Auto Insurance Costs

Submitted by jdlc1406 t3_z8zj3n in personalfinance

I live in Florida. I’ve switched auto insurance twice this year, ultimately settling on GEICO after having progressive, and USAA prior to that. The first change this year to progressive, they hiked my policy cost a month after I got it saying I didn’t disclose “comprehensive” claims. (They were for windshields - these are “free” in Florida and aren’t supposed to affect your policy but, guess not).

So I switched to GEICO and go an excellent rate at $907 for 6 months. I got my renewal policy today and now they want $1150 / 6 months. I called to ask why and they simply stated it was inflation and cost increases and had nothing to do with mine or my daughters driving records.

This is a 26% increase in my policy for, in my opinion, no reason. It seems very excessive. We’ve all been hit by inflation every corner we turn from the gas pumps to the grocery stores. It seems never ending.

My question, before I start shopping for a new policy for the third time this year, is 1) are the any options for lowering this? I have no more “discounts” available 2) is there some sort of cap on the increase they can charge? This just seems very excessive.

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alexm2816 t1_iye5pe3 wrote

Florida auto insurance rates are something like 60% higher than the national average because of no fault laws and rampant abuse of medical cost coverage based on laws. Outside of shopping around there's not much to be done.

It's pretty common for a teaser rate to get folks in the door and then hit them with 20% because insurers know that most folks won't shop around every 6 months.

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Mashtatoes t1_iye5pcn wrote

Did they increase your rate to $1150 a month or $1150 per six months? If they’re increasing from around $150 a month to $1150, that’s probably a mistake.

Assuming $1150 every six months: Car insurance costs have been going up sharply and yours isn’t out of line with others. You can shop around to see if you can get a better deal, but there’s no negotiating and no cap to increases, so long as the insurer’s plan is approved by the appropriate insurance commissioner (and you can expect that any increase would be, especially by a major National insurer). If others charge the same amount or more, that’s your new rate. Keep looking every few months.

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jdlc1406 OP t1_iye7lmw wrote

I’ve edited the post. It’s per 6 months

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AllThePrettyHouses t1_iye5z2w wrote

Home and auto insurance are quiet killers in the inflation paradigm right now, and while changing carriers every 2-3 years has always been the best personal finance advice, I don't think you're going to be able to dodge this one for 2 reasons. 1) ALL insurers are doing it so in a way, "there's no escape". 2) Insurers are having to underwrite to an economy of inflation, which means replacing and repairing are more expensive to their bottom line - expenses they aren't going to eat. I'd suggest shopping it every 6 mos - 1 year (what I'm doing) in order to find new customer incentives and introductory lower rates. Unfortunately, once you get away from Geico and the other biggies, the rates aren't all that better, usually worse.

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Mashtatoes t1_iye6jgy wrote

And inflation is hitting the insurance industry especially hard, when combined with continued chip shortages. Parts are more expensive/harder to acquire, labor is more expensive, and it’s more expensive to replace a car because retail used car prices remain high.

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SpiritualCatch6757 t1_iye7xz6 wrote

I don't buy the "inflation is going up" and "chip shortage increasing costs for parts" excuses the insurance agents give. This is the same refrain given for the past 3 decades since I've been driving with slightly different words.

They will increase your rates because they can and they think you will just pay it. They strike random people despite many including the insurance agents themselves saying the system sets the price, not them.

You vote with your dollars. Go find a competitive insurance. Case in point, my insurance went down the last two premium periods with Geico. I read plenty from people with Geico saying it went substantially higher. Two years ago, my insurance went up substantially when inflation was very low. I switched to Geico.

Good luck, OP.

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jdlc1406 OP t1_iye8gdm wrote

That’s my assumption too. I’m just not buying it. Costs go up yeah but 26% sounds out of line.

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vettewiz t1_iyeauk1 wrote

I’m confused what’s hard to buy about there being legitimate supply chain and price increases on parts and labor?

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SpiritualCatch6757 t1_iyehy6l wrote

It's not hard to buy. I just don't buy it. And if one uses the same excuse year after year, it gets old. This time is different? Okay, you can accept that if you like. I will go get new quotes.

I get it, costs go up every year. I expect to pay an incremental cost increase every year. But not 26% as OP indicated.

Edit to add: And if it is industry wide why did my insurance go down $4 last month while OP's went up? No change on my end except everything is a year older so it kind of makes sense it goes down a bit.

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vettewiz t1_iyei613 wrote

Getting new quotes is totally smart. But, 26% is quite honestly a reasonable jump given the current economic climate.

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HorizontalBob t1_iyebd3n wrote

I live in a low cost insurance area and my company dropped some discounts and there was a general inflation increase. They stated none of this was directly related to my vehicles or history.

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