record! I also ended up getting a very affordable umbrella policy and renter's insurance through the same agent. I have been very happy with the experience, and make the agent re-quote me every year (which everyone should do, never stick with the same insurer if you can get a cheaper price for the same coverage)!

My rates actually went down with them about 25% for some reason. I have not questioned it. I don't think it's an age deal either. I keep waiting for some shit to go down so I can bring out the Ole jumping mat, but so far so good.

USAA actually was super overpriced in my old area. Some folks get mad at a particular company, but I see it as they're all mostly viewed the same to me. All the decent ones will be good enough and most will go up for various reasons so I don't hate the company and will go back uf there's evera good deal, but won't hesitate to shop around.

My progressive went from $110 to 178 for one mini Van just last week.

Did you have liability only?

Yes, I just had the minimum required by the state. I have now increased it to include situations like this, but it's expensive and I'd like to call around to ask for a better deal, so I would like to know what kind of minimum reasonable coverage I should be asking for. I know it depends on a few variables but there should be some kind of standard answer for regular people, right?

I don't drive much and have never been in an accident, but people here drive like dicks so clearly I need more than the minimum required by the state. Thanks for any advice

Obviously.

They didn’t get “fucked” they just didn’t insure against a possible event.

This happened to me with GEICO like 10 years ago and the same thing happened, and like the other commenter said, it was because my credit score had improved dramatically since becoming a customer when I was only like 18. But, I called them, and they corrected their error and even refunded me the premium I had already paid so far for that period.

Same thing happened to me with Progressive. Difference for me was calling and speaking to a human vs. renewing on the app. Crazy difference in savings.

Ours gave money back due to people not driving as much during lockdown. Now, most insurance companies are increasing price. Luckily, I has already renewed with Esurance before. Will find out next year if I'll pay more.

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Yeah I just shopped around last month when I got my renewal notice and Progressive offered the lowest price for similar coverage. The highest I found was Amica followed by Geico.

>don’t be loyal to one company if you can get if significantly cheaper while maintaining the same coverage

I just wanted to emphasize this as insurance can usually always be cheaper (unless you're already at a required minimum level) by simply reducing your coverage, so you want to try and maintain the same or similar coverage while getting a cheaper rate.

Not to mention the pricing of cars right now, insurance didn’t plan on dealer mark ups and chip shortages resulting in 10-15% price hikes on basic vehicles.

I had a similar experience with eSurance which is an Allstate company.

Sounds like my internet plan.

I was paying $65/month for an older, slower plan that didn’t even actually exist anymore.

Cancelled it and got a newer plan with 2x the speed for $60.

Never trust a company to just give you their best deal automatically.

A good coverage would be something like 100 comprehensive deductible 500 collision, 100k bodily injury/property damage and have rental reimbursement and roadside assistance.

I’ve always done the $100k/$300k/$50k split.

State minimums will absolutely leave you high and dry in the event you’re at fault in a collision.

Wow, can’t say something from Reddit has ever affected me so quickly. Right after reading your post I went to look at my current policy and sure enough, they’ve quietly added $20 to my monthly payment.

I promptly went to the other major companies websites for a few quotes, and sure enough I’ve already purchased a new policy almost half the monthly price my original insurance company was trying to get out of me.

So, front the bottom of my wallet, thank you u/Grayjay000

One thing to keep in mind when comparing Amica is that if you choose their dividend paying policies, you’ll pay more upfront but will get back 20% of the premium price.

Thanks!

> The people who are causing the issues should be the ones paying additional into that pool

get a handful of tickets doing 70 in a 40 and see if this is the case.

State farm secret from a former sales intern...

Ask - "Is there any discount for not driving a ton? I only drive about [something under 10k] miles per year." I believe the threshold varies by state, but the state I worked in has a threshold of 12k.

We weren't supposed to offer this discount unless something like the above was mentioned by the potential customer, but we would sometimes probe it out of them if we needed to get the price down to close a deal. (i.e., "If you had to guess, how many miles would you say you drive per month?")

State Farm is not set up to frequently review the mileage on your vehicle, so if you receive that discount you can carry it for at least the 6-12 month period of your policy, and likely longer.

Edit: Additionally, the Drive Safe & Save is another solid option to get $10-$20 off your monthly payment. You only have to activate it a few times a month to receive the discount. It may effect the LMD when your policy renews, however...

They still came up significantly more expensive for me. Their price was 3x what I signed up for switching back to Progressive.

This is my exact experience with both State Farm and Allstate. Any time my rates go up I just instantly switch auto insurance now.

There is no such thing as customer loyalty with these companies so do not feel obligated to start with them! All of their apps are the same, all of them provide the same coverage, and all of them suck. :)

Our pet insurance almost doubled this year.

I work at an insurance company (in IT) and they had a few disastrous claims they had to pay out this year. I've been walking around the office the past few weeks and lots of calls to field agents explaining that all of their clients' insurance rates are going up by about 30%.

Interesting, I'm going to look into this in my area.

I think the pandemic induced parts shortage and labor shortages have also driven up the cost of collision repair. Also, cars are so much more complex today, what was minor fender bender 25 years ago ("a scratch"), could today involve recalibrating radar, parking sensors, de-crumpling crumple zones, etc.

