Selecting Auto Insurance Company.

I worked for about 8 months last year for Auto Club Group here in Michigan in product management. It was a very interesting experience--I could tell stories......let us just say I've not worked in such a slow-moving environment in a long, long, long time. By way of background---let me see if I can help.

1. Insurance is a state-by-state product. Companies can operate or not operate in a state. Each state's regulatory situation is different; each company's competitive position in that state is different.
2. There are huuuuuge numbers of variables which are tweaked to form a price quote...
3 there are huuuuge numbers of discounts which can be engaged or not.

As an example, you start with a car and a coverage level.

The car is a known fact (VIN) which has characteristics (engine/repairability/type/equipment (minivan versus hot-rod) and the coverage level is known (the limits of liability the company's responsible for versus what you're responsible for--deductible). These are what set the base rate. Then all the variables come in: location, driving type, credit rating, gender, other cars in household, etc etc etc. (These are all analyzed by squads of people within the insurance company---they're trying to figure out the insights that let them price the policy to match their risk experience and profit they want to make). Then come the discounts---again, they've analyzed what are the variables that increase profitability/decrease profitability like age/longevity/etc etc. Finally, there can be some extremely esoteric discounts (interesting ones like...who was your previous insurance company ("normal" versus "buy-here pay-here"), how soon do you want the insurance to go into effect (if you push to the last minute, you'll probably lose a small discount). It's all multiplicative out to four decimals (!): base rate times factor A times factor B times ....

All this to say that there are a huge number of variables which go into setting a price. Many of the insurance companies "write" insurance through multiple channels (you can buy direct via an 800 number, or go to a "captive" agent (the guy staffing his office--think Allstate/State Farm) or go to an "independent" agent (who sells multiple companies). An independent agent will typically write most of their business with a few companies and knows what companies are more competitive for specific situations, captive agents generally know where they're competitive and where they're not competitive). A neighbor recently gave up his "Michigan Farm Bureau" agency and went independent because Farm Bureau was not competitive in our area (inner/second ring Detroit suburbs).

This is all duplicated for homeowners insurance.....lol

AARP, Costco or other affinity groups etc are generally selling leads/mailing lists to other insurance companies--they're not particularly good or bad/expensive or cheap, but they're not really providing the insurance.

Sometimes specialized companies can provide good service and rates because they drill down into a particular demographic...Auto Club Group owned MEEMIC which was started as an insurance company for Michigan teachers; GEICO was originally Government Employees Insurance Company; USAA is for military/ex military.

I need to shop myself---I switched from State Farm to USAA about 30 years ago when I was changing jobs and was going to be mobile/moving every six months for a couple years...State Farm wanted me to do too much with a local agent for that to be convenient. I never switched insurance during the time I worked for AAA...I shopped it once right before the pandemic but got distracted.

Reach out for other ?? I'll do what I can to help.


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Post# 1116547 5/7/2021 at 02:11 (1,084 days old) by scoots (Chattanooga TN)
Checkrate/Likes I want to ask about selecting an auto insurance carrier. I realize this is pretty far off topic for this website, but trying to research this subject brings in a blizzard of half-truths and advertising. I'm 60 years old with an excellent driving record. I currently have insurance, but would like to re-align the policy and bring the costs down since I'm sure I'm very over-insured. I'd like to know if there is a web reference that can give an honest assessment of the situation. MY greatest fear is signing up with a "cheap" insurance carrier, only to discover that they're cheap because the don't pay out, or that the pay out takes 3 years to settle. Thanks for any resources you can point out.

Post# 1116552 , Reply# 1 5/7/2021 at 05:42 (1,084 days old) by Steved (Guilderland, New York)
Checkrate/Likes 2 *Agent* I would be sure to check with an independent agent who represents several insurance companies. His obligation is to you, the insured. If you go to a name brand agent like State Farm or Allstate, those agents are obligated to the insurance company. My parents had their 50 yr old policy cancelled because they asked too many questions about their coverage which translated into �potential claims�. This was from their agent. At least here in New York. We switched from a national company to an independent agent and the savings on our homeowners and auto policy almost equaled free auto coverage.

