Talk to me about car insurance

[ginpin]

So I currently pay a butt load of money for my car insurance every month.  I just can't take it anymore, but I'm afraid I may be stuck.  

There is myself(43 year old, no tickets since 2013), 23 year old DS with tickets, and 17 year old DD with good grades and record, but inexperienced.

Four vehicles.  My son's car (full coverage, not paid off), my car (full coverage, is paid for, worth about $9000), truck (liability and comp), and daughter's car (liability and comp). Comp is in case windows get broke or vehicles get broken into.

I pay around $650/month for these.  My son is in the military and pays his portion, about $200/month.  

I checked some some different insurers, but they are all within ~$50 month.  

For those insurance experts out there, what exactly do I need coverage-wise?  I live in Co.  I know that rates will rises agin because we had a catastrophic storm back in May that did tons of damage.  Just trying to figure out if I can cut something off my coverage.  

Sigh.

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2017 7:56:30 GMT -5 ginpin said:

I pay around $650/month for these.

OMG I would die.

No advice on the insurance, but if I couldn't find a way to lower it, I would unload the truck at least.  No reason to insure 4 vehicles for 3 drivers.

[ginpin]

Aug 16, 2017 8:04:44 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Aug 16, 2017 7:56:30 GMT -5 ginpin said:

I pay around $650/month for these.

OMG I would die.

No advice on the insurance, but if I couldn't find a way to lower it, I would unload the truck at least.  No reason to insure 4 vehicles for 3 drivers.

Well, I need the truck for my mastiff and my boat.  I've been thinking of dumping my car...

[andi9899]

What insurers have you looked at. If the son is in the military, have you checked I USAA? They have pretty decent rates. I'm switching today to Geico and dropping from $220/month to $198. AmFam pissed me off so I'm taking all my business elsewhere.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Does your company offer safe driver courses?  If they do you should make your kids take them, if they get a good score that can help lower your rates a little.

Your 23 year old son is likely costing you way more than $200.  I think it's about 25 years old when the rates go down for boys AND he has tickets.  If he is in the military that means he has an income.  He needs to get his own policy.

[ginpin]

Aug 16, 2017 8:23:27 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Ouch!    Have you tried pricing it without son?    I'm not an insurance expert,  but I would think his portion is higher than $200.   Also do have opportunity to bundle with other insurance like renters or homeowners.   It may be time for DD to get a job to contribute. 

Yeah, I did.  Not much change.  And I do bundle.  

[ginpin]

I have Allstate.  I tried State Farm and Liberty.  Asked about USAA but not able to get on as a parent.  

Is Geico any good?

Both of my kids took driver's ed, so that did help.

[andi9899]

I haven't had a claim or worked a claim with a Geico policy. I don't need hand holding or to really ever use it. I quoted with all my carriers and had all my captive friends quote it and they came out the cheapest. I have higher limits and full coverage on both cars with a teenage driver. Talk to a broker and have them look it over for you. They can quote it with various carriers and get you good coverage for a decent rate usually. I'd even do it for you, but that would require you to give me a lot of information and you may rather have a local agent. But we're licensed in CO if you want me to quote it for you.

[movingforward]

Get your son off your insurance. There is no reason for him to be on your policy. He has a job and money.

I can understand you wanting to keep the truck so sell your car. Get 9K and stick it in a taxable account.

[bookkeeper]

Our son had an accident in high school.  He backed our car out of the garage with a rear door open.  The claim was a little under $5,000.  Our premiums rose after the claim was settled.  


A few years later, I was revisiting car insurance premiums with our agent and asked for suggestions on how to lower our premium.  Our agent suggested putting our son on his own liability policy since he did not drive any of our cars.  The premium to insure him separately was $38/month.  Insuring him on our policy meant he was rated across all our vehicles, unnecessarily raising the premiums on the other vehicles.


We saved some money and our son remained continuously insured.

Be aware that your credit score and probably that of your adult child will affect the premium that you pay.

[andi9899]

If you both live in the same household and have the same carrier, you can still cross reference your policies and receive a multiple vehicle discount.

I place a lot of business with Travelers lately. Their rates are really good. They're actually my go to right now. Maybe check them out. If you go direct, you could probably save a little more since they don't have to pay an agent commission.

[Deleted]

I didn't see the 23 year old has tickets.  I agree, his portion is probably more than $200. 

[andi9899]

I don't know how allstate spreads their risk. If they spread it over the entire policy, his tickets could be making your cars go up.

