Yesterday I paid the six months renewal on my auto insurance. It's the biggest expense that I have. Today I cranked up my car for the first time in 17 days and took it for a short drive to recharge the battery.
It then dawned on me that with everybody driving less shouldn't the insurance companies be giving us a break on our premiums? t
My State Farm insurance gives a discount for safe driving and driving fewer miles. I have a device in my car that records such things as miles driver, speed of acceleration and braking, and turning.
I don't know Jack, I would love to lower my insurance, but that sounds way too much like big brother to me. My car is probably already doing that anyhow, as I have an Acura that can almost drive itself, but I would rather that they were not reporting it to my insurance company.
My insurance company offers what Jack's does but but I don't want them knowing how fast I drive. I do get discounts for no tickets, no accidents, home owners policy and low miles.
A few years back when I had a Cadillac I had an offer from GMAC to give me cheap insurance as long as I allowed them to use the On Star to record my travel history including locations and I used it for one year, the following year their offer for renewal almost doubled, when I questioned them they cited my mileage, being over 25K Needless to say I dropped them and went with a different company.
^. 25,000 miles in one year ? That's a lot of trip to Solid Gold !!!
^ From my house to there I'd have to make 1400 trips back and fourth, in one year to get that kind of mileage. LOL
“ From my house to there I'd have to make 1400 trips back and fourth, in one year to get that kind of mileage.”
Sounds like a good post coronageddon challenge.
My driving mileage has dropped significantly as a result of strip club and gym closures and as a result of working from home. The auto dealership that typically services my car sent me a reminder that I was overdue for my 50,000 mile service.-- not there yet with my reduced daily mileage. It would be nice if the cost of auto service was sensitive to supply and demand pressures. Not likely.
I just raised the deductible and lowered the coverage on mine. Decent savings. Car paid off and working from home for time being (which is for who knows how long). I do have the low mileage deduction already (but refused the device in the car, just report my mileage at 6 month renewal which is really low truthfully as my office is close by when I was driving there)
===> "It then dawned on me that with everybody driving less shouldn't the insurance companies be giving us a break on our premiums?"
In a vacuum maybe, but I'm guessing that the reduced number of claims is somewhat offset by all the people who stop making their payments when shit goes bad. Just imagine where auto insurance ranks on the list of priorities for many poorer folk, probably far down the list below things like rent, electric bill, groceries, car payment and phone bill.
Similarly, I have to pay a big workers comp insurance bill and I no longer have any employees.
I don't even have a car to my name right now. I've been renting cars for almost a month now since my car accident happened right before the virus drama began because I'm still dealing with the collision payment part of the accident claim.
Since I'm obviously not working for a while and I barely go out other than for food and bills, it dawned on me... why am I paying so much for a rental I hardly use, and why am I still paying a premium for a car I no longer have?
Yes, car insurance company profits must be soaring during this period.
I already way over pay. Spend very little time in my car (except for road trip later to Omaha). Eight year old car with 42,000 miles on it.
My auto insurer is a unincorporated reciprocal insurer. Each policy holder is a member of the company, or essentially a stockholder. If the company make more in premiums than it needs to pay expenses, claims, and maintain a reserve for future claims, it pays the excess back to the members. So I automatically get a break if claims go down.
@D_E, Down side to those types of Insurers also known as mutual companies, if the costs of servicing the insured exceeds the premium intake, the shareholders in these companies can be made to pay additional premiums.
Good point and I agree they should. The local Y is waiving membership fees since we can't go anymore ... sucks for them but it's the right thing to do.
25: I have not seen a clause in my policy allowing an additional premium charge (although I haven't looked for one), but I suppose that's true in theory. However, my company is very well run and has a restricted membership. I've been a member for well over 30 years and have never been charged an additional premium, but get refunds more often than not.
^ Most of the mutuals are well run, but the risk is there, a number of years ago I was offered a business liability policy through a Mutual Company, but after having the risk explained to me by a knowledgeable broker I declined their coverage, but plenty of folks do use them. and when they function properly they can offer a decent savings, but the risk is always there.
"I have a device in my car that records such things as miles driver, speed of acceleration and braking, and turning." I have thought about getting one of those, but am afraid they will RAISE my rates instead...
They also monitor where you drive. If you live in the burbs but drive in heavy downtown traffic your rates will go up. They combine where you live with where you drive. Also, these records are subject to subpoena to show where your car was at a given time (not that I am worried that I was parked at a strip club for 4 hours). So, you hit men PL's remember to steal a car and not use your own.