Post# 1116555 , Reply# 2 5/7/2021 at 07:14 (1,084 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes 1 I worked for about 8 months last year for Auto Club Group here in Michigan in product management. It was a very interesting experience--I could tell stories......let us just say I've not worked in such a slow-moving environment in a long, long, long time. By way of background---let me see if I can help. 1. Insurance is a state-by-state product. Companies can operate or not operate in a state. Each state's regulatory situation is different; each company's competitive position in that state is different. 2. There are huuuuuge numbers of variables which are tweaked to form a price quote... 3 there are huuuuge numbers of discounts which can be engaged or not. As an example, you start with a car and a coverage level. The car is a known fact (VIN) which has characteristics (engine/repairability/type/equipment (minivan versus hot-rod) and the coverage level is known (the limits of liability the company's responsible for versus what you're responsible for--deductible). These are what set the base rate. Then all the variables come in: location, driving type, credit rating, gender, other cars in household, etc etc etc. (These are all analyzed by squads of people within the insurance company---they're trying to figure out the insights that let them price the policy to match their risk experience and profit they want to make). Then come the discounts---again, they've analyzed what are the variables that increase profitability/decrease profitability like age/longevity/etc etc. Finally, there can be some extremely esoteric discounts (interesting ones like...who was your previous insurance company ("normal" versus "buy-here pay-here"), how soon do you want the insurance to go into effect (if you push to the last minute, you'll probably lose a small discount). It's all multiplicative out to four decimals (!): base rate times factor A times factor B times .... All this to say that there are a huge number of variables which go into setting a price. Many of the insurance companies "write" insurance through multiple channels (you can buy direct via an 800 number, or go to a "captive" agent (the guy staffing his office--think Allstate/State Farm) or go to an "independent" agent (who sells multiple companies). An independent agent will typically write most of their business with a few companies and knows what companies are more competitive for specific situations, captive agents generally know where they're competitive and where they're not competitive). A neighbor recently gave up his "Michigan Farm Bureau" agency and went independent because Farm Bureau was not competitive in our area (inner/second ring Detroit suburbs). This is all duplicated for homeowners insurance.....lol AARP, Costco or other affinity groups etc are generally selling leads/mailing lists to other insurance companies--they're not particularly good or bad/expensive or cheap, but they're not really providing the insurance. Sometimes specialized companies can provide good service and rates because they drill down into a particular demographic...Auto Club Group owned MEEMIC which was started as an insurance company for Michigan teachers; GEICO was originally Government Employees Insurance Company; USAA is for military/ex military. I need to shop myself---I switched from State Farm to USAA about 30 years ago when I was changing jobs and was going to be mobile/moving every six months for a couple years...State Farm wanted me to do too much with a local agent for that to be convenient. I never switched insurance during the time I worked for AAA...I shopped it once right before the pandemic but got distracted. Reach out for other ?? I'll do what I can to help.

Post# 1116564 , Reply# 3 5/7/2021 at 09:48 (1,083 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *I've had them all* since 1976 except AAA. Allstate, Auto Owners, Farmers, Citizens, State Farm. Now Allstate again. Cheaper is not always better. Poor adjuster service with Citizens who authorized an aftermarket second rate repacement hood for my 1 year old Pontiac in 1987 that did not line up with the header panel above the grill. By the rime they got around to approving any repairs, I'd had my rental a month already. I had to eat the extra week. State Fram was fine until they totalled my car which was repairable. Thye failed to account for the extra fine condition I kept it. I bargained for $2,250.00 higher than they wanted to pay me. I bought it back as salvage for $1,500 and drove it 3 more years durin the recession with only p.l. and p.d coverage. The I donated it.

Post# 1116631 , Reply# 4 5/8/2021 at 07:08 (1,083 days old) by askolover (South of Nash Vegas, TN)
Checkrate/Likes We have Shelter. Used to have Liberty Mutual, but they cancelled us after Tony's multiple incidents with stationary objects. So far Shelter has been great with two total outs within a few months of each other....the MKS and the XTS...which is why we have a Volvo now!

Post# 1116644 , Reply# 5 5/8/2021 at 10:43 (1,082 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea))
Checkrate/Likes 3 Anecdotally, two of the biggest are said to be the most recalcitrant when it comes to paying claims: Allstate and State Farm. No matter who, they all escalate rates regularly as claims roll in with every disaster you see on TV. There is one rule for insurance-- the industry never loses.

