Shopping for Insurance Sucks
Oh man. This past weekend I spent about 4 hours shopping around for auto and renter’s insurance. Did it pay out to spend that much time in front of the computer? Yes, yes it did! How much? Well, if I take my savings divided by time spent looking for those savings, then It was worth about $70+/hr. Oh yeah! You’re probably thinking, “What kicked this off? I thought you did this when you moved and Allstate had the best prices around?” Well, they did. Until I moved. Then for some reason, just moving addresses, my insurance jumped almost $150 per 6 months or $300/year! Whoa!! I didn’t think too much about it, until 3 weeks later when I got an email to sign an uninsured motorist form. My reply, “Uninsured?! Dude, I’m over insured. I still have 2 policies on my truck that haven’t been cancelled OR refunded. How about looking into that?” Their reply was that, “It was cancelled, AND refunded, you’re just mistaken.” Hahahaha Riiiight… Guess who got their policy refunded after COB that day? I did. Guess whose olicies immediately disappeared off their app AFTER that email? My second policy did. Funny how that works…
Guess who’s petty, doesn’t like being told he’s lying, and will pay more money just to spite someone or a company? This guy!! Yes, I make decisions based on feelings first, and then followed up with, “is this a wise fiscal move?” lol Fortunately for me, this one played out well and I saved myself almost $300/yr by switching car insurance AND renter’s insurance. The bonus of this is my renter’s insurance is now better and has “extended coverages” added to it and it was STILL $170 cheaper per year than Allstate, and my auto is same coverages, a lower collision deductible, a better glass deductible, and I now save $50/6 month cycle, that will go toward my deductible, if I’m not involved in an accident, or get a ticket. Wins all around, and thanks Traveler’s for the awesome new coverage!
Over-Shopping? Not Me!
Did I “over-shop”? Well, as the Liberty Mutual agent replied, “I’m concerned you didn’t shop around enough to adequately compare coverages, LOL”. I also sent him the pricing breakdown to avoid any follow-ups. 😊 I spent about 3-4 hrs shopping for insurance while also planning 3 separate trips, researching flights, hotels, airbnb’s, rental cars, new credit cards to take advantage of all this gratuitous spending, and more. In short, I don’t think I over-shopped, but I did compare rates to a lot of outlier type companies that I normally wouldn’t entertain. Which ones are those, you ask? Well, just a couple of companies like The General, and Root for instance. Here’s how it all broke down.
Coverages
I kept the coverages, limits and deductibles the same for all companies I got quotes from, and where possible I tried also getting renters insurance quotes to see if bundling would help. Mostly, it didn’t help. Even if I remained at Allstate for my renters insurance, I’d lose a 20% discount for bundling, and that would put me around $400+/yr for $40k of coverage, with all the basic limits in place like a $2k cap music instruments. which MIGHT replace 1 banjo, if I find a good deal on it but not the other 3 (yes, I have a problem) or my 1947-’49 era Gibson guitar, or the resonator guitar… There is also a $2k cap for firearms that probably needed to be upped as well. So, I looked for renter’s insurance that would cover my belongings, but also included the “additional/premium/extended” coverages for those sorts of things.
Companies Investigated
In general, almost all of the companies I got quotes from were easy to do online. I ran into at least 1 company that said, “call us, your state doesn’t allow online quotes” to which I closed that browser and kept looking. No online, no thank-you. Sheesh, get with it. If true, then how was I able to get a quote for my state from EVERY other company? These are the companies I researched and got a quote from.
Geico
Liberty Mutual
Progressive
Esurance (still Allstate but maybe they’re better)
The General
Root
Travelers
Again, I tried a couple more, but the one said not online, and another had a horrid website, so I just left halfway thru the quote process. Their loss.
Price Comparison
How did their quotes break down comparatively though?
Geico: $14/year MORE This is competitive with the same coverages, limits and deductibles in place. Renter’s insurance came out a little higher as well ~$40/year, so for me, it’s a pass.
Liberty Mutual: $260/year MORE Yep, not as high as Geico, but still pretty high, so I skipped renter’s insurance for the time being
Progressive: $142/year LESS Yep, the first lower payment, but when I added renter’s insurance, it was ~$100/year MORE than my current policy. Boo, because that’s a net $42/year savings which isn’t worth it to me to make the switch.
Esurance: $355/year MORE Again, I didn’t research renters insurance due to the higher cost of the car insurance.
The General: $800/year MORE Bwahahaha, $800/year MORE… this was the surprise of the bunch. If you need insurance because other people won’t insure you, this is the place to go, I’m guessing. You can get cheap, bare minimum coverage for lower rates, but if you want to actually have insurance, holy sh!t, look ANYWHERE else for cheaper rates, lol.
Root: $102/year MORE This is a newer company that works like this. They have you install the Root app on your phone. Your driving score is THE #1 factor that goes into your rate. Spelled out in bold on their website. You drive for 3-4 weeks, or until enough mileage is accumulated and then they will offer you a policy, or NOT. Yep, you may not get a policy offer because they think your driving is too risky to insure. As they also say on their website, “since Root only insures good drivers, we can keep our rates low.” Amazingly, I got a quote without their test drive and paying in full every 6 months still came out higher.
Traveler’s: $120/year LESS for car insurance. This was intriguing enough to see what bundling discounts could help so I looked up renters insurance as well. Renters insurance was $171/year LESS WITH the extended coverages, so now music instruments, firearms, woodworking equipment, fridge contents, and many more perks are included and it’s STILL $171/year LESS. It was literally, the last company I checked. Their online process got wonky when I was listed as married but only insuring myself, and when I changed to single and removed Mrs. SSC, it still remembered her, and anyway, I had to call to get those policies finalized and linked. Well, just the auto really, the renters insurance was easy peasy to setup and pay in full.
Summary and Learnings
Always shop insurance when you move. Always! Especially, especially, if it is across state lines. All 3 times that we have moved our current provider is super expensive in the state we were moving to. For instance, insurance on my 2001 Ford Explorer 4×4 Sport was $500/ 6 months while living in Denver. When we moved to LA, a small town in LA, they must have gotten wiped out with claims from Katrina, Rita, and more because my same insurance doubled. The same with Mrs. SSC coming from Chicago with Geico. Leaving Chicago to rural LA and the insurance doubles?! WTF?! So, we cancelled them and went with Progressive, who had better rates than our previous Geico rates. Yay!
When we moved from LA to Texas, it flip-flopped and Progressive was going to double. Facepalm! Geico was back at a “normal” rate, so we switched back to them, lol. When we moved to OK, I researched insurances and everyone was mostly competitive. However, Allstate schooled them all by a few hundred dollars when we bundled home and auto. So, we switched. When I moved across town, well, Allstate sucked and Traveler’s came out on top.
Always compare insurance when you move. Seriously, just 4 hrs of online browsing, minimal cursing, and very little frustration I was able to save almost $300/year. That’s just over $70/hr if you want to argue it’s not worth it. I’ll do the research for you for $40/hr and give you the results. Seriously, just contact me and let me know, and once I get payment and your info needed, I’ll go research the hell out of insurances for you. 😊 Also, I’m dead serious, I will research insurances for you at a rate of $40/hr if you hate it that much.
Let me know if you want to contract me to shop for you, I’m ready and willing. Have you run into similar insurance woes, or do you not move every 5 years like we seem to? Facepalm…
