Insurance

[felixkagi]

Talking about inflation, ................19% premium increase, no policy changes, no claims. So much for Progressive, it's time to shop around. Is that a trend with other carriers?

[SteveSueMac]

Your state dept of insurance regulator approves rates for your state. Sometimes the carriers ask for X and get it, sometimes not. They may have asked for 40% and got 19 instead. There are literally thousands of x-factors that determine rates. It’s impossible to understand.

I always recommend working with a broker you can trust and review your coverage every 2 years at least. Good luck!

[Protagonist]

Keeping it in perspective, I'm not TOO worried about insurance increases this year. My annual rate for RV insurance on my Interstate is just 2% of its purchase price. I'd have to pay that rate for 50 years before my insurance cost more than my Interstate.


On the other hand, my annual rate for my Honda is a whopping 10% of the purchase price! In another 4-5 years, I'll have paid more for insurance than I did for the car!

[felixkagi]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

........
On the other hand, my annual rate for my Honda is a whopping 10% of the purchase price! In another 4-5 years, I'll have paid more for insurance than I did for the car!

Huh, reading your plight I can consider myself lucky, especially in a State where car insurance is not mandatory if you never had an accident.

[InterBlog]

Hi, Felix. I explained this phenomenon on another thread but I can't remember which one right now.

TL;DR - rates went up nation-wide because close to a million cars were destroyed by Harvey in 2017. The losses were so profound that they had to be covered via rate increases on pretty much every American who owns a car.

I had to dig mightily to get someone in the industry to admit that this was the case. My own rate on the Interstate went up by about a third (Progressive), and we've never had any claims on that vehicle or any other. That's what prompted me to go digging for info.

Given the rough numbers at issue, I estimated that in 2017, the odds of someone in greater Houston losing an RV to flooding were at least one hundred times their statistical odds of losing that same RV to a wreck scenario. Harvey inverted the actuarial tables. The insurance industry just wasn't built for that kind of an event.

Please let us know if you find anything superior by shopping around. While you inevitably wait on hold on the telephone, here's a neat drone video for entertainment purposes. This is nowhere near all the cars destroyed in Houston. This is just a fraction of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UagU2-L0Qe4

[nvestysly]

Consider Cincinnati Insurance - it's sold through independent insurance brokers similar to Auto-Owners and some other independent agents.

If you're eligible for USAA (former military or child of former military) they may be a good avenue.

Another insurance that you very seldom hear of is Amica. I've often heard they are very good.

Consumer advocate, Clark Howard, indicates USAA, Cincinnati and Amica are in the top ten for reasonable rates, good customer service, etc.

For reference, we contacted Progressive for an agreed value policy on our 1992, 29' Classic. Progressive was over 3X higher than Cincinnati!

[graysailor]

Progressive raised my rates. Just for kicks I shopped thru Camping World and they saved me $1000.00. Essentially the same policy and oddly enough Camping World goes thru Progressive. So I am still with Progressive.

[AFTER TAXES]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

Keeping it in perspective, I'm not TOO worried about insurance increases this year. My annual rate for RV insurance on my Interstate is just 2% of its purchase price. I'd have to pay that rate for 50 years before my insurance cost more than my Interstate.


On the other hand, my annual rate for my Honda is a whopping 10% of the purchase price! In another 4-5 years, I'll have paid more for insurance than I did for the car!

Protagonist knows it all............

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by nvestysly

...

If you're eligible for USAA (former military or child of former military) they may be a good avenue.
...

USAA does not write RV policies. They have an "agreement" to issue existing customers' policies via Progressive, ostensibly with a USAA-related discount, but I don't see any big benefit to this. My daily driver has been insured through USAA for 27 years. Interstate is currently through Progressive.

[CharlieOscar]

Originally Posted by nvestysly

Consider Cincinnati Insurance - it's sold through independent insurance brokers similar to Auto-Owners and some other independent agents.

If you're eligible for USAA (former military or child of former military) they may be a good avenue.

Another insurance that you very seldom hear of is Amica. I've often heard they are very good.

Consumer advocate, Clark Howard, indicates USAA, Cincinnati and Amica are in the top ten for reasonable rates, good customer service, etc.

For reference, we contacted Progressive for an agreed value policy on our 1992, 29' Classic. Progressive was over 3X higher than Cincinnati!

I just got my RV insurance i November. I went through USAA, however USAA doesn't directly insure RV's, they have a partnership with Progressive. You get like a 10% discount from Progressive being a USAA member in the end. Mine was around $91/mo prepaid for the year. I shopped around and could not get better rates elsewhere and in fact most were more.

The USAA representative told me that for my region, midwest, all rates were going up due to the recent disasters. Even my home insurance went up. I've never had any claims for any insurance.

[Mattirs]

Having retired after 20+ years in the personal lines area of insurance in the glorious state of over regulated California, I've seen rates swing wildly before rate regulation, after rate regulation swing less wildly.
Taking the individual's actions out of the equation there are three major factors that affect insurance rates and depending on the winds of fate some are more influencing at different times.

Efficiency of the company

The stock market

Natural disasters

Right now there are very strong negative indicators in two of the three major influencers.

I've always called insurance institutionalized gambling, the insurance company is betting the odds using our premiums to cover the bet our claims.

I want my insurance company to come out a little bit on the positive side on the bet and not to be so efficient as to cut into Customer Service.

Thanks
Matti

[orlik]

Originally Posted by CharlieOscar

I just got my RV insurance i November. I went through USAA, however USAA doesn't directly insure RV's, they have a partnership with Progressive. You get like a 10% discount from Progressive being a USAA member in the end. Mine was around $91/mo prepaid for the year. I shopped around and could not get better rates elsewhere and in fact most were more.

The USAA representative told me that for my region, midwest, all rates were going up due to the recent disasters. Even my home insurance went up. I've never had any claims for any insurance.

I have USAAA also and my premium is $1026/yr prepaid. An 8% increase over last year. No doubt hurricane Micheal had something to do with the rate increase.

[InterBlog]

The next time someone asks, "Hey, why did my insurance go up so much when I never had any claims!", here's another picture to add to the collection of mass vehicle casualties.

Taken yesterday, this looks much like every other flood picture to come out of Houston over the past several years. The Imelda losses here won't approach those of Harvey, but they'll likely still be in the thousands of vehicles, especially given what happened farther east of us (Harvey was estimated to have flooded about one million vehicles).

[Countryboy59]

Originally Posted by felixkagi

Huh, reading your plight I can consider myself lucky, especially in a State where car insurance is not mandatory if you never had an accident.

I wish that was the case all over. Like mandatory health insurance, car insurance just raises the cost of repairs. I can remember when you could get a dent fixed for $200.

The other joke is “uninsured motorist” coverage. So I have to buy extra coverage in case the other person doesn’t have insurance? What a bunch of suckers we are.