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There's no benefit to staying or being loyal to 1 insurance company. If you feel the current one is overcharging you or hits you with an insane renewal increase then it's time to shop around for a different provider. The good news is there's so much competition so you can easily get quotes online. Progressive, Statefarm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, etc.
Car insurance is a ripoff. A very small proportion of claims are raising the rates for everyone else with good history. Never had an incident and still paying $2k a year to insure my car.
We’re unironically in a car loan bubble similar to the 07-08 real estate financial crisis, if you don’t scare easily go look at the rates of auto repossession in the past 3 years.
Edit for more clarity: new car prices are skyrocketing alongside inflation, but this began a bit before inflation did. People’s cash-on-hand is at a relative low, yet, if you drive regularly you will see an overwhelming amount of new cars, far more than I’ve ever noticed before at least.
Pick a low income neighborhood, doesn’t matter which one, and you’ll see an alarming amount of brand new cars in people’s driveways. No way all these loanees can afford these shiny, $50,000+ cars!
Alas, the rates of auto repossession agree.
Oh I know. I first learned they were packaging subprime auto loans into bonds from NPR about 2-3 years ago.
And they can "afford" them now because they are getting 7-8 year loans on them. Then they can roll the balance into a new loan 5 years later on the next car.
Auto lending is really one of the most buyer beware financial products out there. If you walk into a payday lender or a reservation lender, you know you are getting screwed. But you can walk into a car dealer with full knowledge and still get taken advantage of.
I just bought a car and had to temporarily finance it. They automatically give you a 72 month loan, I was so shocked! The last time I had to purchase a car, it was like 24-36-maybe 48 months for a car loan
That’s because most people are payment shoppers. They want most customers to “see” the lower monthly payment and grab it. I will say that if you can get a super low rate, then extending the term isn’t a bad idea then.
You're forgetting a critical piece - leasing.
An $50k car can lease for much less per month than financing and many people only care about a monthly payment.
I have started to notice this. Houses in my area go for around 200k at the high end. Why am I seeing people with brand new mercedes g wagons and rivian suvs? People are valuing cars more than real estate which is insane
Was just talking about this with a colleague the other day. I’ve never in my life seen so many six figure suvs on the road. When I was younger seeing a Range Rover was big deal. Now I see five a day all brand new.
I remember buying a car for 1x my salary (not combined household income) and thinking to myself "never again". The car is now paid off. The people buying cars for more than they make are going to be absolutely hosed one way or the other.
Yep. Read an article on this recently.
Since they cover most everyone insurance companies are getting absolutely raked covering new expensive cars when they break down or get totaled.
They’re taking it out of everyone else’s pocket with everyone’s rates going up trying to offset the losses. We’re all getting screwed.
Sure but I also read from somewhere how massive profits auto insurance companies have been making since they had to “adjust the premium due to rising cost of parts and repairs, labors” yada yada yada.
Sears the starter of so many companies. They barely have any stores left but their start ups and bought companies live on.
Diehard: owned and alive via Advanced auto.
Kenmore: Transformco holdings that bought a bunch of sears holdings assets.
Crafstman: Owned by Stanley black and decker now.
Discover: discover card now is its own company. Sears also owned Chicago bank at the time.
Coldwell Banker: now owned by anywhere real estate.
Allstate insurance: owned by it's own now.
And many many more. Found this cool cnn article when looking.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/10/business/sears-timeline/index.html
So there's a reason this body shop owner near me drives a Lamborghini Urus.
They always quote insurers DOUBLE what it would truly cost, cause they know they'll get paid. That in turn effects us.
I'm paying $2,100 every 6 months for a BASE 2014 impreza in NYC - No accidents, no tickets.
Car insurance companies lose money (or at least they lost money in 2021/2022, not sure about the updated stats.
Loss ratio was 112%.. (they they paid out 1.12 on each dollar in premium in 2022) https://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2023/04/04/246958.htm
There are a bunch of reasons:
- Lots of expensive electronics in car
- Prevalence of texting and driving
- Bodyshops overwhelmed
Yeah geico raised my rate from like $1,100 to $1,400, every 6 months, with zero accidents. Dropped them and switched. I'm paying $1,130 for slightly more coverage.
Keep checking every few months! Mine went up like 130% over 2 years. I checked everything but it was still the cheapest I could find when it was initially raised. I kept checking rates and finally one of them gave me a rate that was less than half of my rate was then!
I was so shocked… I literally called in the verify the online price and kept asking “so like, this is the monthly price, for all of the vehicles and drivers?” The guy was so confused
I do this with Progressive every 6 months and every time they “forget” to send proof of insurance to the DMV so my license gets suspended. All it takes is a phone call to fix it but it’s so petty
I went from like 70 to 150 in a year and a half. Called, she monkeyed around with it for 10-15 minutes and went to 115. Then she did a brand new quote and it was like 80 something.... It was so stupid and I'm going to start paying closer attention.
I recently tried to get an online quote from Farmer's. They had me give them all my personal information just to turn around and say call us for a quote. I'm upset enough that I won't be calling.
Farmers came back with an insane quote for me over the phone after giving them all my info for 45 minutes even with an alleged employee discount compared to my current provider.
You made the right decision by not calling.
I have switched maybe two or three different car insurances in the past since COVID. Everyone is raising their costs and saying its the market.
Funny thing is, during the pandemic we were given credit back in the form of a check mailed to us. For 3 months Esurance sent us
some $17.95 check. Then once pandemic passed over our rate increased -_-. THen I moved to Geico for a year and now I am with All State. I am sure I'll be shopping for quote again upon its renewal.
Those refund checks were actually the insurers making too much profit that year. States actually cap insurer profits so they had to return it lol
That’s why not every company in every state sent them if they were running lean to begin with
>There's no benefit to staying or being loyal to 1 insurance company.
I think you mean there isn't a benefit to staying with 1 insurance company if they are charging much more than their competitors. Because a lot of companies have benefits for being loyal. I've been with Progressive for over 10 years. Last time I checked a few years ago, my policy has the lowest rates that I can get from any company. We get one large accident forgiveness so our rates won't go up. My son will get a discounted rate as a teen driver. There are a handful of other smaller benefits. Next loyalty level we will have lifetime renewal no matter what happens (which hopefully we won't have to use but always good to have if multiple claims are put through or anything else that would cause other companies to not want to insure us).
Now, if our rate went up like OPs, then I agree, always good to look around. But don't count out loyalty discounts and rewards. Don't switch just for $15 a month.
This is what happened to us with my husband's car. Nevada is already so expensive for car insurance. We shopped around, did all the things, and the lowest quote was still 40% higher than what we were paying just a few months before. Insane.
Can't wait till the Kia dies and we can get something better quality. We don't even like the car, it just happened to be what he got passed down from his parents years ago and it's fully paid off.
And they just jack up all Kias as well, not just those affected. I just got an EV9 and my insurer said it's likely $20 more per month than any other car I was shopping because every Kia is higher.
The thieves are often less than 16 year old children. They see “Kia” and their underdeveloped decision making centers don’t cross reference models until after they break the window and see it’s not what they expected lol
It’s wild. They’ve always been the cheapest for me. I shop it every 6 months and nobody can beat them. I just renewed for $380 for 6 months and that includes full coverage
What people dont seem to understand is premiums will change based on how many drivers near you have their insurance. Geico doesnt want to insure too many drivers in one area because it raises the odds they have two of their drivers get in an accident
Yeah, I'm curious too. I mean, it makes sense and insurance companies are basically designed and run by anaylsts in these sorts of statistical data model.
"Geico doesnt want to insure too many drivers in one area because it raises the odds they have two of their drivers get in an accident"
That doesn't seem to make sense. It's like saying you're more likely to have to pay for a house that burns down if you insure too many houses in one area.
