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I needed a bit of help on what options I have for lowering my car insurance. I'm currently under my father's plan and I have no points on my record. I've had 2 speeding tickets in 10 years and I went to traffic school both times. I used to pay ~$600 per term, but now it's jumped to $1,033.80 (per term, 6 months). I think this is due to the fact my car has been broken into twice (San Francisco has a problem with break-ins). This is through Farmers. I spoke with an agent and he said mostly I can lower my payments is through coverage and mileage. Anyway, here is what I'm looking at... Also my car isn't worth much, according to KBB it's only $5k max.
obi_ant fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Sep 30, 2018 |
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Sep 25, 2018 00:37
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| # ? May 7, 2024 18:12 |
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If you're poor, what I've learned from my wife's recent not-her-fault accident is that you're massively overinsured for liability - in California the statutory minimum for property damage liability is $5000, and if that doesn't cover what you break, basically lol, gently caress the person you hit, they can be out a car for 6 weeks while the insurance's recommended shop does a poo poo job of fixing it, they don't get any sort of loaner or compensation of any kind, and then have to aggressively fight to just get their car fixed at all because everyone knows there's no point trying to get money out of your underinsurance, and the victim's insurance will do everything it can to avoid paying a dime, including lying about problems being "pre-existing", or making out like the only reason their car crumpled when hit with your car is that they didn't glue it together hard enough so the damage that wasn't pre-existing is caused by the pre-existing condition of not enough glue, so the insurance doesn't have to fix it. Which is to say, if you're poor then you should keep your loss of usage and uninsured motorist (and try to add underinsured motorist) coverage to protect yourself, but drop all liability coverage to minimum because it basically still won't cost you anything to gently caress up someone else's car; having sufficient liability coverage isn't helping you at all, it's just helping the person you T-bone when you run a red light. And helping the insurance company. If you're not poor then this jackass advice doesn't apply because someone might actually try to sue you for the difference if there's a chance you have it. Edit: I am not a lawyer or insurance recommender and you should not take my advice, which is really more of a rant about insurance companies being fuckwads.
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Sep 25, 2018 06:42
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I pay $64 a month for my auto and home insurance combined with USAA. Full coverage and car is worth $6000. USAA is restricted in who can become members, but I've heard Amica is on par with them (they quoted me a similar price for just auto few years ago) and I think they're open to almost anyone.
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Sep 25, 2018 17:42
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Well, first off moving violations can only affect your insurance rate within 3 years of the date of the violation.quote:I think this is due to the fact my car has been broken into twice (San Francisco has a problem with break-ins). While any single comp claim shouldn't affect your rate, frequency can put you into some other underwriting tier... More likely is you're getting charged more because if your area has a problem with break-ins then you are higher risk. Do you park in a garage typically? Your premium didn't nearly double just because of that though. Farmers is probably also just upping the rates in general. If you felt like fudging it you could probably get away with saying you keep it at your father's place (I'm assuming he lives elsewhere) and save some premium there, but eh. You won't get arrested for insurance fraud or anything but if they find out you been lying they might want you to pay premiums in arrears after they go back in and change the address to what it should have been. quote:Also my car isn't worth much, according to KBB it's only $5k max. On this one, it just depends on what you want to do really. You're paying $416 every 6 months ($832/yr) for collision/comprehensive plus a $750 deductible. Let's say you get totaled tomorrow, that means they'll pay out $4,250. You're basically right at the cusp of when the "10% rule of thumb" says to drop comp/col - the rule is if you are paying 10% or more of what the insurer would give you in case of a total, it's time to drop it. However, you also have to consider your ability to actually be out of pocket a few grand in case of a total so there's that. What you *should* do is drop comp/col and take the premium you are saving over the next year or so and set it aside as an emergency fund for car repairs. Also you have the glass coverage which means that they fix anything fill-able for free or if they need to replace a window (including windshield) you're