I'm looking for insurance for my new-to-me car. I sure don't understand the widely varying rates for the same coverage. From AARP/Hartford with no local agent, $568 a year, Central Insurance ompanies, with a local agent, $691 a year, all the way to Farmers with local agent at $1763 a year.
Makes no sense. Unless one goes by price, how do you determine what you are getting? Google is little halp, there are people that hate each of them.
I know that many will disagree with me but at least try State Farm. I have checked with AARP and found them not to be competitive with anyone else...really surprised that you have found them to be the least expensive. In fact, I have compared many other insurance companies with my State Farm rates and none were even close.
I hate all insurance agencies. IMO, insurance is one of the biggest scams operated by government who are controlled by lobbyists.
I went with an insurance broker who was able to get a cheap price all together with my home, car and motorcycle. What's interesting is I have Progressive for my motorcycle yet, the broker still stuck with them and get me a lower premium.
I found that I got the best rate, by far from Geico.
They all suck. I've used an independent agent for the past 25 years and they have been able to beat all the TV advertisers and AARP for both auto and homeowners. They change companies every few years if thr rates go up to much.
Hi, Not only a premium they charge, their reputation handling claims. My worst experience was Safeco, they treated me like a criminal even tho accident was due to the other driver's fault. I just insure every thing, two cars, house, cabin with local company. Their service is A+. Had only one claim with them, years ago. Hail storm knocked out our sun room ceiling which was replaced pronto. Deductible was waived by the contractor who did the repair. He originally built it.
This is why it is ALWAYS better to work with a good broker than an agent. An agent, by definition, works for an insurance company. A broker, by definition, works for YOU. They can place your coverage with whichever company is most willing to play ball. A brokerage may have a very large book of business with a particular company - and if that company starts getting difficult to deal with they will shop the business around and see who is looking to pick up their business. If company A is looking at loosing 8 or 10 million dollars of business to company B because they want to jerk a few customers around, the broker has a pretty large and effective stick in their hand. If you are dealing with an agent - dealing with a "direct writer" - you have NO stick to bring to the party.
Also, the broker knows what companies are good to work with, and which ones are difficult. They know which companies are going to settle quickly, and which ones tend to drag their feet. They will ballance the quality of the coverage required with the cost of the coverage to get you the best deal for YOUR requirements.
You would be surprised what kind of concessions a broker can pry out of an insurer when a large amount of business is being sent their way!!!!
Insurance companies base their rate schedule on loss history. Certain cars are involved in more accidents. Price goes up. Certain cars are more expensive to fix - price goes up. Certain cars are written off more often - price goes up. Injury rates in certain cars are higher - price goes up.
That's the vehicle side of the rating.
Then certain age groups are involved in more accidents - price goes up. Certain gender is more likely to have an accident - price goes up. People driving for work have more accidents? Price goes up. People driving in certain metropolitan areas have more accidents? Price goes up. Vehicles parked in puplic parking areas get more damage? Price goes up.
That covers demographics.
Then people who have more speeding tickets, stoplight infringements, or other "moving violations" are a higher risk - price goes up. And those who have a history of accidents or other losses are a higher risk for more accidents or losses, so the price goes up.
That covers the driver.
Different companies have more exposure to different risks than others. If one company has had a high loss ratio accross their entire coverage area, their costs will be higher than a company that has a lower exposure to those risks - often by virtue of where the do and do not write business.
That explains part of the difference between companies. Their business model explains part of the difference as well. Advertizing costs are a large part of an insurer's annual costs - significantly more fore some companies than others.
Is it a scam when you crash you car into someone and cause $100K of damage and medical bills and the insurance company pays it? Or when your house burns down and they pay for it?
We all have some issues with insurance companies, but that doesn't make it a scam. They are legitimate businesses that provide a valuable service.
Same here, I get junk mail telling me how much I can save by switching, the savings don't amount to as much as I'm paying so I know that can't be, unless they want to pay me to carry their insurance. I noticed the last bill Geico dropped 10 or 20 bucks.
snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote: (...)
You're all forgetting (not not seeing) a new trend -
Car insurance companies putting GPS logging devices in cars - so they can monitor your exact driving risk in (more or less) real time.
Small boxes that sit on your dash board or back window shelf that know where you drive, which intersections you go through, how fast you go, what time of the day, how fast you drive, where does the car spend it's time when it's parked, etc.
They get to know what the car is doing - not necessarily who's driving it. Figuring out how much to charge to insure a car ultimately depends on what the car actually does during it's life, because those that are on paper as the insured party are not necessarily the ones that rack up the miles operating the car.
Just having these devices in a car to log your driving can have an effect on your driving behavior. Maybe you will take fewer risks, stay under the speed limit, etc.
Supposedly they offer a break in your rates if you put the logger on the car. How they engineer rate increases or decreases based on the info they get from the logger could be a thorny issue...
Show us one example of a US insurance company that does this with private autos. It's done with commercial trucks, typically by the truck company that owns the truck to make sure trucks are where they should be, the driver isn't speeding, etc. I'm betting you can't show us that one example and are nuts as usual.
Then it should be easy to show us the example.
Though my car is fairly old it's in great condition but I realize it does not have much value so I don't bother to get collision. Also, the last time I got a speeding ticket I went to court and they were willing to give me a non-moving violation with the same fine.
They understood my concern as things like that help keep my rate low.
Back about 2004 or so, I was insured with The Hartford. They chose some customers and made an offer. If we would allow them to put the device in the car for 6 months they would give us $400 and some soft of gift. I let them do it.