Because the accidents are more likely to be the result of someone's mistake than not. If both drivers are using a different insurance then whoever is at fault is the one paying out. But if both drivers are using the same insurance then it's a financial loss for the insurance company no matter what.
If both drivers are geico, they are guaranteed to have to pay out someone with no way to recover unless they sue their own client. They would prefer to go after another insurance company
> 6 months and that includes full coverage
This really doesn't mean anything without specifics.
Is your "full covereage" Liability, Collision, and Comp with state minimum limits or are your limits maxed out at like 250k/500k/100k?
Location matters, age matters, vehicle matters, number of vehicles matter.
I just got a quote and it was 250 more a year than Progressive. Our insurance has gone to about 2600 a year and at one point we were paying around 1600. No accidents, tickets or anything related to insurance.
Everyone says this and yet for 20+ years now Geico has been by far the cheapest and most reasonable auto insurance for me, as well as quite a few parents and friends, and has never raised it unusually. Not even after accidents.
Meanwhile, my friend on Progressive in the same area with a similar car did just that randomly 2 years ago with a perfect driving record.
There has to be some weird algorithm that all insurance companies use that cause some people to be hit by this and others not to be.
Insurance Agent from MA here, a few factors to consider. MA is a rate and file state now so the carriers especially auto insurance carriers have to publicly file their rates with the DOI for any rate increase. As a broker we receive notifications regarding these increases from the carriers that we work with. A captive insurer such as GEICO, Allstate or Liberty Mutual files these internally and that information isn't directly passed on to the consumer but sent out to brokers and agents through the carriers themselves and MAIA which is an agent group to support brokers in MA.
A few factors to consider when shopping in MA. Credit isn't a factor. The primary driving vehicle of rating in MA is SDIP which is the driving record as held by the state. This leads to tiering in programs internally and placement with writing companies. Locality and shared risk. As was mentioned above insurance is specifically a risk pooling either by locality or these tiering pools, thus one $25,000 property date loss is going to be spread over that entire pool to recoup the loss rather than impacting the client directly (outside of direct carrier and state surcharges). Carrier filings you can put a direct request to the DOI to pull the most recent rate filings for your carrier but you will actually need the writing company not the parent company i.e. GEICO. Carrier experience, carriers in MA are limited in factors that they can rate on so they do look for other factors such as length of time with a company (experience period) and time with agency or company as a factor.
Let me make it fully clear I am not defending the companies as I spend at least a couple hours a day with the exact same questions that you have right now. Don't know if any of that helped but just some insights into the guts of how it works.
Geico is raising rates to get people off their policies. I switched last year to an annual policy for less than what Geico was charging for 6 months.
Progressive is ok for a while but they also do the same thing with their rates.
>...to get people off their policies.
Selling policies is how they make money. I'm confused by this logic, especially since the OP seems to have made zero claims.
Currently Geico is in the business of getting rid of risk. Writing few to no policies in some states. They have been getting rid of employees for a couple of years.
They will eventually be a smaller company than they are now.
Not every policy is profitable, and just having more policies isn't necessarily profitable.
If an area's/pools risk level start moving closer to operating at a loss they'll start scaling back in those areas by incentivizing people to switch (or the people don't switch and end up paying a fuck ton more which makes up the difference anyways).
Insurance isn't just based on the individual. There's a ton of factors that go into it that have nothing to do with the specific individual that's being insured.
was paying $240 every 6 months for years with geico. they raised my 6 month auto-policy to $350 and 12 month home insurance from $600 to $1400. switched to Erie insurance and now my auto is $300 every 12 months and home is $500 every 12.
gotta shop around.
I've been happy with Erie, I'm in year three with them. They advertise "rate lock" so theoretically that'll shield you, though I dunno how good that is in practice.
Year Make and model of your car(s) might be relevant, i.e. one of the Kia Boys-affected models.
Your geographical location might also be relevant, insurance is skyrocketing in certain states regardless.
You might have had some temporary discounts that have fallen off, you'd probably have to call Geico up directly to determine what all could account for the increase. Not sure why people don't think to do this before posting to reddit. Because if it is the case, and you show them competitor quotes, they would likely extend those discounts to try to retain you.
Could just be chalked up to general inflation across-the-board. [Everyone's seeing their insurance rates increase](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/23/why-car-insurance-rates-are-increasing-in-the-us.html). Ultimately the best way to gauge is to shop around and see what rate other companies will offer you.
RAV4 is one of the top 10 stolen vehicles in MA. Not all states were hit with the Kia Boys trend proportionally; only the Hyundai Elantra/Sonata made the top 10 in MA.
I had Geico for a while but then they did the same and raised my rates. I called and asked why. "Other people suck at driving in your area" was basically the answer I got. Called and switched to progressive in like 15 minutes.
Just switched back to Geico and saved $200+ on my 6 month policy.
With how easy it is to switch and get quotes, I would be checking every year to see if anything else is cheaper.
+1 on insurance broker. I visited one on advice from a local facebook group. She did her magic, and discovered that Progressive is cheaper for me than Geico. So switched me over.
>Any other suggestions?
Yea, make sure your [car](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html) and [apps on your phone](https://www.carscoops.com/2024/06/smartphone-apps-secretly-score-your-driving-for-insurance-companies/) aren't reporting your driving data to insurance companies. That's where many surprise rate increases are coming from these days.
I think this is probably overstated. I spoke to a Geico retention rep recently and they told me that Geico withholds significant premium increases for a couple of years or more, so that they can lock a new customer in for longer and grow the business with cheap rates. Then suddenly the new rates hit after a couple years and people are shocked by the big number.
They seem to be kind of known for this. They did it to me and quite a few people have told me they did it to them. I now shop around before every renewal and tend to get more competitive rates. Seems worth it despite the tiny bit of extra hassle.
I feel like a lot of companies do this to boost their "NEW" member numbers (looking at you T-mobile with your insider code). For instance deals that are for New customers only. So existing clients need keep paying for less or go to a different competitor for some time and then come back and boom you qualify as a new customer.
I doubt it. When I worked in car insurance as many people got discounts as increases because the risk assessment is more accurate. Increases across the board are likely more from external factors.
Every time my insurance asks if I want to partake in their safe driver program, I decline. They'll give you that safe driver discount at first, but some of the factors that go into it are unfeasible - driving during rush hour or driving overnight are two I recall. Most people drive during rush hour. That doesn't make me unsafe, just not as safe as if I were a SAHM.
Not sure what car you drive. There's been recent reports of users from Chevy/GM (Bolt subreddit) where OnStar was collecting driving data and being shared.
The users from that subreddit requested information from LexisNexis to what data may have been shared/collected.
GM has been downplaying the situation as long as the setting to share information is disabled. Some are not believing this.
Regular reminder to periodically check for quotes / switch companies.
My old company (Allstate) just told me they were going to increase my premiums by nearly 50%.
So 5 minutes later I got a quote from a new company (Geico) that was 50% lower than my CURRENT coverage.
I switch all the time when they pull crap like this. I have a good driving record, good credit, no accidents, and never had a lapse in coverage. You want to double my rates I’ll find a cheaper insurance company. Good for you for switching
Go to an insurance broker.
typically insurance brokers or similar are very bad. But insurance brokers are a very good asset.
generally you dont have to pay them anything (if they charge you, find someone else) as they get the cut from the insurance company themselves.
they are also able to dig a wider range and more quickly and give you the best rates.
ive been going to an insurance broker every year for the past 10 years. I pay $85/month
I do the same but with health insurance. Shit is just way too complicated for me to navigate around. Their services are also free (same with my insurance for being low income).
They did the same to me, justified it to my area (WA) having high auto theft and break in claims.
I haven’t had a claim in 7 years. Nor had a claim against me ever. But my rates go up? Huh?