only out of pocket $100 max. It is pretty worth it as long as you have comp imo but you can only get it if you also have comp obviously. I'm not 100% sure anymore but Farmers might let you do comprehensive only (I kinda doubt it though), in which case you're covered from vandalism / breakins / rocks / etc. (everything except vehicle on vehicle collision, basically). roomforthetuna posted:If you're poor, what I've learned from my wife's recent not-her-fault accident is that you're massively overinsured for liability - in California the statutory minimum for property damage liability is $5000, and if that doesn't cover what you break, basically lol, gently caress the person you hit, they can be out a car for 6 weeks while the insurance's recommended shop does a poo poo job of fixing it, they don't get any sort of loaner or compensation of any kind, and then have to aggressively fight to just get their car fixed at all because everyone knows there's no point trying to get money out of your underinsurance, and the victim's insurance will do everything it can to avoid paying a dime, including lying about problems being "pre-existing", or making out like the only reason their car crumpled when hit with your car is that they didn't glue it together hard enough so the damage that wasn't pre-existing is caused by the pre-existing condition of not enough glue, so the insurance doesn't have to fix it. Yeah this is accurate, pretty much. The last line about "if you're not poor" is very important though because yeah you'll get sued and have your assets taken and wages garnished if a court thinks you are underinsured. In OP's case he is on his father's plan though so the liability limits might be a result of that. iirc I don't think Farmers will let you have lower liability on one car vs another on the same insurance policy. 500/500/100 is a lot though. I bet Farmers is tryin' to sell ya'll that umbrella policy. Anyway, the bottom line I really have as far as advice here is, without knowing your father, you are not in Farmers' target market and you'll find cheaper premiums elsewhere. $2k/yr to insure a car worth $5k lol. Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Sep 25, 2018 |
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Sep 25, 2018 19:49
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quote:I spoke with an agent and he said mostly I can lower my payments is through ... mileage Oh, also, ignore that. Short version: it won't work for long and it is a loving headache for everyone involved. They're just trying to entice you to renew. Long version: Farmers (and every other insurer, I imagine, might even be required by state law depending where you are) will want you provide an official document stating your mileage (smog check, service report, etc.) annually (if not every 6 months) in addition to a signed statement by yourself. If what you're telling the agent you drive mileage wise to save some money doesn't actually jibe with what the documents show, your premium will go right back up and they might even try to collect premium in arrears if they decide you never were supposed to be at that lower mileage. Farmers in particular is putting a lot of pressure on agents to make sure this figure is accurate as obviously a poo poo ton of underwriting depends on it. Basically, yeah, you can tell the guy you only drive 3,000 miles a year and get the cheapest rate possible. If you actually drive 20,000 a year, they'll find out sooner or later and crank your premium right back up. If they find out that you always drove 20,000, they'll backdate the change to the policy inception and send you a bill (unlikely but it happens). FWIW, according to CA DMV, average in CA is a little more than 13,000 miles per year. e: Thinking about it, I bet mileage change is why your premium nearly doubled. Though the agent should have seen that. Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Sep 25, 2018 |
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Sep 25, 2018 19:59
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Thanks for the detailed reply. Yeah, San Francisco has a really big problem with break-ins. There is always glass in the street aside from the super rich neighborhoods. Some people call the broken glass everywhere street glitter. Anyway I double checked and it looks like the Garaging Zip is at my father's house. Comprehensive covers glass breaking correct? If I'm going to want that for sure. Collision covers the "worth" of my car? Then I guess I wouldn't want that since it's on the cusp. I've also been saving up for a new car (which is why I've been looking at my insurance). I clarified with the agent through e-mail and I am under my father's umbrella plan. I do not think I would be able to convince my father to lower the coverage in his plan. 500/500/100 I feel is a stupidly high plan, but it gives my father piece of mind so I'm not going to complain too much about it. Speaking about mileage, the average on my paperwork is 13K per year. Currently I'm at 87K since I had the car, which means I run about 9K per year. I think I'm going to keep the comprehensive, increase the comprehensive deductible to $1K, remove collision, keep Towing & Assist and remove Collision Plus/Loss of Use.
