Truck and Car Insurance

Carol Reed

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Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
Mine is due in two weeks. Haven't shopped it in 10 years. Maybe its time. Any suggestions? 10 year old car, and 12 year old truck. Motorcycle and MH are different companies for specialized coverage. Thinking about dropping the comprehensive because of the age of the vehicles.
 
What's your driving history like?
Would an umbrella liability insurance that covers everything serve you better than individual liability policies?
 
My driving history is ticket free for well over ten years, and no accidents. Can't remember the last ticket or the last accident. Only claims have been for windshields. The state has insurance requirements on vehicles so I don't if an umbrella policy would work. Wonder if there are any independent agents around.
 
We have an umbrella policy, but it has a minimum liability requirement we have to carry on the house and cars to qualify for it (which basically == the maximum liability) so it doesn't save us anything there. Its only ~$80/year per $1M of extra liability though so its a "cheap" add on. Having been in a couple of wrecks (not our fault either one but illustrated just how expensive this stuff can get) we carry the extra insurance so that its cheaper/more lucrative for someone to sue our insurance carrier than it is for them to sue us if something does happen. There may be some other setups where the coverage is different but in OR and WA at least that's how most of the umbrella policies are setup.

The best carrier deal seems to vary a lot by state so any not-in-California advice is probably mostly useless in the base cost regard.

There are some nice online resources for looking for agents and carriers in California.
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0010-buying-insurance/0040-find-an-agent/
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0010-buying-insurance/0010-auto-insurance/
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0010-buying-insurance/0080-compare-premiums/

One thing we learned the hard way is that sometimes the cheapest isn't the cheapest when you need them. We had a wreck in 2004 where another fellow hit us pretty bad. There were three insurance carriers involved, mine, lomls and the other guys. My insurance company (Mutual of Enumclaw) was entirely fantastic to deal with, the other guy had USAA through his dad and they were also fantastic to deal with. Lomls insurance company (I think it was farmers but I wouldn't swear to that - I personally won't use either farmers or state farm ever based on previous experiences) was a giant hassle and basically just said no to everything until we fought it (which was especially annoying because in the end they were getting all the money from the other guys insurance but because of subrogation blah blah some of the medical for loml had to go through them). After that we consolidated all our policies to Mutual of Enumclaw.
 
We always had great experience with Liberty Mutual...just us, not speaking for anyone or any other experiences for anyone else...just ours
 
I finally left State Farm after about 20 years. Went with Allied, which is owned by Nationwide. Saved about $600 a year and got more coverage. Haven't needed to make a claim yet, haven't in about 10 years, so no experience with their CS to pass along.
 
I agree that you (or your agent) should shop at least once a year. It can be a pain but, I have been with an agency for 25 years or so but, I have been insured with probably 30-odd companies. You want an agent that calls you out of the blue and says "hey, I just found you near identical coverage and it will save you $100 a year". That's how they kept my business. It was just recently sold as the founder/owner too a well deserved retirement. So far the new guys are fine but, I've been spoiled with "Lee Valley" level service so they better measure up ;)
 
another suggestion to save money, take a defensive driving course.(My son teaches them in NY), you cant cut off up to 10% off your insurance bill.
course runs 60 bucks, saves us 300 a year. certificate good for 3 years.
 
During the Regan era in California I used what California called an "Insurance Broker", who continually shopped the policy.

It was always going down in price. I had 3 to 4 vehicles on it then.

California sure has changed a lot since then. A lot of things have.
 
I've had Gieco for everything (2 cars and home) for over 10yrs. Had a couple of claims and everything went nice and easy. I've shopped around and no one can beat what we have. They insure motorcycles and MH's as well...
 
I have Farmers and a good agent. Last night I checked einsurance. They were $200 higher. The other thing is I have an annual payment rather than twice a year. I find that convenient. And so it goes. I'll keep looking around.
 
Carol,
When I lived in the Bay Area, I used a broker for a while, but last few years I was in CA, I used AAA auto insurance... was best price for what I needed and saved me quite a bit of money.... I was driving an Alfa Romeo Alfetta at the time and when I caught a rock in the radiator, blew out all my coolant and wound up breaking a piston ring from the overheated engine, AAA replaced my engine... the policy I had covered everything on the car except the drive train and tires.
 
Insurance is a word best not spoken in our house given swimbo is a insurance broker and member of the international brotherhood of insurance illuminati. :rofl:

If we ever have a rightful ability to claim, it would be our fault for having it so no claim. ( read as in Seinfeld soup nazi episode where he says " No soup for you" ) Here it is " NO CLAIM FOR YOU". :rofl::eek::eek::(:huh:
 
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