[alabamagal]

Shop around.  We have been with USAA for 30 years, but our kids are mostly Geico.  Both companies are good.  One son works for Geico.

At one point 5 years ago, we had 2 adults and 3 teens/early 20s on our policy while my kids were in college.  We had mostly older vehicles, so that helped.  2 kids had minor fender benders, and 1 kid had an $8k accident.  But our payments were at most $550 and that included $100 for homeowners.

Advice - raise deductables, we use $1000.  Carefully consider all liability limits.  I don't recommend minimum, but not maximums either.  Drop all extra coverages - you have an extra vehicle you don't need rental car reimbursement.  We do keep roadside assistance due to older cars and have used that, but it is cheap.  Definitely consider having son on his own insurance (and paying for it).  If he is not your dependent and has his own vehicle in his name and has few assets, minimum coverage should work.

All insurance companies have different groups that they market to.  That is why comparing rates is important.  If your son gets his own policy, it may be with a different company than yours.  For us, it seems like Geico was better for young drivers.  But my DD is 26, she was with Geico for a while, but just checked and is now better with USAA - of course her credit score just went up and her DH is in military, so that may have impacted rates.

Also rates are going up a lot everywhere.  A lot of it is higher accident rates due to distracted driving.  This is from my son who works at Geico and his job is to set insurance rates.

[busymom]

Have you checked into AAA insurance?  I can personally recommend them, and they did no whining about the claims we had to file after storm damage to our house & DS's car this year.  Their rates, we found, were very competitive.  Best wishes!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 16, 2017 8:29:32 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

What insurers have you looked at. If the son is in the military, have you checked I USAA? They have pretty decent rates. I'm switching today to Geico and dropping from $220/month to $198. AmFam pissed me off so I'm taking all my business elsewhere.

USAA is high with teenagers....very high.  I have it, and get good rates for me but so did my sister, until she called to add her kids to the policy, it was about $200/mo over her cheapest quote.  

It might make more more sense for your son to insure his own vehicle.  It sounds like he needs a bit more skin in the game.

[andi9899]

Aug 16, 2017 9:37:29 GMT -5 busymom said:

Have you checked into AAA insurance?  I can personally recommend them, and they did no whining about the claims we had to file after storm damage to our house & DS's car this year.  Their rates, we found, were very competitive.  Best wishes!

AAA is taking a lot of rate increases right now and changing their underwriting rules. They also aren't very kind to teenage drivers. And when you file a claim or get a ticket your rate goes through the roof. They're pretty much only competitive in CA where they're huge. In the Midwest they suck. I used to work there and could tell you some things. I actually got 2 accounts just this week so far AAA.

[andi9899]

Aug 16, 2017 9:38:19 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Aug 16, 2017 8:29:32 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

What insurers have you looked at. If the son is in the military, have you checked I USAA? They have pretty decent rates. I'm switching today to Geico and dropping from $220/month to $198. AmFam pissed me off so I'm taking all my business elsewhere.

USAA is high with teenagers....very high.  I have it, and get good rates for me but so did my sister, until she called to add her kids to the policy, it was about $200/mo over her cheapest quote.  

It might make more more sense for your son to insure his own vehicle.  It sounds like he needs a bit more skin in the game.

That's good to know. I'm not military so I never had them. I heard their motorcycle rates suck too.

[ginpin]

Thanks all for your feedback. Good points to consider.

As for coverage...what is the best way to figure out what coverage I need?  What is your basis for how much you need?

[andi9899]

I usually start at 100/300 liability limits and figure out if I need more. Think about how much you need to protect asset wise and make sure you have enough in coverage to pay if you were sued. As far as physical damages go, just figure out if you are ok with losing that car if it was a total loss. If so, drop it down to liability only. If not, keep full coverage.

[milee]

ginpin, it doesn't help you right now but next time you go to buy a vehicle consider the insurance ratings of each particular vehicle before you buy it.  It's not always intuitive - some make sense and some are surprises - but the cost to insure one 5 year old truck with XX,XXX miles can be thousands more than the cost to insure the same age and mileage truck of a different model.  

Recent example: I just sold my 12 year old Mercedes SUV with approx 140,000 miles on it (value < $6k) and replaced it with a 1 year old Lexus SUV with approx 10,000 miles on it (value approx $46k).  The annual insurance costs for the newer, larger vehicle worth $40k more than the other one actually decreased.  Not a typo.  My insurance decreased by about $100 a year.  Rates are based not just on what your car is worth, but how expensive it is to repair and how likely you are to have an accident in that type of vehicle.  So it's worth really looking at this when you go to buy your next vehicle.