I guess I should search and see if anyone's figured out how to hack the mileage on my car's computer, so that I can leave the thing unplugged for a trip or two now and then...
You’d think there would be fewer accidents but over the last two weeks I have seen, and had to work my way around “all lanes closed red alerts” here in Atlanta. I think with traffic a bit lighter speeds are up but folks really seem distracted.
Back to original post, I’ve had some significant reductions in cost by asking them to re-rate based on my credit score , driving record etc....they reduced it by 45%.
Miami drivers are probably the worst in the country - there are fewer cars but people being stressed means they are driving extra-assholey
I am driving way more miles because the shit truck business is exploding. People run out of TP and use other things to wipe with
MY insurance company uses an insurance score rather than a credit score when applying for coverage. My credit rating is perfect but my insurance score was about the 97th percentile. They explained that the cost difference was only a few dollars.
I get reports on my latest trip and also general reports over a period of time. It does not identify dangerous actions, but rather things such as turning and acceleration and braking. And the app tells the insurance company how many miles I drive so I can't lie about it.
What the reports have told me is that I accelerate too fast (which I'm working on) and it also doesn't like my turning. I don't know why.
Jack, does the device also have GPS technology? Does it know when you are at your favorite club? I have no need for anyone else to know that. (My Iphone already does know that.)
^ Most of those devices are GPS data enabled
The device does have GPS. It gives me a map of my trips. It could track me to the clubs, but I've been Ubering to clubs for years. My iPhone, of course, tracks everywhere I go, but as a retired single man I don't care if anyone knows I've been to a strip club.
I've received significant discounts on my insurance since I began using the State Farm "Drive Save & Save" app. The insurance on my BMW is expensive, and I appreciate any savings.
There's an added concern with using these devices. Your insurance company now has additional location linked information about you, your driving habits IN ADDITION TO biographical, financial and perhaps medical info. What if your company's information system was hacked and that information combined was ' scraped' and combined with other hacked data connected to you by a malicious actor? What if this malicious actors tried to monetize that info?
People give up privacy and freedom for a few dollars? Wow, that is bizarre and very sad.
Also, on empty streets... There are fewer accidents, for sure. But, without the gridlock to slow everyone down, excessive speed with make what accidents there are more severe.
Yesterday, my insurance company advised me they would be providing a 15% Shelter In Place Payback for April and May premiums.
Before the shelter in place order, I would drive about 250 miles per week, now less than 10, a 15% payback on a 96% mileage reduction shows most of the premium is for the adveristng, administration, and stockholders, not for the actual insurance.
I’ve been discussing this insurance issues with the carriers and my broker, 2 weeks before Governor DeSantis issued his shelter in home orders my business insurance policies renewed at a huge increase, right now my trucks are in the shop not being driven at all, my general liability insurance has zero exposure to risk as do my worker’s compensation policies, the legislative bodies need to order these carriers to re-evaluate the risks they are charging premium for and issue refunds ASAP that would add up to a sizable savings currently we are paying for services that aren’t being received.
I may be driving about 10 miles a week less.
I saw that news article yesterday but that’s a strictly voluntary thing and it’s no more than a shameless PR attempt on the part of those two carriers, I believe that it needs to be codified these Insurance Carriers are making windfall profit while 2/3 of the country is losing money, let’s be clear the are collecting premium that they have not earned and by doing so they are causing extreme hardship to businesses and consumers affected by this financial situation
my insurance company knows my phone number. i’m sure they know exactly where I am at all times and how fast i drive to get there. I need to shop for cheaper rate for my bad ass prius and house insurance.
And there is this "Driver wrecks $750G supercar on New York City street during coronavirus shutdown"
^ this link shows a video of when the car lost-control and smashed into other cars:
un frelimo real...
guess he had a bad case of cabin fever.
(forgive me for my next comment... )
most Asians can’t drive worth shit.
‘frelimo’ should be ’frikin’. Siri sucks. I already corrected it three times.
Looks like he lost control when he went over the thick white lines on the road (pedestrian crossing) - perhaps those lines were slick and he seemed to lose the back-end when going over them
He was charged with Operating a Motor Vehicle Impaired by Drugs and Reckless Driving.
Ha, they're probably loving this period. Probably much less accidents and still they ain't giving nobody a break on shit.