Auto Insurance with AAA

[Trudijane]

I have been insured by them for decades (both car & home). 3+ years ago, I was in a collission (which I disputed vehemently) to no avail. As a result, my rates went up from $800/year to $1300/year (on a 1995 Tercel). Of course I was upset about the increase, but they kept on telling me not to worry so much - that my rates would go back down to what they were prior to this incident after 3 years.

So, now is the time when my rates should go down and I talked to a AAA agent about this. He said there is no way that my rates will boomerang down to where I was because in general, AAA rates went up; that if I just joined after I left, I would be paying $300 additional.

This upsets me a lot because I guess I took their word for this and since that accident, my record has been squeaky clean, no parking tickets, good driver, etc. Who do I contact to negotiate my rates. State Farm has offered me more coverage for a similar amount and am debating whether I should leave or not.

 

[Markthebroker]

State Farm is a great company. I have almost all my personal insurance with them. And with better coverage!? Go for it.

 

[LostDollar]

I had State Farm insurance on my vehicles for over 50 years (Only 2 agencies and 3 agents). That must have been at least 20 different "daily driver" type of vehicles. Fortunately I never had any major accidents (that were my family's fault) in that time. But I had a number of towing claims; comprehensive type claims for hail damage, time based windshield wear, small fender benders, etc; and uninsured motorist claims-- and in most cases my claims were processed efficiently. (We had one hail damage case that involved some significant negotiation with adjustors because of the amount of money we wanted for the vehicle.)

State Farm is very picky about what they will insure for residences. I finally had to leave State Farm because they would not insure my residence and I needed the discount for combined vehicle and residence insurance.

So yes, I echo Mark's comment above.

 

[LostDollar]

State Farm is a great company. I have almost all my personal insurance with them. And with better coverage!? Go for it.

Mark,
I appreciate seeing your State Farm comments above. From time to time I have wondered if I could or should try to figure a way to get from Safeco back to State Farm. Your comments at least assure me that is not an entirely stupid consideration.

 

[adjusterjack]

Who do I contact to negotiate my rates.

Nobody. You don't negotiate your insurance rates. You shop around for competitive rates.

The CA Dept of Ins publishes annual rate comparisons for auto and home insurance.

Compare Insurance Premiums

You can get a rough idea of what companies are competitive for your classification and then seek quotes from them.

There are hundreds of high quality insurance companies to choose from. Insurance rates are cyclical. Some years some companies will be high, some years some companies will be low. Shop around every year and take advantage of the rate swings. After a few years it will reverse.

Anybody who has been with the same insurance company for decades is guaranteed to have paid more for insurance than was necessary.

 

[LostDollar]

Anybody who has been with the same insurance company for decades is guaranteed to have paid more for insurance than was necessary.

I take strong exception to that statement because it does not allow for the full reality of relationships with an agent and claims processing by the carrier.

In my experience, chasing "the low premium" for p&c has been something of a disaster.

 

[Allen Trent]

Anybody who has been with the same insurance company for decades is guaranteed to have paid more for insurance than was necessary.

I have seen way more examples of people that grossly underpaid a new carrier "that saved them a ton of money" & only discovered it at claim time, customer service interaction time, etc.

Many of them were only mildly painful learning experiences like higher deductibles, but some were massive problems that nearly bankrupted a few people who didnt have Underinsured coverage, adequate BI limits, coverage on recreational vehicles & golf carts for liability off premises. Had those items been covered, there would have been no savings & therefore no change from the carrier they temporarily resented for "gouging them"

Somewhat ironic that an adjuster wouldnt realize how common this happens as the adjuster is the one yelled at by the insured saying "when I was at State Farm I never had that, etc"

 

[Trudijane]

Adjuster Jack - thank you for the link. I'll review it.
I really am not very knowledgable about what coverage I need and, especially my dwelling. I've just been paying my premiums without realizing how under-insured I am since the value of my house has gone up dramatically (here in SF where everything is so expensive). I can see now that I have to increase the coverage on my house, although State Farm has sent me a "comparison" (for both auto & home) of what I have now; what premiums they would charge with the same coverage; and lastly their Proposed Plan with an IM Umbrella that I'm not sure I need because I don't know what it means, ie. why would I need it?

My primary interest was lowering my auto insurance, but I have a feeling that if I did that, I'd probably be under-insured. I can upload what they sent me and I have an appointment with them next week. I can upload the file if you want to take a look!

 

[adjusterjack]

Trudijane, there are three main concepts to consider when you buy home and auto insurance.

The first is common to both. It's your liability for injury, death, or property damage to others caused by your negligence. Liability limits on the home and auto policies should be enough to protect the value of your assets. California doesn't have the greatest homestead exemption (exemption from attachment to pay judgments) (google CA Code of Civil Procedure 704.730), so a 1 million dollar umbrella is probably a good idea.

Next is loss or damage to your home and personal property. You don't insure the market value of your home, you insure the cost to rebuild it from the ground up. You can get a rough idea of that amount at the following website:

House Cost Estimator | Cost to Build a Home

Lastly, is loss or damage to your vehicles. That's the collision and other than collision coverages.

Read your policies.