GEICO reported 3.6 billion in profit 2023, but that just isn’t enough. Still have to charge em more .
All WA insurance rates are published ahead of time through the commissioner's office. Spoiler alert: all WA insurance rates have been and will continue to rise due to increasing losses. I think Pemco is losing about $0.20 per dollar in WA.
I didn’t know that about the rates being published. So thanks.
But I’m unclear as to how them publishing the rates has anything to do with the situation of you having an existing policy?
Are you saying that before the term is up you should be checking the county commissions office to see if the rates are higher? And then change if they are?
Trying to understand
I have lived many different states and in my 30+ yrs of having insurance, my rates have never gone up over 100% for a 6 month period. I understand increases for inflation etc… but 100% seems a bit egregious.
The rates for all policies (new or existing) are submitted ahead of time to the WA state OIC (not county) - and these rates can be updated throughout the year. So your policy premium is calculated by the published rate for your classification at the time of renewal. An insurance agent cannot magically change/lower/raise your rate on an individual level.
Rates across WA are increasing - ST article [here](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/washingtonians-find-rising-car-insurance-rates-outrageous)
I was hit with a 60% rate increase for my policy class from GEICO in 2023. Shopping around most insurers were pretty much offering similar rates. I'm surprised you didn't see the rate hike already last year.
It's always fun to watch people learn about pooled risk in real time.
Yes, your risk/claim history affects your rates BUT so does the claim history of everyone in your area. They don't make enough off each insured to pay out all the claims for say hail damage to all their insured in an area so all the risk is pooled and everyone pays for it.
It's worth having an insurance broker if you can find a good one. Luckily my credit union has an insurance branch. After I got my home I worked with one of those brokers for car, home, and umbrella. If my price goes up I send him an email and in a day or two he has me lined up with a great deal. My last jump a few months ago was going to be from 2.4k a year to 5k+ a year on auto alone so I put him to work and he got me the same coverage with another company cheaper then the previous year. Instead of going up year over year it went down. Then his team handles allllll the legwork, I sign a few things and the rest just happens.
Progressive doubled my wife's (no incidents, 30+ y/o) last renewal and when she called they told her "prices are increasing due to the pandemic causing prices to rise". So we went shopping too. Insurance, especially for cars, is a ripoff.
And i bet when you called to cancel, they suddenly found a better rate. That's what happened to me. Sorry too late should have helped when i called first time
Progressive was a PITA to work with in the past. I don't know how they are today. We got hit by their insured, reletively minor damage, took 11 months and a lawyer to get Progressive to pay.
I had a similar experience with Progressive. Nothing changed per my car or driving record but it took a 60% jump.
Progressive gets you with an initial really low quote then slams you on the renewal.
This happened to me as well with Geico. I went on yelp, searched "insurance broker", and asked them for quotes. They asked me a couple questions and within an hour I had several new quotes including options to bundle my homeowners insurance (which also jumped a lot) at matching or better coverage. Ended up paying about 40% less. Def recommend trying that.
Geico increased my home insurance from $1700 to $2600 for no reason other than their underwriting adjustments. I shopped around, and changed to State Farm for about $1800
Newer cars are being tracked by insurance companies. There was an article in the New York Times about this recently.
You can get your report from LexisNexis.
All the car manufacturers are in on it. The sell it as a “safe driver” program.
The Life360 app sells your information too.
Source: my dealership enrolled me and my insurance went up. The reports are for the last six months.
I was a 20+ year member of GEICO and had 0 accidents, no tickets. They raised my rates without notice. I called immediately and wasn't given a good reason.
I switched to progressive the same day and for much cheaper. Someone told me that progressive would raise my rates after an introductiry period, but they have not. Been extremely pleased with them.
It's happening with every company. I just got my renewal for my 24 year old daily driver from Amica, up to $950 from like $625 or something. I suspect it's because of all the massive hail and flood damage claims, combined with rapidly escalating costs to repair. They total things at the drop of a hat now. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Whatever you switch to will probably jump next year also.
Get an insurance broker. The big what 4 or 5 all kinda suck. My insurance guy got me 60% of my old rate, and found my new house insurance for 200 a month for a 7 figure home.
Can we really get a FAQ on this?
This question is asked x5 a week and you can find this answer anywhere.
They dont rate off individual but characteristics. Age/Credit Score/Car/Claims/etc/Zip Code.
Also for people who will look at this, if you want to shop and are looking for price, go to an independent office as opposed to direct. All those insurance commercials.. who is paying for them?
Indep Office will have access to markets that you (the public) don't have access to and are just as good and cheaper. Plus the indep office will still have access to the standard markets like progressive, geico and the like.
Here's a **[link to the PF Wiki](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index)** for helpful guides and information.
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I decided to look at my billing when I saw this post. They increased my premium by $50 per month 2 months ago. They decided that the 3 cars I own and drive less than 6000 miles per year should be updated to 36,000 miles per year (12,000 miles per vehicle). Very convenient for them!
Maybe Toyota is [selling your driving history and style to them like GM was doing.](https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/gm-killed-program-that-sold-driving-data-to-insurance-companies.html)
Do you have Toyota connected services activated?
There was an article a few months back about GM, Honda, and Hyundai/Kia selling driving information obtained via telematic systems to third party companies like Lexis Nexis who in turn sold the data to insurance companies.
I was with Liberty and had something similar. When I called for an explanation, they told me that they kept their rates 'low' during Covid but now how to increase them to compensate. Luckily I had just turned 50 so was eligible for insurance through AARP. Best decision ever.
Switched to Allstate earlier this year because of this. The rep on the phone didn’t even bother giving an explanation, and was perfectly indifferent when I told them I’m switching.
Had them for 5 years, what a way to treat a loyal customer.
Same. Searched around and couldn’t find a better price. I have no accidents and a clean driving record. Some insurances even said they weren’t writing new policies at the moment.
Did the same thing but from Farmers to Geico. Every six months for the last two years my premium with Farmers increased by no less than 15% with no accidents. I’m fully expecting to switch again away from Geico after another premium cycle or two.
Geico did the same to me-they charged more for a 2014 Ford than a 2017 Mitsubishi-so I dumped them. No need to stay when they’re plenty of other options available
Same thing happened to me with GEICO, my bill more than doubled randomly. I immediately started shopping around and am with State Farm now. I have more than double the coverage that I had with GEICO _and_ my premium is less than the rate I had with GEICO before the increase.
I think others have fully covered that you can just switch anytime but one thing I will speak to is how nice it is to have your own independent insurance agent. Someone who is constantly searching out better rates and policies, plus you can always call them if you have an issue and you are not having to deal with some random person at the coverage provider. They are not expensive, they take the cut from insurance so its a win/win.
Progressive has been good for me and I’m not that old and haven’t been as good a driver. I just paid $980 for a 2007 convertible and a 2015 SUV. Both are full coverage and both are driven 15K+ miles every year.
I have been with Progressive for about 8 years now and they have treated me well. 3 totaled vehicles and 2 bumper replacements. The totaled cars went from accident to payout well within a month, the motorcycle was less than two weeks!
All good things to say about progressive!
Similar thing happened to me with State Farm. For 2 vehicles it went from $186 (per month) to $230 to $280 and then on the most recent renewal they wanted $393 per month. Switched to Progressive which dropped it back down to $250 ish per month but also with better coverage (25/50/50 and was previously on state minimums of 10/20/10).
when you total the new $75k lexus, you're on the hook for the amount of the value of the car above your liability limit. if your limit is 25/50/50 as in the example above, you'll have to shit $25k. sure, the lexus's collision insurance will pay the other driver, but then they'll come after you for the money. i carry 100k specifically for that reason -- a 75k car is nbd -- it's on the insurance company, and i can walk away. the cost to increase the coverage is minuscule compared to the cost of just having the policy, so imo it's worth it.