Post# 1116659 , Reply# 6 5/8/2021 at 12:54 (1,082 days old) by DADoES (TX,�U.S. of A.)
Checkrate/Likes 1 � I had State Farm auto for hundreds of years (and homeowner's and health).� Never had a problem with claims, which were all incidents perpetrated upon me. Quit the health policy when ACA activated. Quit the home and auto when the agent retired and my account was tranferred to another local agent with whom I refuse to do business. Had Progressive for one year.� Quit that when the homeowner's (not Progressive, different company) with the same agent proved to be horrendous.� Not directly the agent's fault other than she recommended it and not related to any claims, there were none. Now with Germania which I believe is available only in TX.� Progressive for 2019 would been $980 for a year.� Germania was $796.� 2020 was $791 and they refunded $75 for COVID effects.� 2021 renewal was $672.

Post# 1116693 , Reply# 7 5/8/2021 at 18:22 (1,082 days old) by SudsMaster (SF Bay Area, California)
Checkrate/Likes I have used a variety of auto insurance companies over the years. But for at least the past decade, been using Safeco for my main car, and Hagerty for my collector cars. The collector cars cost a mere fraction to insure compared to the main car. The restriction is that they cannot be used for "everyday driving". OK. I will however be shopping for new insurance for the main car, since the premiums have gone up considerably over the years, despite my driving far less than before.

Post# 1116744 , Reply# 8 5/9/2021 at 12:13 (1,081 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes One thing to remember--shop your policy well before having to----one of the calculations/discounts was number of days before effective date...as I recall the parameters were over 10 days got a small discount, under ten days got no discount.

Post# 1118194 , Reply# 11 5/24/2021 at 17:17 (1,066 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes I just am finally getting around to shopping...got a suspiciously low offer from Progressive Marathon...googling around they've got a bad complaint profile. Using my current USAA as a baseline, most of the other quotes are 100-200 more per 6 months; awaiting a quote from a friend who's an independent agent. Michigan is revising their no-fault situation, so things are a little weird here right now. Unfortunately I've got several friends/acquaintances who were accident victims in early adulthood who continue to fully utilize the unlimited no-fault insurance to reach some semblance of normal life---one woman uses a wheel chair now because of an accident several years ago and has personal assistants for 15 hours/day, but with that is able to work outside the home. Another guy had a closed brain injury, is quite brilliant with a Physics PhD and has been living in a supportive apartment for the last 5 years or so but has progressed to be able to live independently which is quite exciting. The classic case was the late republican County Executive of Oakland County who was very derogatory about unlimited no-fault UNTIL he was in a horrific accident while being chauffeured--the driver died, and Brooks (the executive) was in a wheelchair forever after.

Post# 1118006 , Reply# 9 5/22/2021 at 22:03 (1,068 days old) by Good-Shepherd (New Jersey)
Checkrate/Likes *selecting an auto insurance carrier.* Contact a local independent insurance broker with your needs and have them get insurance quotes from multiple companies then decide. Thats what I did about six years ago looking for homeowners insurance then used them for auto as well. Rates were much better than I could get on my own and it was far easier to make one phone call and have them come back with multiple quotes. Wish I done so a long time ago. I never deal directly with insurance companies anymore outside of mailing a check. Any questions, advice or changes to my coverage or carrier, call the broker and they take care of it. More importantly, I can get straight knowledgeable answers from them because they are not trying to sell me on any one particular company and they want my business. Another thing I learned is don't hesitate to change auto insurers, they have no loyalty to you. If one starts jacking up your rates for no reason find a better offer. I jumped from Liberty Mutual (after many years claim free) to Met Life and now with Travelers.

Post# 1118155 , Reply# 10 5/24/2021 at 12:14 (1,066 days old) by scoots (Chattanooga TN)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Thanks for everybody's input* I want to thank everybody for their input on this. I've asked for my present carrier to revise down my coverage. Now I'm going to shop against that price. And yes... I had Allstate as my first insurance carrier. I had a claim and was denied in a very insulting way. I'd never go back to them...