Car Insurance

[bjarvis]

Last week, we received a notice for our semi-annual Ameriprise car insurance premium due in July. It's gone up quite a bit, from $960 semi-annually to $1,223.

Today, I telephoned to reduce our deductibles from $100 to $500, reducing our premium to $1,016.

A few months ago, we checked with State Farm but their quote was $200 higher than Ameriprise. A friend recommended Liberty Mutual: they are $312 more expensive than our current Ameriprise policy, even with a 5% University of Maryland alumnus discount.

I'm going to keep digging around to see what else I might potentially find. What I'd really like is some sort of online insurance brokerage where I could put in all of our data in one shot then have it obtain quotes from various insurance companies. Anyone know of such a facility?

Edit: Progressive's web site quoted us $987. Their comparison rate feature only offered a number from one company, Allstate, and that was $1269 at the low end.

Edit2: Esurance quoted us $906 semi-annually, 21st Century $1,066.71.

Comments

[vasilatos]

Progressive advertises that they do that. I don't know your circumstances but that rate hike is insane.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

The last time I tried their web site, they couldn't deal with more than two drivers per household so I couldn't get far with them. I'll give it another try to see if they've improved things.

I do like their Flo character on their commercials though.

[vasilatos]

My only input on car insurance is that for our house I went with State Farm 13 years ago and they've rewarded me massively over the years for multiple drivers, loyalty over the years, multiple cars, and no accidents. Of course none of that works if you're switching, and I haven't done anything with them online.

They were miraculous when my car was stolen and in a bizarre fraudulent accident.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

I was with State Farm for almost 20 years, and Brian joined with me when he moved down. But, even with that history, almost no claims, and the fact that the agent was an old friend of the family (went to elementary school with my Dad), they couldn't match what Ameriprise offered. I loved them, and the service was great, but not really worth the difference. And Ameriprise's service was pretty darned good, too.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow...that's high! You need to get a 12.5 year old Mazda and really save! Just one car you're insuring?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Three cars: a 2006 Grand Caravan, a 2005 Chevy Cobalt and a 2001 Honda Civic LX.

[(Anonymous)]

didn't dad used to use Grange? not sure if they have coverage in MD, but I thought they were reasonable. We use Allstate, but we also have homeowners insurance through them.

Have you tried Insweb?

[rlegters.livejournal.com]

I tried Insweb one time, and it gave me quotes from 4 or five different companies. (http://www.insweb.com/) The only downside is that every company who provided a quote followed up - persistently - and I was only checking out of curiosity.

Re: Have you tried Insweb?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Just submitted via Insweb... we'll see how it goes. Thanks!

[dancer44.livejournal.com]

We're with State Farm, and they give us a very large discount for having our house insurance with them and both of our cars on the same account.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

We checked with State Farm for a combo policy last January but they were $270 semi-annually more expensive that Ameriprise.

[vasilatos]

oh right, our State Farm account discount also includes our house insurance...

[weekilter.livejournal.com]

Try esurance.com also insurance.com

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Randy and I used to use 21st Century, but after a Consumer Reports article advised checking insurance rates annually, we found a much less expensive policy (with the same or better coverage in all areas) from GEICO. They even matched 21st Century's policy of insuring two married people (or domestic partners) regardless of gender mix.

Consumer Reports also suggests checking www.quicken.com/insurance www.insweb.com