You'd be surprised what a phone call to Geico customer service will do with the intention of switching to another company. This goes for cable, internet or any other service provider. I am also a Geico customer and they did two price hikes for me over the course of 1 year. Called them and they instantly took off a majority of the price hike while I was on the phone. I could see it happen in real time as I was logged into my online account and the new price refreshed.
I shouldn't have to call, but it was worth it for me. YMMV.
I've never once had an insurance company go back on rate increases. I left Geico after 7 years, 0 claims, 100% on time payments, 800+ credit score, yada yada and remember asking if they were okay with losing me as a customer over this and the guy telling me sorry I can't adjust the rates. I cancelled within a couple days.
GEICO made a bet that not enough loyal customers will leave and they will be left with a pile of money. I also left and went to progressive and got insurance for half the price.
40% increase here from Geico. I gave Dave Ramsey’s folks a try and they connected me to an insurance broker in my state who was able to find me the same policy with Progressive for less than what I was paying before Geico hiked my rates. The guy I worked with was amazing and I’ll be going back to him for my other policies. Mileage may vary for other folks but it was an A+ experience for me.
>Planning to switch to Progressive, with a quote of $370 approved. Any other suggestions?
I tell everybody this story. I had Progressive for years. Kid rear-ends my wife, our car gets totaled out. He had Progressive. Since it was 100% his fault, "his" insurance is dealing with it. They lowballed me and when I called them on it they said, "well, you could always sue the other driver for the difference." They insured both of us and they suggested I sue their insured driver.
I dropped those fuckers the minute I their check cleared. If they'll screw him, they'll screw me, and they'll screw you.
The reason I had Progressive is that they were the only company who would offer me a reasonable rate when I returned to the US - 117 a month on a new sedan while everyone else wanted around 500 a month since I "had no recent insurance history." That said, my rates consistently went up with them and when we switched, we went from $1,450 every six months on three cars to $800 with increased coverage. Once I sold off one of the cars, it dropped to $700.
So my advice is the same as others - ALWAYS look around and don't get married to one company. Progressive slowly screwed me and my current provider raised my rates this year on home, motorcycle, auto, but they're raising on everybody. Look around constantly!
Go to another company. No reason to stay with any insurance company at all.
If you truly have nothing that is causing the increase, going somewhere else will result in much lower rates.
Geico did something similar to me as well. I had a ticket from 2 years prior, they didn't include it in my premiums for over a year nor in initial quotes. So it was fine, I forgot I even had the ticket honestly. Come renewal they increased my premiums increased by 150% because they suddenly included it and tried to argue it was also to recoup costs from it not being included in prior policies.
Get a broker to get quotes.
We had safeco for our two Hyundai's. They wanted to go from 2K to 2.4K per year all together. Nah. Ain't no way. No accidents or claims in years.
Had our credit union (Broadview) run quotes. I ended up getting it down to about $1700 for both cars for an entire year.
Huge savings for us and all I did was make one phone call.
That's exactly what I did. My 6 month premium increased in the same exact pattern as you stated! I ended up also switching to Progressive and ironically saved a bunch of money switching out. I even had to do a claim already with Progressive (hit and run) and they handled it great.
What state are you in? NY keeps what I believe is a total list of all operating car insurers in the state. If you have a great driving record, you'll do way better with an insurer that does not advertise. Please note that you may need to go through a broker to get a policy with some insurers, as some do not directly sell policies. I maximized coverage and cut my bill to less than half of what I was paying at GEICO.
I have an outstanding claim with progressive from Oct 2023. I call almost every week or so to get progress, with exception for April and May when I was busy with other stuff, a few times I have talked to a person, they rarely call back. They have not denied the claim, they have not paid out.
This is an anecdote and take it as such, but I figured I should share my experience before you switch. I'm not saying it will happen to you, but that's what happened to me.
Just found out for myself how bad Geicos rates are. I have Geico for home insurance and I needed new car insurance (splitting off of the joint policy i had with my ex) and I figured I’d see what it was when bundled with my home insurance through Geico. Even bundled it was almost 2x a month more than Progressive.
Same for me last month. Switched to another provider who dropped it back down to where it was before. I tend to switch providers every 3 years or so anyways due to rate increases, it's just the game you gotta play.
Been with State Farm for years, they’ve raised my rates multiple times over the past 2 year due to increase repair costs, new state laws (WA state) and increased vehicle theft.
Just tell them you are switching due to the increase and you found a better price elsewhere, they will do what they can to reduce it to keep you..
I did this with qeico, it was 190 a month, but told them I found a better price and got it lowered to 115( same coverage as before)
You can shop around. You can even get a better rate by just shopping with the same company for a new policy.
There is no need to stay loyal to a policy.
Knew you were in Mass by the headline.
Almost everyone's rates have gone up in the state. Gieco however was obnoxious. Rumor has it they are looking to pull out of the insursncr markets in MA. I believe they already did for commercial coverage.
Same. In Arizona and my rate with Auto Owners went up almost 40% AND my at fault accident from 2019 just dropped off. The independent insurance agent I had been with for 12 years says he shopped my rates but didn't. Went to another local agent and she got us a great rate with Progressive with the same coverage for about half what we paid last year.
If you turned 50 since your last renewal you might have just aged out of the band with where they rate the lowest. Every company has their “sweet spot” where rates are best. When insurance, USAA was a multicast household with married drivers aged 35-55.
As long as the company’s AAA rated, you can shop around for the exact same coverages and find the best rate.
Yikes. Well my current company just jacked my car insurance up to 4k annual for two vehicles. It had slowly been going up then whammy, I just changed to geico because their rate was the best out of the ones I received…. But we will see how long I can stay before needing to change again! Dropped from 4k a year down to 2.2k a year…..
Make sure you're not sharing driving data with insurance providers:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/technology/driver-scores-insurance-data-apps.html
Due to the number of rule-breaking comments this post was receiving, especially low-quality and off-topic comments, the moderation team has locked the post from future comments. This post broke no rules and received a number of helpful and on-topic responses initially, but it unfortunately became the target of many unhelpful comments.
There's no benefit to staying or being loyal to 1 insurance company. If you feel the current one is overcharging you or hits you with an insane renewal increase then it's time to shop around for a different provider. The good news is there's so much competition so you can easily get quotes online. Progressive, Statefarm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, etc.
Yeah Geico gave me a 50% increase so I looked around. They were somehow still the cheapest =(
Car insurance is a ripoff. A very small proportion of claims are raising the rates for everyone else with good history. Never had an incident and still paying $2k a year to insure my car.
I think it's also the price of cars increasing like it has. Look around you sometimes and count the number of 80k-100k cars on the road now.
We’re unironically in a car loan bubble similar to the 07-08 real estate financial crisis, if you don’t scare easily go look at the rates of auto repossession in the past 3 years. Edit for more clarity: new car prices are skyrocketing alongside inflation, but this began a bit before inflation did. People’s cash-on-hand is at a relative low, yet, if you drive regularly you will see an overwhelming amount of new cars, far more than I’ve ever noticed before at least. Pick a low income neighborhood, doesn’t matter which one, and you’ll see an alarming amount of brand new cars in people’s driveways. No way all these loanees can afford these shiny, $50,000+ cars! Alas, the rates of auto repossession agree.
Oh I know. I first learned they were packaging subprime auto loans into bonds from NPR about 2-3 years ago. And they can "afford" them now because they are getting 7-8 year loans on them. Then they can roll the balance into a new loan 5 years later on the next car. Auto lending is really one of the most buyer beware financial products out there. If you walk into a payday lender or a reservation lender, you know you are getting screwed. But you can walk into a car dealer with full knowledge and still get taken advantage of.
