Maybe Insurance Companies Are Not So Bad?
I may have a bit of a change of heart here. I was born and bread to believe that insurance companies were crooks, liars, and thieves. My recent example that I wrote about around insurance company bait and switch tactics highlighted this. Well, I’m here to admit that I might have been wrong in a small way 🙂
Background
As I mentioned earlier in that bait and switch article, I thought my current insurance carrier was trying to take me to the cleaners. My car insurance policy price actually went down about nine whopping dollars, but my homeowners policy was going up quite a bit. $266 to be specific. This was an increase of 36%!!!
Those damn insurance people – always out trying to screw someone! When I called up and questioned the large increase, they gave me a line about a large number of claims in my area and the rates going up across the board. Naturally, I didn’t believe a word they were telling me.
Maybe Insurance Companies Are Not So Bad?
Well, I went back to the drawing board and researched prices at a couple different insurance companies. The result? The current company, Progressive, was still the pretty much the cheapest! Geico was a little less, but they are pretty neck and neck. It seems that with all the other companies rates really had gone up across the board. The insurance representative on the phone was not just feeding me a line of crap. Actual, factual information was coming out of their mouth!
Would you just look at that StateFarm price for home and auto combined? Look at it! It is almost twice as much!
| StateFarm | Geico – Online | Nationwide | Progressive | Allstate | |
| Car | $ 890.89 | $303.24 | $500.64 | $302.00 | $555.00 |
| Home | $1,274.00 | $898.00 | $986.00 | $998.00 | $1,117.00 |
| TOTAL = | $3,055.78 | $1,504.48 | $1,987.28 | $1,602.00 | $2,227.00 |
Final Thoughts
What did I learn from the simple exercise of interacting with the insurance company? A couple of things, actually. The first thing when it comes to insurance rates is that you should always “trust but verify.” I got it backwards in my case. I verified, then came to trust them. The second thing is that it is always important to shop around when it comes to home and auto insurance. You never know how prices can shift each year. The third thing I learned is that insurance companies sometimes do tell the truth 🙂
In the end I decided to stay with Progressive as the extra hassle to save $98 will not be worth it since I knew we were trying to relocate soon. You can be sure that when we do relocate, I will shop around to a bunch of different insurance companies to get the best deal though. I probably still will “verify then trust” when that time comes around 🙂
Geico is cheaper than state farm. Please update the article to reflect that.
Shx,
I think you meant Geico was cheaper than Progressive – I reworded this a bit to make it more obvious. Thanks.
Oh, I dunno…I would verify and never trust. 😉 the real question is, did prices really need to go up across the board that much? Just because every gas station in town jacks up prices by 20 cents a gallon on Friday to catch everyone filling up for the weekend doesn’t mean it’s fair to the customer.
Brock @CleverDude recently posted…Return To The Water Park: Getting Value For Our Meal
Brock,
From what I could find, prices really did go up across the board by about $300 a year on homeowner’s insurance.
Good thing you did your homework before accepting the new rates and taking their word for it.
Lauren recently posted…What to See and Do in Philadelphia, for Cheap
Lauren,
Yes – you never can be to careful with these types of things. Always best to do your homework.
Great point about trust but verify. No one cares about your money like you do, so don’t just take others word for it. Believe them, but then verify with your own research.
Exactly! You have to keep them under watch.