Auto Insurance Discounts State Farm
When Shopping Around for Auto Insurance, Is Price Most Important?
The Wall Street Journal published an article a few weeks ago discussing how rate shopping for auto insurance can payoff. You can review the article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574457002796003522.html
Some of the tips include:
1.Be aware of your financial behavior
2.Understand what discounts you qualify for
3.Price matters, but service does also
Does the cost of auto insurance outweigh all other factors? Were you aware of what insurance companies are looking at to determine costs? How does quality of service factor into your final decision?
Full disclosure: As is mentioned in my Yahoo profile, I am here as a representative of State Farm. Our goal is to help people become better educated about how to evaluate insurance needs.
Price is very important in society today. With the
majority of the population not even earning what is
defined as a living wage, price does matter.
However, price is not the only thing that people
should consider when looking for insurance. The
commonality of the name, and how long it has
actually been in the auto insurance business
is also of critical importance. What can be found,
or heard about dealing with the company? Is
there a local company agent for the company
that you can actually get in to visit with, and
talk over any issue? Does the company quote
insurance costs based upon the credit score
of the person? To me this is a very important
issue.
I know of the studies that were made by insurance
companies where it was reported that those who
had low credit scores were more likely to suffer
more claims. The decision to use this method as
the prime factor in determining cost of a policy
did not take into consideration an age issue.
When it is, a credit score of those outside the
younger drivers has a much lower claim factor.
To those who have managed to look to see how
the company actually establishes the rates for
people the best companies for people are those
who actually look at the factors other than credit.
Another thing that I would never do is to use
an online quote method. This method is cold,
impersonal, and can’t possibly give an honest
quote for an individual. Quotes in this way cannot
possibly take anything into consideration of the
person applying. It is not only a very profitable
method for insurance companies, but is also
victimizing those who use it.
As a senior citizen now, I can’t afford the way
rates keep going up. Mine used to always go
down. Today it doesn’t matter than I have
driven over 1 million miles myself, have had
no serious accidents, plus what I have had
can be counted on one hand for all the years,
and have very, very seldom over the years
had traffic tickets. Probably only about as
many as accidents; less than five in all
the years. One agent once told me that I
never got tickets, and anyone I brought in
for insurance didn’t either. That company
refused to reinstate my policy when the
wife had some medical issues that distracted
me so much for a couple of months that I
forgot to pay my six month renewal.
Insurance companies today are much like
a ‘personnel officer’ in a corporation today.
They don’t really do an honest job for the
money.
In a study I did on insurance costs for people,
I found something. A number had policies for
years with coverage of 100/300k, full comp,
etc and were paying an average of $123 for
a six month coverage. Then, in one year the
policy rate increased quite a bit. No tickets;
no accidents. Just the increase. After a couple
of chats with agents, and a bunch of reading,
and research, I found that the credit score
method was introduced to companies the
year earlier. I have checked back on this
and found that many that have had no tickets,
and no accidents, and some who have even
been driving over 125,000 miles per year as
professionals. are now being charged more
for the minimum insurance coverage than
what the better full coverage policy cost
them only five years ago. That increase is
several times more than the annual cost
of living of all those years.
No, I will use many factors in checking
insurance. I will also always use an agent
that I can actually visit with, and advise
anyone else to do the same. Even then,
I will use the library, and Internet to check
the records of companies, as well as
other people before I decide to use them.
Unfortunately, some of the ones I used
to always prefer have gotten too expensive
for me these days.