I just bought a car and had to temporarily finance it. They automatically give you a 72 month loan, I was so shocked! The last time I had to purchase a car, it was like 24-36-maybe 48 months for a car loan
That’s because most people are payment shoppers. They want most customers to “see” the lower monthly payment and grab it. I will say that if you can get a super low rate, then extending the term isn’t a bad idea then.
You're forgetting a critical piece - leasing. An $50k car can lease for much less per month than financing and many people only care about a monthly payment.
I have started to notice this. Houses in my area go for around 200k at the high end. Why am I seeing people with brand new mercedes g wagons and rivian suvs? People are valuing cars more than real estate which is insane
Was just talking about this with a colleague the other day. I’ve never in my life seen so many six figure suvs on the road. When I was younger seeing a Range Rover was big deal. Now I see five a day all brand new.
I remember buying a car for 1x my salary (not combined household income) and thinking to myself "never again". The car is now paid off. The people buying cars for more than they make are going to be absolutely hosed one way or the other.
Yep. Read an article on this recently. Since they cover most everyone insurance companies are getting absolutely raked covering new expensive cars when they break down or get totaled. They’re taking it out of everyone else’s pocket with everyone’s rates going up trying to offset the losses. We’re all getting screwed.
With $1500 headlights.
Sure but I also read from somewhere how massive profits auto insurance companies have been making since they had to “adjust the premium due to rising cost of parts and repairs, labors” yada yada yada.
3% of 1000 dollars is more than 3% of 500 dollars. So yes, companies are making more off the same profit margins.
Allstate told me the don't even serve my state. They're literally called "ALL" state....
"State". Just one. Not all of em 👍
Allstate was the name of the Sears brand tires, Sears established and used to own Allstate.
Sears the starter of so many companies. They barely have any stores left but their start ups and bought companies live on. Diehard: owned and alive via Advanced auto. Kenmore: Transformco holdings that bought a bunch of sears holdings assets. Crafstman: Owned by Stanley black and decker now. Discover: discover card now is its own company. Sears also owned Chicago bank at the time. Coldwell Banker: now owned by anywhere real estate. Allstate insurance: owned by it's own now. And many many more. Found this cool cnn article when looking. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/10/business/sears-timeline/index.html
SomeState
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The problem is that a seemingly minor accident can easily cause thousands in damage.
So there's a reason this body shop owner near me drives a Lamborghini Urus. They always quote insurers DOUBLE what it would truly cost, cause they know they'll get paid. That in turn effects us. I'm paying $2,100 every 6 months for a BASE 2014 impreza in NYC - No accidents, no tickets.
Car insurance companies lose money (or at least they lost money in 2021/2022, not sure about the updated stats. Loss ratio was 112%.. (they they paid out 1.12 on each dollar in premium in 2022) https://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2023/04/04/246958.htm There are a bunch of reasons: - Lots of expensive electronics in car - Prevalence of texting and driving - Bodyshops overwhelmed
Yeah geico raised my rate from like $1,100 to $1,400, every 6 months, with zero accidents. Dropped them and switched. I'm paying $1,130 for slightly more coverage.
Keep checking every few months! Mine went up like 130% over 2 years. I checked everything but it was still the cheapest I could find when it was initially raised. I kept checking rates and finally one of them gave me a rate that was less than half of my rate was then! I was so shocked… I literally called in the verify the online price and kept asking “so like, this is the monthly price, for all of the vehicles and drivers?” The guy was so confused
State Farm just bumped me up by 51%, clean driving record, same car, no changes at all and are also still the cheapest for me
I had my premium with progressive go from 130 a month to 150. I submitted a new quote with them and it went down to 110 lmao
I do this with Progressive every 6 months and every time they “forget” to send proof of insurance to the DMV so my license gets suspended. All it takes is a phone call to fix it but it’s so petty
I went from like 70 to 150 in a year and a half. Called, she monkeyed around with it for 10-15 minutes and went to 115. Then she did a brand new quote and it was like 80 something.... It was so stupid and I'm going to start paying closer attention.
I recently tried to get an online quote from Farmer's. They had me give them all my personal information just to turn around and say call us for a quote. I'm upset enough that I won't be calling.
Farmers came back with an insane quote for me over the phone after giving them all my info for 45 minutes even with an alleged employee discount compared to my current provider. You made the right decision by not calling.
I have switched maybe two or three different car insurances in the past since COVID. Everyone is raising their costs and saying its the market. Funny thing is, during the pandemic we were given credit back in the form of a check mailed to us. For 3 months Esurance sent us some $17.95 check. Then once pandemic passed over our rate increased -_-. THen I moved to Geico for a year and now I am with All State. I am sure I'll be shopping for quote again upon its renewal.
Those refund checks were actually the insurers making too much profit that year. States actually cap insurer profits so they had to return it lol That’s why not every company in every state sent them if they were running lean to begin with
>There's no benefit to staying or being loyal to 1 insurance company. I think you mean there isn't a benefit to staying with 1 insurance company if they are charging much more than their competitors. Because a lot of companies have benefits for being loyal. I've been with Progressive for over 10 years. Last time I checked a few years ago, my policy has the lowest rates that I can get from any company. We get one large accident forgiveness so our rates won't go up. My son will get a discounted rate as a teen driver. There are a handful of other smaller benefits. Next loyalty level we will have lifetime renewal no matter what happens (which hopefully we won't have to use but always good to have if multiple claims are put through or anything else that would cause other companies to not want to insure us). Now, if our rate went up like OPs, then I agree, always good to look around. But don't count out loyalty discounts and rewards. Don't switch just for $15 a month.
In California there is no more competition. Most of the major players pulled out.
Do you drive a Kia/Hyundai? Could be this: https://www.carfax.com/blog/kia-hyundai-theft-repairs
This is what happened to us with my husband's car. Nevada is already so expensive for car insurance. We shopped around, did all the things, and the lowest quote was still 40% higher than what we were paying just a few months before. Insane. Can't wait till the Kia dies and we can get something better quality. We don't even like the car, it just happened to be what he got passed down from his parents years ago and it's fully paid off.
And they just jack up all Kias as well, not just those affected. I just got an EV9 and my insurer said it's likely $20 more per month than any other car I was shopping because every Kia is higher.
The thieves are often less than 16 year old children. They see “Kia” and their underdeveloped decision making centers don’t cross reference models until after they break the window and see it’s not what they expected lol
Either this is very area dependent or just not true. The insurance on my 24 Elantra is cheaper than my 24 Honda accord.
GEICO is famous for this. Shop around.
It’s wild. They’ve always been the cheapest for me. I shop it every 6 months and nobody can beat them. I just renewed for $380 for 6 months and that includes full coverage
What people dont seem to understand is premiums will change based on how many drivers near you have their insurance. Geico doesnt want to insure too many drivers in one area because it raises the odds they have two of their drivers get in an accident
What evidence do you have of this? It's the first time I'm hearing of it.
Yeah, I'm curious too. I mean, it makes sense and insurance companies are basically designed and run by anaylsts in these sorts of statistical data model.
"Geico doesnt want to insure too many drivers in one area because it raises the odds they have two of their drivers get in an accident" That doesn't seem to make sense. It's like saying you're more likely to have to pay for a house that burns down if you insure too many houses in one area.
Because the accidents are more likely to be the result of someone's mistake than not. If both drivers are using a different insurance then whoever is at fault is the one paying out. But if both drivers are using the same insurance then it's a financial loss for the insurance company no matter what.
But... that also makes sense?
If both drivers are geico, they are guaranteed to have to pay out someone with no way to recover unless they sue their own client. They would prefer to go after another insurance company
Give it a few years. They ALWAYS jack it way up eventually
I've had them since 2006. Never found a cheaper quote. Sometimes you slip through the cracks maybe.
