Do You Think ABout Same Quote Rates for Everyone

[Guest]

with each company, every agent get the same quote rates?

say, if I quote a prosect with one carrier, and the guy goes down the street or calls someone and gets quoted with the same company, will it be the same rate?

 

[JCK818]

Re: Do You Think

I have found it is usually the same rate. What some agents do to get a lower price with the same carrier is, put lower miles, lie about being married, put a different garaging zip code etc.

 

[djs]

You know the answer to this is supposed to by Yes, the rate should be the same (unless broker fees are involved).

But you also know the real answer is No, the rates won't be the same. As Jack said, agents will do whatever it takes to win the business, sometimes ethical, sometimes not.

In addition, they may be quoting them different. They may quote an auto/home or auto/renter rate with the goal of a cross sell, compared to just your auto rate.

Dan

 

[BlockO]

aside from the ethics and the difference in agents part of it, let's assume all other things being equal... 2 questions:

will an agent with a direct appt. get the same rate as an agent with SIAA, Insurance noodle, smart choice, etc?

will an agent who quotes manually get the same rate as an agent using ezlynx, quomation, etc?

 

[Guest]

For instance, my buddy is a captive where I was fo ryears, someone walks into his office with a quote from that captive with a different agent, my buddys office is closer, so the guy just stopped in, and he requoted it and couldnt come close, we had the entire quote, tried every single discount/scenerio we could and were still like $260 higher........

I do think, some companies give better performing agents better rates sometimes.....

 

[Hefe]

I know that Progressive offers better/different rates for their online and direct customers. From what I have seen, they are usually a little better than I can write. Don't write much Progressive though.

As for the rater quote matching the manual quote, those are about 50/50. You need to learn your rater to find out which quotes are exact and which vary from the manual quote. For instance, I know Mercury is going to match FSC every single time. Safeco, on the other hand, has some issues so I know the run the quote manually before presenting it. It's not a matter of the rater offering a better quote but a matter of the rater having bad data.

 

[Josh]

I do think, some companies give better performing agents better rates sometimes.....

The rates are filed with the state. What gives you the impression they are working around that?

 

[reductable]

Same rates, same company, same everything but different minute, hour or day. So much of personal lines is based on credit that gets updated every time you start a new quote, add a new car, renew, etc.. The same person could get a quote from the same company- agent x today and agent y tomorrow. If shopper's credit updated in any way the quote could be different. IMO so many companies make their rating "proprietary" and it's almost impossible to figure out why this happens....

 

[soonersublime]

I have seen where people have rated guys as girls to get the better rate to get the biz. You do it too often you will eventually get caught though. Not worth it if you ask me.

 

[Bertolinoins]

It should not happen but it has happened to me, I quoted a Travelers HO5 policy strait from the dec page and could not match it or come close even with all possible discounts.