insurance companies

You should know way more about insurance than most of us, KK. But....for less than half the premium of other companies.....makes me wonder what will happen if you ever have an accident?

 

One for each of us - total of 4. The younger daughter (good record) only has a '91 Camry though - no full coverage for her.

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Frankly Mike, I was shocked with the rate quote. The wife originally went on line and got it. Thought she fudged on some of the driving record info she was asked for, so I called in and talked to 'Flo' (not really - that's their wierd lady in the ads...). What I thought was omitted was too old to be included. I also went for this new thing they have - plug a transponder device into your under-dash diagnostic port, and it will track the type of driving you do - time of day, type of trips made, speed, etc. They take an immediate 5% off the top, then when renewal comes up you can save even more. Most of the driving we do would be in their 'will save' category. Program's strictly optional.

I just got the policy language in today's mail. I review it with a magifying glass for any 'gotcha's'.....

 

Acts of God type clauses? Or The Devil made me cheap type clauses...

 

Just read the policy - pretty standard for the industry. Some tough language regarding labor rates and related prior damage (new damage on top of unrepaired prior damage), but that's not unusual. Nothing I can't handle....

 

So $6800 per year for four cars works out to an average of $1700 per year per car. This is not, actually, out of the line of reasonable for a car with a young driver on the policy, especially if that young driver has a poor record.

I said earlier that we pay about $600 per year on my wife's '09 Nissan. My now 21-year-old daughter, who did have one at-fault fender bender back when she was 16, is "rated," as the insurance company terms it, on our older daily-driver vehicle, an '02 Dodge Dakota. The insurance on that is about double what it is on the Nissan. Anything in the mid teens dollar-wise (say, $1300 to $1700) seems to be about the going rate for a young driver. You're a bit more than we are, but it's in the same range.

Are your daughters allowed to drive all four vehicles? Does your insurance company allow you to have them "rated" on just one of them? Even though we have two daily drivers in our household and our daughter was driving either one, we had to tell the insurance company which one she drove most often, and that was the one the higher rate was based on, and it was the only one we paid the higher rate on. So she could drive the Nissan with no problem, but the rate on that one stayed at the $600 level.

Perhaps the laws regarding how insurance rates are calculated are different in your state? Or maybe you're getting the lower rate from Progressive because it follows a method similar to what my insurance company (State Farm) does in determining the rate? It would be interesting to know.

 

I've had Progressive for about 10 years and I'm very happy with them. My ex wife had a couple fender benders and they never raised our rates.

 

We're all listed for the correct vehicles, Jaunty. Me and my '03 Focus wagon, the wife with an '03 Explorer, and the older daughter with an '04 Focus hatch. Surprisingly, everyone's rates are fairly close. Daughter's liability rate only about $80 more than ours per 6 months. She'll be glad to know her insurance just went down to $450 / 6 months or so.......

Being in auto insurance claims, I know where the money goes out the other end. The bad accident that older daughter caused back in 2007 was just recently closed.
Collision damage to our Explorer: $11,000+
Property damage to other vehicle ('05 Toyo Tundra): $7,500 or so...
BI claim from other driver: $15,000
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Total cost of daughter's inattention: $33,500

We all complain of the cost of insurance, but it sure is nice to have it there when you need it.

 

I got real tired of the insurance costs on my wife's 740I BMW. Double what we were paying on my truck. I convinced her that since she was taking the truck most days to work that it was time to grenade the car. Her new truck costs 40% less to insure than she was paying on the car. Whew............she loved that car, I hated it. I danced a jig when it sold.