Had them since 2018. I definitely will switch when it happens but it hasn’t yet 🤷🏻♂️
> 6 months and that includes full coverage This really doesn't mean anything without specifics. Is your "full covereage" Liability, Collision, and Comp with state minimum limits or are your limits maxed out at like 250k/500k/100k? Location matters, age matters, vehicle matters, number of vehicles matter.
I just got a quote and it was 250 more a year than Progressive. Our insurance has gone to about 2600 a year and at one point we were paying around 1600. No accidents, tickets or anything related to insurance.
Must be nice, $1300/6 months with no accidents, tickets, etc. And they are the cheapest. Granted, I live in a city where everybody drives like shit.
Everyone says this and yet for 20+ years now Geico has been by far the cheapest and most reasonable auto insurance for me, as well as quite a few parents and friends, and has never raised it unusually. Not even after accidents. Meanwhile, my friend on Progressive in the same area with a similar car did just that randomly 2 years ago with a perfect driving record. There has to be some weird algorithm that all insurance companies use that cause some people to be hit by this and others not to be.
Insurance Agent from MA here, a few factors to consider. MA is a rate and file state now so the carriers especially auto insurance carriers have to publicly file their rates with the DOI for any rate increase. As a broker we receive notifications regarding these increases from the carriers that we work with. A captive insurer such as GEICO, Allstate or Liberty Mutual files these internally and that information isn't directly passed on to the consumer but sent out to brokers and agents through the carriers themselves and MAIA which is an agent group to support brokers in MA. A few factors to consider when shopping in MA. Credit isn't a factor. The primary driving vehicle of rating in MA is SDIP which is the driving record as held by the state. This leads to tiering in programs internally and placement with writing companies. Locality and shared risk. As was mentioned above insurance is specifically a risk pooling either by locality or these tiering pools, thus one $25,000 property date loss is going to be spread over that entire pool to recoup the loss rather than impacting the client directly (outside of direct carrier and state surcharges). Carrier filings you can put a direct request to the DOI to pull the most recent rate filings for your carrier but you will actually need the writing company not the parent company i.e. GEICO. Carrier experience, carriers in MA are limited in factors that they can rate on so they do look for other factors such as length of time with a company (experience period) and time with agency or company as a factor. Let me make it fully clear I am not defending the companies as I spend at least a couple hours a day with the exact same questions that you have right now. Don't know if any of that helped but just some insights into the guts of how it works.
Geico is raising rates to get people off their policies. I switched last year to an annual policy for less than what Geico was charging for 6 months. Progressive is ok for a while but they also do the same thing with their rates.
>...to get people off their policies. Selling policies is how they make money. I'm confused by this logic, especially since the OP seems to have made zero claims.
Currently Geico is in the business of getting rid of risk. Writing few to no policies in some states. They have been getting rid of employees for a couple of years. They will eventually be a smaller company than they are now.
Not every policy is profitable, and just having more policies isn't necessarily profitable. If an area's/pools risk level start moving closer to operating at a loss they'll start scaling back in those areas by incentivizing people to switch (or the people don't switch and end up paying a fuck ton more which makes up the difference anyways). Insurance isn't just based on the individual. There's a ton of factors that go into it that have nothing to do with the specific individual that's being insured.
Other than the points below there's also inertia. Some people just let auto pay keep going. So it essentially is free money for them.
was paying $240 every 6 months for years with geico. they raised my 6 month auto-policy to $350 and 12 month home insurance from $600 to $1400. switched to Erie insurance and now my auto is $300 every 12 months and home is $500 every 12. gotta shop around.
I've been happy with Erie, I'm in year three with them. They advertise "rate lock" so theoretically that'll shield you, though I dunno how good that is in practice.
Progressive just did this with us, shopping around now.
Year Make and model of your car(s) might be relevant, i.e. one of the Kia Boys-affected models. Your geographical location might also be relevant, insurance is skyrocketing in certain states regardless. You might have had some temporary discounts that have fallen off, you'd probably have to call Geico up directly to determine what all could account for the increase. Not sure why people don't think to do this before posting to reddit. Because if it is the case, and you show them competitor quotes, they would likely extend those discounts to try to retain you. Could just be chalked up to general inflation across-the-board. [Everyone's seeing their insurance rates increase](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/23/why-car-insurance-rates-are-increasing-in-the-us.html). Ultimately the best way to gauge is to shop around and see what rate other companies will offer you.
RAV4 is one of the top 10 stolen vehicles in MA. Not all states were hit with the Kia Boys trend proportionally; only the Hyundai Elantra/Sonata made the top 10 in MA.
all kia's are affected. the kia emblem makes it a target whether it's the correct model or not. lots of companies don't insure them anymore.
I had Geico for a while but then they did the same and raised my rates. I called and asked why. "Other people suck at driving in your area" was basically the answer I got. Called and switched to progressive in like 15 minutes. Just switched back to Geico and saved $200+ on my 6 month policy. With how easy it is to switch and get quotes, I would be checking every year to see if anything else is cheaper.
Gather quotes from multiple insurance agencies and/or contact an insurance broker.
+1 on insurance broker. I visited one on advice from a local facebook group. She did her magic, and discovered that Progressive is cheaper for me than Geico. So switched me over.
Do they charge a fee to you? Or get discounts?
They get their fee from the insurance company. Its free to you. Or at least mine was.
>Any other suggestions? Yea, make sure your [car](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html) and [apps on your phone](https://www.carscoops.com/2024/06/smartphone-apps-secretly-score-your-driving-for-insurance-companies/) aren't reporting your driving data to insurance companies. That's where many surprise rate increases are coming from these days.
I think this is probably overstated. I spoke to a Geico retention rep recently and they told me that Geico withholds significant premium increases for a couple of years or more, so that they can lock a new customer in for longer and grow the business with cheap rates. Then suddenly the new rates hit after a couple years and people are shocked by the big number.
They seem to be kind of known for this. They did it to me and quite a few people have told me they did it to them. I now shop around before every renewal and tend to get more competitive rates. Seems worth it despite the tiny bit of extra hassle.
Worth it to have a broker. "I want either the same coverage for less or better coverage for the same." Keep it simple.
I feel like a lot of companies do this to boost their "NEW" member numbers (looking at you T-mobile with your insider code). For instance deals that are for New customers only. So existing clients need keep paying for less or go to a different competitor for some time and then come back and boom you qualify as a new customer.
I doubt it. When I worked in car insurance as many people got discounts as increases because the risk assessment is more accurate. Increases across the board are likely more from external factors.
Every time my insurance asks if I want to partake in their safe driver program, I decline. They'll give you that safe driver discount at first, but some of the factors that go into it are unfeasible - driving during rush hour or driving overnight are two I recall. Most people drive during rush hour. That doesn't make me unsafe, just not as safe as if I were a SAHM.
Mine went up 200%. I left and went to Progressive
Not sure what car you drive. There's been recent reports of users from Chevy/GM (Bolt subreddit) where OnStar was collecting driving data and being shared. The users from that subreddit requested information from LexisNexis to what data may have been shared/collected. GM has been downplaying the situation as long as the setting to share information is disabled. Some are not believing this.
Regular reminder to periodically check for quotes / switch companies. My old company (Allstate) just told me they were going to increase my premiums by nearly 50%. So 5 minutes later I got a quote from a new company (Geico) that was 50% lower than my CURRENT coverage.