My daughter's car is literally at the local stereo shop right now getting the dashcam hardwired in.

My wife and I have dashcams. Six days after having hers installed, her car was totaled by a distracted box truck driver. We only had back one month from the collision repair after another accident where she wasn't at fault. The other driver had a blowout on the highway, bounced off the center divider, and then took her out. The cops fully attributed the collision to him in the report. A month later, our insurance informed us that he changed his tune, and said my wife hit him.

Dashcams are a must.

Of course! One thing with looking for quotes online; a lot of times companies won’t run reports so they’ll give you one price and then a few weeks later increase it. Be careful all MVR reports have been run and such!

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My insurance went from 600 every 6 months to 900 every 6 months. /cry

A long time back, after the first time I used and was burnt by an online insurance company, I sought out and used a hyper local independent rep. They found me insurance that was cheaper the place I came in wanted them to buy for me, but of course by the time I looked around myself a couple years later, I could find plenty of online places that were cheaper still.

Plus, they moved their office from in my neighborhood to a town 30 minutes away, presumably closer to their house and with lower office rent. When I called to cancel and was asked why, I told them that I wanted a local agent and they weren't local anymore, and the secretary just said "yes, I understand" with a resigned voice and processed the cancellation.

Progressive dumps you into a risk bucket through their algorithms. As long as you are a customer with Progressive you cannot move risk buckets. So if you were a shit head or had speeding tickets when you first signed up you're stuck there. You can/should cancel and rewrite with Progressive to get into a different risk bucket. It can make a major different as we see two comments up.

The deductible is based on your financial situation. If you have $20k sitting in your emergency fund, there's no reason to go with a $100 deductible if a $250 (with everything else the same) would save you some money.

He very much could have. Progressive silos you into a risk profile and no matter your habits as a driver, they don't shift you into safer risk profiles as your account ages. You have to rewrite with them to do that.

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Weird. Did you have to cancel first and then get new insurance with them, or did you get a quote as a new customer and switch from them to them?

Disclaimer: Am Independent Agent on Commercial side of things.

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You absolutely should. It costs you nothing but 30 minutes of your time giving them info. They have comparative raters and can run your account across a dozen companies in a few minutes. Just check around with reviews and make sure you don't pick an agent that will do anything to your coverages to just get the business. Those are bad people.

Progressive is newer to the home insurance market. Currently they're very bad at the claims side of things. Just a warning.

Yep. MVRs are expensive and the online raters won't run them before selling a policy. They'll run it once you've paid though. If you have some shit on your driving record, they're going to find it after the fact and yoink a bunch of "discounts" they gave you up front.

At minimum you should have 100,000/300,000 limits. If you care about your vehicle getting fixed you should have full comp and collision and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.

Progressive is literal garbage I switched to State Farm as well and pay less than half than I was previously.

Thanks!

Progressive increased my policy by 35%. I called and they said we increased it for all. That was about 6 months ago. I immediately refused and got 35% cheaper with a different company.

Sorry No loyalty here. Especially when they think people are fool.

Is there an easier way to check rates online besides going to each site and putting ur information in?

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I've been with progressive for 7 years and learned last week that means nothing. On top of my rates going up every cycle, regardless of the fact that I have a completely clean driving record, they also rejected my claim for a windshield because the damage happened during the same cycle that I requested a lower deductible. They said "it's suspicious timing that I'd never filed a claim ever and the first time I do is 2 months after I request my deductible be lowered from 1k to 100."

Even though it's a new car and I didn't notice my deductible was 1000 until I went to renew and said "oh that's not good, let's lower my comprehensive since I commute so far and winter is coming and I'm not paying out of pocket when a truck inevitably throws a rock at my windshield."

It's almost like insurance companies dont want to pay out. I've paid on average 150/mo to progressive for 7 years, that's 12,600 that shouldn't have sitting away somewhere specifically for me to use if I need to make a claim. Why they try to weasle out of saving me money is beyond me.

Counting down the days until my husband turns 25 to do this with Geico!

Look into increasing that bodily injury liability to 300k/500k if you’re able to. It’ll help increase your assets from any potential larger lawsuits. And increase the property damage liability to 100k. Increasing property damage liability should be pretty cheap.

Also might want to check if progressive is actually writing the homeowners policy. Or do they just outsource it to another company

Every state has something they deal with like hail, tornados etc that add risk to insurance

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US here. Mine has continued to go down every year too . Currently paying $34/month for full coverage on my 12 year old car. Seems like a great deal. Crazy what some people are paying

yea, but I also don't buy it, no pun intended.

This year I'm shopping around, not gonna let Farmer's give me the pandemic excuse they gave me last year.

I believe they increased my rates by 30% last year, with no incidents except a windshield chip. It just doesn't make sense for your rates to go up so much, when your autos are getting older (if you tend to keep them and not lease all the time).

Costco's 3rd party looks promising for Home & Auto.

You can. Different companies cater to different types of people.

We shopped 4ish different insurance companies and for auto especially some of them varied by up to +/-100%. They were all identical coverages.