Thursday, December 24, 2015

Car Insurance Tutorial

This is a brief summary of a quick exercise that saved me 25% off my already low car insurance. I also received lower deductibles and full coverage. I had dropped comprehensive coverage on my old policy to try and keep my outlay the same. They just kept proving the maxim that insurance companies will soak you if they think you are too lazy to shop around. I pay for six months at a time.

I started with Geico. They had blown my old policy out of the water about ten years ago. That rate was negotiated by block heads (or crooks on the take) at my old job (company car). My rates at Geico have steadily climbed. I would call and ask for discounts for driving under 3k miles in year, etc. Commercials and articles always say you get a discount for that. They never budged. Always said I was at the low point already. When I called this time and threatened to drop them, they just laughed and gave me some BS about having a low rate already and fraud in Southern Florida and their policy of not raising your rates after accident #1. Guess who seems to be paying for that policy and Warren Buffett's (the champion of the working man) greed. Good drivers like us.

So, I did the bare minimum and went to the Progressive site and filled out a simple questionnaire. They didn't even ask for alot of personal info and seemed to have most of my car's info in their data banks. They came back with three quotes for different levels of coverage (including an apples to apples one). It was less. I tinkered with some of the categories to get a better plan. They put most of their cost into the Bodily Injury category (the biggest potential liability anyway). Geico splits the charges up over all six or so categories. At Progressive it's only a couple of bucks to change/improve almost every coverage. Geico charges more. Progressive also let's you type in what you will/can pay and then the software makes you a policy. I upped my Each Person or Occurrence by 100k and Property Damage doubled without cost.

I don't know how difficult they will be to deal with if I make a claim. I assume all insurance companies are reluctant to pay anyway. Anybody see About Schmidt? The one issue I had was that they didn't take Amex, so, I lost out on the points and the float. Small price to pay. And greedy Geico has now lost a sure thing who is about to buy a new car that will need a policy. An additional one. You go Flo.

*5/23/2016 - The jerk offs raised my next bill 25%. Back to Geico price. Flo is about to get dumped. Looks like she is a pumpkin after all. Teaser rate con.

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