For six months, I did watch my speed a bit, but that was all. When they removed it, we got a $400 check and an emergency kit for the car. They stated it was only for research and would not affect the rates we pay.
You can get a lower rate with Progressive if you put a device, but not a tracker, in the car. Gives speed and braking data as well as time and miles.
Sure, it all about the money.
Some years ago I was in the Philadelphia traffic court. Probably 100 of us showed up. Judge came out, everyone stood. Judge asked "how do you plead" The 100 of us said "not guilty". The judge then said, "dismissed". Guess he had an early Tee time.
Assuming you're in the US, it depends on the state. You need to research locally. I live in Mass., where the rates are regulated. It doesn't much matter who I buy insurance from.
Whether or not there is minimum required coverage, and what it is, will also vary.
In Mass there's a "safe driver credit" scam that allows insurance companies to charge more for 6 years due to a single moving violation. With speed traps and other money-making scams run by police to supplement their funding, it's not easy to go 6 years with no tickets, making the effective insurance rate higher than the official rate. (I once got a warning for not stopping at a stop sign until I was past it, in Cambridge, MA. The police cruiser was illegally parked, blocking my view until I was past the sign. That ticket cost me nothing, but the insurance increase totalled something like $720.)
So the Mass. system controls rates but then provides a way to jack up the price. (Fortunately, that increase is also regulated.) In your state it seems to be entirely unregulated. In that case you just have to ask the companies about the details of their policies. Looking online is not likely to be very helpful.
Wow, I guess he was in a hurry. I've never had a speeding ticket dropped but in all cases I had the ticket changed to something else or reduced just by asking.
BTW: I checked my rates from Geico and I'm only paying about $200 a year
I'm sure being retired and having a good driving record are a big part of that.
As usual have nothing to do with the original assertion that these are GPS monitors that can do more than track total miles and speed parameters.
Your original "statement" that trader was responding to was this:
You wouldn't know a true fact if is bit you on your virtual ass.
And yet your own response negates what you said.
What the insurance companies claim these OBD dongles do, and what they can really do, are 2 different questions.
There are MANY OBD-2 dongles that currently exist that log vehicle data (brake use, vehicle speed) AND have built-in GPS AND can send that data to monitors via cellular service.
It's only a matter of time (a short matter of time) before insurance companies are up-front about wanting to match that info with gps locations (or admitting they already have it in the dongles they've provided).
Any gadgets they provide that don't connect to your obd port will defacto be GPS trackers, but in looking at what's available now, it's clear that:
1) An OBD dongle has sufficient GPS reception capability given the location of these ports in passenger vehicles and the capabilities of GPS receiver modules 2) The OBD dongle is much less likely to be "messed with" in terms of breakage or loss or mishandling by the vehicle's owner/operator compared to a dash-mounted box with cord going to power socket. 3) logged OBD data can probably identify vehicle by serial number, so there is no question that the logged data is from a specific vehicle. A dash-mounted GPS logger might or wouldn't have this capability.It might even be the case in some cars with built-in GPS that it is possible to get GPS data through the OBD port. So insurance companies wouldn't be lying if they said their dongle's were not GPS receivers.
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Auto Insurance Co. Tracks Drivers by GPS & Charges Per Mile Driven
Insurance tracking device records route driven by the policyholder
Kit Daniels Infowars.com March 28, 2014
A California auto insurance company is rolling out a car tracking device which allows the company to locate policyholders by GPS and charge them insurance rates per mile driven.
Developed by San Francisco-based MetroMile, the Metronome device plugs into a vehicle?s OBD-II port and wirelessly sends mileage data to the insurance company, which charges a base rate plus 2 to 5 cents per mile, and can even record the route driven by the policyholder.
MetroMile also provides a smartphone app which links the policyholder?s phone to the device.
?Opening the app, it showed the path I had driven and recorded the number of miles, how long it took, average fuel economy and fuel cost,? Cnet contributor Wayne Cunningham wrote in his review of the Metronome. ?After driving further, I opened the app again and saw the route I covered on a map.?
?The app listed each trip I took, breaking it up at each of my stops.?
He also added that he could view his entire route for a specific day or for each individual driving segment.
Now this isn?t the first monitoring device released by an auto insurance company but it is one of the first to openly employ GPS data to charge drivers per mile driven.
California?s former Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner green-lighted per-mile insurance pricing back in 2009 in order to pressure drivers not to drive as much, and no doubt insurance companies will take advantage of the pricing to hike up auto insurance rates just as Obamacare did for health insurance.
Rural drivers in particular will be especially hurt as many of them drive long stretches of highway to get to the nearest city.
And there?s also the very real risk of insurance companies abusing captured GPS data by charging policyholders fees for going, say, one mile over the speed limit or for driving at night.
Or, even worse, the data could be handed over to the government.
?The best way to protect a consumer?s locational privacy is to not collect the data in the first place,? privacy watchdogs Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and PrivacyActivism wrote on the subject. ?? Because insurers may collect all manner of data, all of that data will be stored along with the actual miles data.?
?Data retention issues arise because now not only are we looking at the storage of actual miles data, but of all other data that happens to be collected.?
Unfortunately, auto insurance companies are simply following a trend set by authoritarian lawmakers who are trying to tax drivers per mile driven with government-mandated tracking devices. =================
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IGot2P wrote in news:lh769p$bfl$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:
I sent the nearest State Farm agent a letter with info requesting a quote and a follow up email a week later through his web site. He didn't respond to either. Other agents answered the same letter text with quotes so that wasn't it.
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