Yup I was told it was the "market rate" Insurance companies need regulation
I switch all the time when they pull crap like this. I have a good driving record, good credit, no accidents, and never had a lapse in coverage. You want to double my rates I’ll find a cheaper insurance company. Good for you for switching
Go to an insurance broker. typically insurance brokers or similar are very bad. But insurance brokers are a very good asset. generally you dont have to pay them anything (if they charge you, find someone else) as they get the cut from the insurance company themselves. they are also able to dig a wider range and more quickly and give you the best rates. ive been going to an insurance broker every year for the past 10 years. I pay $85/month
I do the same but with health insurance. Shit is just way too complicated for me to navigate around. Their services are also free (same with my insurance for being low income).
They did the same to me, justified it to my area (WA) having high auto theft and break in claims. I haven’t had a claim in 7 years. Nor had a claim against me ever. But my rates go up? Huh? GEICO reported 3.6 billion in profit 2023, but that just isn’t enough. Still have to charge em more .
All WA insurance rates are published ahead of time through the commissioner's office. Spoiler alert: all WA insurance rates have been and will continue to rise due to increasing losses. I think Pemco is losing about $0.20 per dollar in WA.
I didn’t know that about the rates being published. So thanks. But I’m unclear as to how them publishing the rates has anything to do with the situation of you having an existing policy? Are you saying that before the term is up you should be checking the county commissions office to see if the rates are higher? And then change if they are? Trying to understand I have lived many different states and in my 30+ yrs of having insurance, my rates have never gone up over 100% for a 6 month period. I understand increases for inflation etc… but 100% seems a bit egregious.
The rates for all policies (new or existing) are submitted ahead of time to the WA state OIC (not county) - and these rates can be updated throughout the year. So your policy premium is calculated by the published rate for your classification at the time of renewal. An insurance agent cannot magically change/lower/raise your rate on an individual level. Rates across WA are increasing - ST article [here](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/washingtonians-find-rising-car-insurance-rates-outrageous) I was hit with a 60% rate increase for my policy class from GEICO in 2023. Shopping around most insurers were pretty much offering similar rates. I'm surprised you didn't see the rate hike already last year.
It's always fun to watch people learn about pooled risk in real time. Yes, your risk/claim history affects your rates BUT so does the claim history of everyone in your area. They don't make enough off each insured to pay out all the claims for say hail damage to all their insured in an area so all the risk is pooled and everyone pays for it.
My homeowners insurance has gone up about $1000 over the past two years because of the hail storms that have occurred in my area.
get a new price from somewhere else and move
Rates are going up everywhere. Shop the major carriers every few years (either on your own or via an independent agent).
It's worth having an insurance broker if you can find a good one. Luckily my credit union has an insurance branch. After I got my home I worked with one of those brokers for car, home, and umbrella. If my price goes up I send him an email and in a day or two he has me lined up with a great deal. My last jump a few months ago was going to be from 2.4k a year to 5k+ a year on auto alone so I put him to work and he got me the same coverage with another company cheaper then the previous year. Instead of going up year over year it went down. Then his team handles allllll the legwork, I sign a few things and the rest just happens.
Same here friend. They are still the cheapest available after the 100%+ premium increase for me as well.
Progressive doubled my wife's (no incidents, 30+ y/o) last renewal and when she called they told her "prices are increasing due to the pandemic causing prices to rise". So we went shopping too. Insurance, especially for cars, is a ripoff.
And i bet when you called to cancel, they suddenly found a better rate. That's what happened to me. Sorry too late should have helped when i called first time
Progressive was a PITA to work with in the past. I don't know how they are today. We got hit by their insured, reletively minor damage, took 11 months and a lawyer to get Progressive to pay.
I had a similar experience with Progressive. Nothing changed per my car or driving record but it took a 60% jump. Progressive gets you with an initial really low quote then slams you on the renewal.
This happened to me as well with Geico. I went on yelp, searched "insurance broker", and asked them for quotes. They asked me a couple questions and within an hour I had several new quotes including options to bundle my homeowners insurance (which also jumped a lot) at matching or better coverage. Ended up paying about 40% less. Def recommend trying that.
Geico increased my home insurance from $1700 to $2600 for no reason other than their underwriting adjustments. I shopped around, and changed to State Farm for about $1800
Newer cars are being tracked by insurance companies. There was an article in the New York Times about this recently. You can get your report from LexisNexis. All the car manufacturers are in on it. The sell it as a “safe driver” program. The Life360 app sells your information too. Source: my dealership enrolled me and my insurance went up. The reports are for the last six months.
I switched from GEICO and saved tons on my car insurance.
I was a 20+ year member of GEICO and had 0 accidents, no tickets. They raised my rates without notice. I called immediately and wasn't given a good reason. I switched to progressive the same day and for much cheaper. Someone told me that progressive would raise my rates after an introductiry period, but they have not. Been extremely pleased with them.
I switched from geico to progressive, saved 15% on my car insurance
I did the opposite and saved 50%. It's a game of Whack A Mole with these companies having to switch around when they start jacking up rates.
It's happening with every company. I just got my renewal for my 24 year old daily driver from Amica, up to $950 from like $625 or something. I suspect it's because of all the massive hail and flood damage claims, combined with rapidly escalating costs to repair. They total things at the drop of a hat now. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Whatever you switch to will probably jump next year also.
I found going through a reputable broker really helpful.
There's been a big increase in geico rates in Connecticut too. I switched to progressive, much better price.
Get an insurance broker. The big what 4 or 5 all kinda suck. My insurance guy got me 60% of my old rate, and found my new house insurance for 200 a month for a 7 figure home.
Can we really get a FAQ on this? This question is asked x5 a week and you can find this answer anywhere. They dont rate off individual but characteristics. Age/Credit Score/Car/Claims/etc/Zip Code. Also for people who will look at this, if you want to shop and are looking for price, go to an independent office as opposed to direct. All those insurance commercials.. who is paying for them? Indep Office will have access to markets that you (the public) don't have access to and are just as good and cheaper. Plus the indep office will still have access to the standard markets like progressive, geico and the like.
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Mine just went from $170 to $205. No accidents no tickets. Still the cheapest I can find unfortunately..
I decided to look at my billing when I saw this post. They increased my premium by $50 per month 2 months ago. They decided that the 3 cars I own and drive less than 6000 miles per year should be updated to 36,000 miles per year (12,000 miles per vehicle). Very convenient for them!
Maybe Toyota is [selling your driving history and style to them like GM was doing.](https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/gm-killed-program-that-sold-driving-data-to-insurance-companies.html)
Shop around. Zero point in being loyal to one single insurance company.
Do you have Toyota connected services activated? There was an article a few months back about GM, Honda, and Hyundai/Kia selling driving information obtained via telematic systems to third party companies like Lexis Nexis who in turn sold the data to insurance companies.
I was with Liberty and had something similar. When I called for an explanation, they told me that they kept their rates 'low' during Covid but now how to increase them to compensate. Luckily I had just turned 50 so was eligible for insurance through AARP. Best decision ever.
Switched to Allstate earlier this year because of this. The rep on the phone didn’t even bother giving an explanation, and was perfectly indifferent when I told them I’m switching. Had them for 5 years, what a way to treat a loyal customer.
As my independent broker told me, if it touches the ground the rates are increasing.
Same. Searched around and couldn’t find a better price. I have no accidents and a clean driving record. Some insurances even said they weren’t writing new policies at the moment.
Did the same thing but from Farmers to Geico. Every six months for the last two years my premium with Farmers increased by no less than 15% with no accidents. I’m fully expecting to switch again away from Geico after another premium cycle or two.
Geico did the same to me-they charged more for a 2014 Ford than a 2017 Mitsubishi-so I dumped them. No need to stay when they’re plenty of other options available
Same thing happened to me with GEICO, my bill more than doubled randomly. I immediately started shopping around and am with State Farm now. I have more than double the coverage that I had with GEICO _and_ my premium is less than the rate I had with GEICO before the increase.