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Sep 25, 2018 22:34
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obi_ant posted:Thanks for the detailed reply. Usually umbrella insurance requires certain coverage minimums of your other insurances before you can get umbrella coverage, so your father might not be able to drop it. If he has umbrella insurance, your father probably owns an expensive California house that he wouldn't want to lose because you t-boned some poor schmuck.
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Sep 25, 2018 23:25
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obi_ant posted:Thanks for the detailed reply. Well, that's good then. Regarding the garaging zip, not the break ins lol. obi_ant posted:Comprehensive covers glass breaking correct? If I'm going to want that for sure. Collision covers the "worth" of my car? Then I guess I wouldn't want that since it's on the cusp. I've also been saving up for a new car (which is why I've been looking at my insurance). Basically, collision covers vehicle on vehicle impacts, comprehensive covers everything else. If you bump someone in the parking lot and need a new fender, that's collision. If a tree falls on your car, that'd be covered under comprehensive. If you swerve to avoid a deer and hit someone's car, collision. If you hit the deer, comprehensive. Both comprehensive and collision will pay out up to the full value of the car. If that tree that hypotheticalls falls onto it flattens it into a pancake, say. What I meant by the glass coverage specifically is you have the glass deductible buyback on there - without that you'd have to pay up to the full comprehensive/collision deductible to get glass fixed. Would probably run you a few hundred bucks to get a windshield replaced. With it, it's $100 max on replacement glass and repairs for free. quote:I clarified with the agent through e-mail and I am under my father's umbrella plan. I do not think I would be able to convince my father to lower the coverage in his plan. 500/500/100 I feel is a stupidly high plan, but it gives my father piece of mind so I'm not going to complain too much about it. FWIW you wouldn't save much dropping the liability coverage anyway. At best I bet you'd get to maaaybe half or more likely 2/3rds of that $425 number at the minimum Farmers will go. And if your policy is bundled in with your dad's then it's not bad anyway since in this litigious country someone suing your dad (since he is on the policy too) after deciding you have nothing isn't unheard of and then he'd be in a pickle. Ancillary Character posted:Usually umbrella insurance requires certain coverage minimums of your other insurances before you can get umbrella coverage, so your father might not be able to drop it. If he has umbrella insurance, your father probably owns an expensive California house that he wouldn't want to lose because you t-boned some poor schmuck. Yeah. quote:Speaking about mileage, the average on my paperwork is 13K per year. Currently I'm at 87K since I had the car, which means I run about 9K per year. 13k is what Farmers defaults to if they don't get a response on the voluntary mileage surveys they are *supposed* to be sending out. They won't renew the policy if they don't get the required annual survey (with official document!) back either although I have met agents who fudge that poo poo to keep customers happy (as I said, Farmers is cracking down on this). Anyway, 9k will be cheaper - dunno by how much but it'll be cheaper. Definitely bumps you down a bracket or two.
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Sep 26, 2018 00:08
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Ancillary Character posted:Usually umbrella insurance requires certain coverage minimums of your other insurances before you can get umbrella coverage, so your father might not be able to drop it. If he has umbrella insurance, your father probably owns an expensive California house that he wouldn't want to lose because you t-boned some poor schmuck. Basically what my father said. It's more about piece of mind for him than anything else. Moridin920 posted:Well, that's good then. Regarding the garaging zip, not the break ins lol. Thanks for the clarification, you've been super helpful. Looks like I'll be paying much less in a few months.
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Sep 26, 2018 00:55
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shop carriersb
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Sep 26, 2018 02:13
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Does progressive still do their snapshot thing? You got to drive like a grandma for 90 days, but I ended up getting a 27% discount.
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Sep 27, 2018 02:03
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Have you called some other companies for quotes? Then call farmers back and tell them what you got quoted. Switch if they won't match.
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Sep 28, 2018 03:37
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| # ? May 7, 2024 18:12 |
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Thanks for all the advice guys. I talked to my insurance guy and I saved about 54%. I basically kept only the glass coverage.
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Sep 29, 2018 06:20
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