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.
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.