car insurence going up-cant get around it-big brother knows all

[randy 77zt]

get my insurence bill on my 96 ford e150 van.went up $240 a year.so i figure i will just switch companies.my girlfriend insures my z because she tells her insurence company her daughter drives it.my driving record-45 years old ,single,no tickits, no accidents.so i call 1 company-its a little cheaper.i call aaa-was alot cheaper but they call me back with new quote because of a claim about some gravel i was hauling back if 2003.the guy said he needed a new windshield-i gave him my insurence # .there wasnt a police report on it.what i am pissed off about-i would really like to know how many computors are sharing information about me.next they will give me an outragous quote because i am unemployed/self employed even though i dont tell them.i will have to go pull a dmv printout to see if my insurence company (farmers )reported the gravel claim to the dmv.soon somebody will have to print a book on how to keep off of computor databases.

[Jolane]

I am sorry to hear your troubles. What a PITA!

I just received news today from my insurance company (State Farm) that they will no longer cover my '99 Maxima for Comp or Collision because I did not get my car fixed last year after some minor hail damage. How does that work? I don't really care about the slight hail damage, but how does that affect my coverage of theft, fire, collision, etc? I will take the lose when I sell the car. That really erked me, what BS! I was told that I did not have to get it fixed, and that it would not affect my rates.

I HATE the insurance industry, including auto and health! What BS! Rates are rediculous, penalized for others misdoings, etc. I know that the industry is a pool essentially.

 

Joshua

[Pop N Wood]

Insurance company profits are tied to the stock market (among other things). When things are going well they will sell their souls to generate investment income. A lot of insurance company's are not doing so well these days, so they start looking for ways to cherry pick customers.

 

I once had my home insurance doubled because I called about whether I was covered for my sump overflowing. They came to the house, told me no, I did not opt for sump and drain coverage, then doubled my rates. When I went to get insurance somewhere else, I was told I could not get their preferred rate because my previous company reported I had made a claim. It is almost like they wanted to punish me for calling the a holes.

 

On the other hand, I have had excellent luck with my Gieco car insurance. I went through a bad period where I had 7 accidents in a 3 year period. 3 of them resulted in insurance payouts. None were my fault, but the big one (over $7000 damage to my vehicle, probably more to the other) went against me in arbitration. Gieco agreed with me that I wasn't at fault and did not raise my rates. Hard to imagine.

 

Someone else told me insurance companies will also look at credit ratings. Maybe that had something to do with my case.

[wheelman]

Randy_77zt,

Insurance companies all share data so that it's not possible for people with cronic problems to keep switching companies to avoid high rates.

 

Pop,

You're correct, the insurance companies do look at credit ratings to help them determine the rate you will get. I guess they figure your credit history is an indication of how you live your life.

 

I hate all insurance companies as well, it's such a racket, especially when the state laws say we have to have it but do nothing to control the rates. I've been fortunate myself to keep a clean record so my rates are relatively low but I've still paid a hell of a lot more to them they will ever pay back.

 

Wheelman

[Owen]

My wife's Civic just got sandwiched in between 2 Ford F250s a couple of weeks ago...her car was total, no damage to the trucks. All we get is market value of the car, approx $5 grand. We met with a lawyer to see how much we could sue the rear truck's insurance company for, and because it was a small no-name insurance company, we were told that it would be difficult.

 

If the driver only had collision coverage for $15,000 that is the max we could hope to get, but more realistically only $4,000. So what am I paying full coverage for?!?! If my insurance has to pay someone else because of my fault, I should have the lowest coverage possible to get lower rates. On the other hand, any kind of coverage that I will get payment for (other driver is uninsured, etc) should be fully covered.

 

I'm currently in the process of reviewing my policies and in the end, switching to another company.

Owen

[Tim240z]

I am very happy with my insurance company. I do have a spotless record, and have all my cars (quite a few) and my house insured with them. My rates are extremely reasonable, and they really, really treated me nicely when I had the little rollback incident with the Z (agreed value coverage of $20k).

I am with Farmers insurance.

[auxilary]

I had progressive for about 5 years... when I was 21, I had 3 points on my record, so they offerred cheapest insurance, I was paying 3k/year for comp/coll on neon, and coll only on the Z.

 

3 years later, my slate was clean, rate dropped, and I took the Z off that policy. I was paying 1k/year, with 1 not at fault accident on the record.

 

A couple months ago I got a renewal quote asking 572/6 months (biannual policies) instead of the normal 500 that I was paying. I called to ask why, because I have a basically spotless record.

 

"Oh, we raised our rates!"

 

me: "And you lost a customer!"

[Dan Juday]

Best thing you can do to keep the insurance companies honest is buy it from independant agents that sell several companies policies.

 

Like Tim, I also have excellent rates and coverage, and it's from Farmers. But not all the time. Every few years my agent calls up and tells me to pay some bill from another company for six months.

 

When he gets mad at Farmers for failing to pay a legitimate claim, or jacking rates on some poor scmuck without cause he cancels all there policies. He carries thousands of clients, do the math. They bend to his rant and six months later I'm back with Farmers.

[wheelman]

Dan,

Sounds like you have an agent that truly cares about his clients, can he do business in WA state? If so please PM his contact information.

 

Wheelman

[Phantom]

My son drives an '83Zx. About 5 years ago he had two accidents in about 6 hours resulting in a buggered up brand new Acura and two other totalled vehicles. He just turned 25 and his full coverge insurance with USAA dropped from about $176/month to $80/month. Oops - forgot that also includes his apartment insurance.

[Guest Want aZ]

They have recently passed a law in California (thank god I dont live there), that if you call and ask your insurance company a question ablut a claim, THEY CAN CANCEL YOU, for no reason what so ever.

 

In short I feel that the insurance companies are nothing more than licensed theives....

[DavyZ]

They have recently passed a law in California (thank god I dont live there)' date=' that if you call and ask your insurance company a question ablut a claim, THEY CAN CANCEL YOU, for no reason what so ever.

 

In short I feel that the insurance companies are nothing more than licensed theives....[/quote']

 

Wow--first time I heard that. You'd think we were making death threats or something.

 

Best advice is: get to know your insurance agent. I think Dan Juday knows his pretty well. I know mine. No problems; I'm with State Farm. I also have a friend who is a broker and an honest guy. I spoke with him to see how much money he could save us and, after learning about my wife's driving record, he said to stay with them!

 

Davy