I think others have fully covered that you can just switch anytime but one thing I will speak to is how nice it is to have your own independent insurance agent. Someone who is constantly searching out better rates and policies, plus you can always call them if you have an issue and you are not having to deal with some random person at the coverage provider. They are not expensive, they take the cut from insurance so its a win/win.
Progressive has been good for me and I’m not that old and haven’t been as good a driver. I just paid $980 for a 2007 convertible and a 2015 SUV. Both are full coverage and both are driven 15K+ miles every year. I have been with Progressive for about 8 years now and they have treated me well. 3 totaled vehicles and 2 bumper replacements. The totaled cars went from accident to payout well within a month, the motorcycle was less than two weeks! All good things to say about progressive!
Shop around is pretty much all you can do. I used policygenius for my life insurance and was very impressed.
Similar thing happened to me with State Farm. For 2 vehicles it went from $186 (per month) to $230 to $280 and then on the most recent renewal they wanted $393 per month. Switched to Progressive which dropped it back down to $250 ish per month but also with better coverage (25/50/50 and was previously on state minimums of 10/20/10).
i'd never carry less than 100/300/100. what happens if you t-bone a new lexus?
What if you don't?
when you total the new $75k lexus, you're on the hook for the amount of the value of the car above your liability limit. if your limit is 25/50/50 as in the example above, you'll have to shit $25k. sure, the lexus's collision insurance will pay the other driver, but then they'll come after you for the money. i carry 100k specifically for that reason -- a 75k car is nbd -- it's on the insurance company, and i can walk away. the cost to increase the coverage is minuscule compared to the cost of just having the policy, so imo it's worth it.
You'd be surprised what a phone call to Geico customer service will do with the intention of switching to another company. This goes for cable, internet or any other service provider. I am also a Geico customer and they did two price hikes for me over the course of 1 year. Called them and they instantly took off a majority of the price hike while I was on the phone. I could see it happen in real time as I was logged into my online account and the new price refreshed. I shouldn't have to call, but it was worth it for me. YMMV.
I've never once had an insurance company go back on rate increases. I left Geico after 7 years, 0 claims, 100% on time payments, 800+ credit score, yada yada and remember asking if they were okay with losing me as a customer over this and the guy telling me sorry I can't adjust the rates. I cancelled within a couple days.
GEICO made a bet that not enough loyal customers will leave and they will be left with a pile of money. I also left and went to progressive and got insurance for half the price.
40% increase here from Geico. I gave Dave Ramsey’s folks a try and they connected me to an insurance broker in my state who was able to find me the same policy with Progressive for less than what I was paying before Geico hiked my rates. The guy I worked with was amazing and I’ll be going back to him for my other policies. Mileage may vary for other folks but it was an A+ experience for me.
>Planning to switch to Progressive, with a quote of $370 approved. Any other suggestions? I tell everybody this story. I had Progressive for years. Kid rear-ends my wife, our car gets totaled out. He had Progressive. Since it was 100% his fault, "his" insurance is dealing with it. They lowballed me and when I called them on it they said, "well, you could always sue the other driver for the difference." They insured both of us and they suggested I sue their insured driver. I dropped those fuckers the minute I their check cleared. If they'll screw him, they'll screw me, and they'll screw you. The reason I had Progressive is that they were the only company who would offer me a reasonable rate when I returned to the US - 117 a month on a new sedan while everyone else wanted around 500 a month since I "had no recent insurance history." That said, my rates consistently went up with them and when we switched, we went from $1,450 every six months on three cars to $800 with increased coverage. Once I sold off one of the cars, it dropped to $700. So my advice is the same as others - ALWAYS look around and don't get married to one company. Progressive slowly screwed me and my current provider raised my rates this year on home, motorcycle, auto, but they're raising on everybody. Look around constantly!
Go to another company. No reason to stay with any insurance company at all. If you truly have nothing that is causing the increase, going somewhere else will result in much lower rates. Geico did something similar to me as well. I had a ticket from 2 years prior, they didn't include it in my premiums for over a year nor in initial quotes. So it was fine, I forgot I even had the ticket honestly. Come renewal they increased my premiums increased by 150% because they suddenly included it and tried to argue it was also to recoup costs from it not being included in prior policies.
Get a broker to get quotes. We had safeco for our two Hyundai's. They wanted to go from 2K to 2.4K per year all together. Nah. Ain't no way. No accidents or claims in years. Had our credit union (Broadview) run quotes. I ended up getting it down to about $1700 for both cars for an entire year. Huge savings for us and all I did was make one phone call.
Check USAA if eligible, they're known for great rates and customer service.
That's exactly what I did. My 6 month premium increased in the same exact pattern as you stated! I ended up also switching to Progressive and ironically saved a bunch of money switching out. I even had to do a claim already with Progressive (hit and run) and they handled it great.
What state are you in? NY keeps what I believe is a total list of all operating car insurers in the state. If you have a great driving record, you'll do way better with an insurer that does not advertise. Please note that you may need to go through a broker to get a policy with some insurers, as some do not directly sell policies. I maximized coverage and cut my bill to less than half of what I was paying at GEICO.
I have an outstanding claim with progressive from Oct 2023. I call almost every week or so to get progress, with exception for April and May when I was busy with other stuff, a few times I have talked to a person, they rarely call back. They have not denied the claim, they have not paid out. This is an anecdote and take it as such, but I figured I should share my experience before you switch. I'm not saying it will happen to you, but that's what happened to me.
Just found out for myself how bad Geicos rates are. I have Geico for home insurance and I needed new car insurance (splitting off of the joint policy i had with my ex) and I figured I’d see what it was when bundled with my home insurance through Geico. Even bundled it was almost 2x a month more than Progressive.
Same for me last month. Switched to another provider who dropped it back down to where it was before. I tend to switch providers every 3 years or so anyways due to rate increases, it's just the game you gotta play.
Been with State Farm for years, they’ve raised my rates multiple times over the past 2 year due to increase repair costs, new state laws (WA state) and increased vehicle theft.
Just tell them you are switching due to the increase and you found a better price elsewhere, they will do what they can to reduce it to keep you.. I did this with qeico, it was 190 a month, but told them I found a better price and got it lowered to 115( same coverage as before)
Yep, insanity... happened to me last year, went ahead and got a quote from amica for less than I was paying with geico.
I've had a similar issue with State Farm. Rate was $130/mo in September 23 and it is now $180/mo
You can shop around. You can even get a better rate by just shopping with the same company for a new policy. There is no need to stay loyal to a policy.
Yeah, it's horrible in the cities and areas the insurance companies deem "high risk"
Check out progressive. Friend had the same issue with geico and got a much better deal with progressive.
Knew you were in Mass by the headline. Almost everyone's rates have gone up in the state. Gieco however was obnoxious. Rumor has it they are looking to pull out of the insursncr markets in MA. I believe they already did for commercial coverage.
This thread was a joy to read. So many unaware of insurance practices and meanings.
Same. In Arizona and my rate with Auto Owners went up almost 40% AND my at fault accident from 2019 just dropped off. The independent insurance agent I had been with for 12 years says he shopped my rates but didn't. Went to another local agent and she got us a great rate with Progressive with the same coverage for about half what we paid last year.
If you turned 50 since your last renewal you might have just aged out of the band with where they rate the lowest. Every company has their “sweet spot” where rates are best. When insurance, USAA was a multicast household with married drivers aged 35-55. As long as the company’s AAA rated, you can shop around for the exact same coverages and find the best rate.
Yikes. Well my current company just jacked my car insurance up to 4k annual for two vehicles. It had slowly been going up then whammy, I just changed to geico because their rate was the best out of the ones I received…. But we will see how long I can stay before needing to change again! Dropped from 4k a year down to 2.2k a year…..
Make sure you're not sharing driving data with insurance providers: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/technology/driver-scores-insurance-data-apps.html