What insurance to use

When I switched from Allstate to The Hartford - through AARP - I got the car, a pickup and our Pleasure Way Excel covered for what I was paying Allstate for the RV alone. However, we didn't use the PW as a daily driver.

retraite,

A great explanation. Insurance premiums depend somewhat on you and your history but a lot on the class you are put into. When a hurricane destroys property in Florida, the cost of property insurance increases whether or not your home was damaged.

loving retirement wrote:
I have been insured with Progressive since 2005 and have been satisfied with the cost of the annual premiums during that period until I received my annual renewal notice last week. Having a perfect driving record, filing no claims, with no accidents and receiving no tickets during that entire period my policy increased by over $220 or 38 percent in one year. Talked with two agents at Progressive and neither thought anything was unusual about the large increase. Anyone have a similar increase?

Sometimes it's not what you do, but what others do that affects your premium.

All insurance companies have folks called underwriters. These are not, usually, the folks you get to speak with when you call or visit. The job of the underwriter is to evaluate past claims (not yours so much, but all their customers as well as the customers of other companies), predict future claims and then "set a price".

Yes good drivers get a lower price, as do good credit risks, etc.

But, given whatever data your insurance company chooses to use (zip code, metropolitan area, state, type of vehicle, phase of the moon, astrological sign, whatever - OK, maybe not the last two), the underwriters then "sets a price" - lower for better "risks", higher for poorer "risks". So, your renewal could go up, or it could go down, but, to a point, it has nothing to do with your experience with them, rather the collective experience with them.

So, if you're not happy, call. Then, move it up a level - from phone agent to supervisor. Don't just "complain", be ready with your facts. Sometimes, just sometimes, they'll choose to "keep" you (just like your cable TV or cell phone provider). Sometimes not. In that case, call others.

In our case, our "B" is covered under an RV policy with the same agent/company we've been using for 49 years. But, when we "priced" our motorcycles, well, Progressive was less than half for the same cover. The only thing I "gave up" was that our "umbrella" policy would not extend to the motorcycles as the underlying cover was not with the same company as the umbrella. We accepted that risk.

Again, your increase may well have nothing to do with you directly. But, it may be associated with the type of vehicle, zip code, or similar.

Cheers.

Be careful with how it is insured. If insured as a van, some lump without insurance hits your van and destroys it, you will only get back the chassis value (the price of the van without any upfits like appliances, plumbing, electrical, furniture, etc.)

I have been insured with Progressive since 2005 and have been satisfied with the cost of the annual premiums during that period until I received my annual renewal notice last week. Having a perfect driving record, filing no claims, with no accidents and receiving no tickets during that entire period my policy increased by over $220 or 38 percent in one year. Talked with two agents at Progressive and neither thought anything was unusual about the large increase. Anyone have a similar increase?

There is no simple answer to this question. In addition to Retraite's list, the "best" (or cheapest) insurance carrier will vary both by market and over time. They play all kinds of games in an effort to grab market share and then quietly became less competitive in the hope that you won't notice or won't bother to change. If you wanted to always have the best deal, you would have to change vendors every year. Not worth it.

For folks to give you a "good" answer, there are a lot of variables that would be useful to know (and please don't be offended, ANY insurance carrier will want answers to all of them).

They include:
Where the vehicle is "garaged" (for most folks, that's at home, but it may be a storage yard in some cases).
Your daily commute miles - one way.
Your driving record.
Your accident record.
Your credit history.
Year and model of your unit (and, yes, some carriers will insure it as an RV, others as a van. If the former, you usually can agree a "stated" value in the policy, if you ask).
Named drivers (only you; you and one other "related" adult; or might it include a teenage child, for instance)
The policy limits you specify - liability and property limits are different numbers.
And more, depending on the carrier.

And, one man's "ridiculous" is another man's "what a great deal".

Cheers.

AAA is the least expensive insurance I have found. Unfortunately they only insure as a vehicle and not as an RV with coverage for all items in the class B van, or in our case a class A. We have National Insurance, more expensive but at least the MH is covered as our home and not just as a vehicle.