[justme]

Geico has been good. They dealt with my accident as well as I would think and my rates went up but didn't double. I had a windshield claim and that was handled easily and quickly.

[phil5185]

but how expensive it is to repair and how likely you are to have an accident in that type of vehicle

The age-grouping is very real - the younger drivers are more likely to be texting, distracted by friends, music, etc. 

And adult drivers often garage their cars and don't go out at night. Young drivers park outside - and they frequent the night clubs, dances, etc - that's where car thefts, break-ins, parking lot fender benders, happen.   Ie, driving skill /experience is not the only factor.

[andi9899]

There are so many factors that go into a car insurance rate it's insane.

[souldoubt]

I'm definitely not an expert and I'm sure it varies state by state but I can't imagine that a normal ticket from 2013 is impacting your rates today as a 43 year old driver.  As NomoreDrama pointed out your 23 year old with tickets is probably costing you more than the $200 he's paying.  When I was your sons age I had 3 points on my license and was paying over $200 a month back in 2005 on a small 4 door sedan.  As a 30 year old with no points on my license I was paying about $100 a month on the same car and until it died last week I was paying about $75 a month.  As milee discussed my getting a 2014 car that I financed actually dropped my rates vs. what I paid on a 13 year old paid off car.  I'm sure some of it has to do with the crash test ratings but also the type of car I got.

[Poptart]

Aug 16, 2017 9:52:26 GMT -5 ginpin said:

Thanks all for your feedback. Good points to consider.

As for coverage...what is the best way to figure out what coverage I need?  What is your basis for how much you need?

Gin, I would remove your son from your policy, if he has comp/coll and you have your daughter on the policy that could be causing a huge increase, also why do you have liability and only comp on the truck when the bigger risk is a collision?

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2017 15:43:08 GMT -5 Poptart said:

Aug 16, 2017 9:52:26 GMT -5 ginpin said:

Thanks all for your feedback. Good points to consider.

As for coverage...what is the best way to figure out what coverage I need?  What is your basis for how much you need?

Gin, I would remove your son from your policy, if he has comp/coll and you have your daughter on the policy that could be causing a huge increase, also why do you have liability and only comp on the truck when the bigger risk is a collision?

Probably because collision insurance is expensive?  I drop to only liability and comp when the value gets to under 4K or so.  I hit deer, all. the. time. (which is covered by comp), but never have had a collision claim. 

[ginpin]

I'm the one that drives the truck mostly, and I didn't want my bill to go up any worse by adding full coverage on the truck.  It's worth about $7000.

I didn't know that hitting deer was covered by comp!  We have deer, antelope, and huge-ass raccoons in our area.  My daughter actually hit a huge jack rabbit in her car...it got wedged in the grill and her BF had to pull it out.   

Also-I spoke with my agent today.  He said that my rates are primarily to do with the ages of the kids.  I checked into taking my son off...it's saves me $60 a month.  Not bitching about $60, but I was expecting like $150.00. 

[weltschmerz]

I told my son a long time ago "You want to drive? Fine. You pay your own insurance. Otherwise, take the bus."

[alabamagal]

Aug 16, 2017 16:40:42 GMT -5 ginpin said:

I'm the one that drives the truck mostly, and I didn't want my bill to go up any worse by adding full coverage on the truck.  It's worth about $7000.

I didn't know that hitting deer was covered by comp!  We have deer, antelope, and huge-ass raccoons in our area.  My daughter actually hit a huge jack rabbit in her car...it got wedged in the grill and her BF had to pull it out.   

Also-I spoke with my agent today.  He said that my rates are primarily to do with the ages of the kids.  I checked into taking my son off...it's saves me $60 a month.  Not bitching about $60, but I was expecting like $150.00. 

you really need to get a full understanding of what each item is costing you.  If you use USAA or Geico (probably some others) you can get a quote online and then they have a tool where you can make changes and see what the change costs.  It also gives a detailed cost for each item.  If you don't have online access, your agent should be able to tell you exactly what each item is.  That is his job.

You have 4 vehicles and 3 drivers, how you set up each driver with each vehicle makes a big difference.  The young/worst driver gets the cheapest car.

And to compare costs, my 22 year old has had 2 older vehicles worth $5k, we had full collision coverage, he had an at-fault accident with ticket $8k damage.  With his own policy it was $150 per month in both GA and AL.  When the accident was more than 3 years old it dropped to $100 per month.