Insurance coverage these days.

Pennsylvania minimum property damage coverage is $5000. This means if someone with minimum coverage hits your $10,000 car and totals it his insurance hands you a check for $5000 and says, "Have a nice day". Good luck collecting the balance from the barista with the ten year old Hyundai that hit you.

Multi-car accident? That $5k gets divided up between everyone involved.

This is why I carry collision coverage on everything I own.

Sine_Qua_Non said:

I'm in my 40's with no accidents in 25+ years and no speeding ticket since 2001. I have posted elsewhere about this and it looks likes I am overpaying to begin with. Probably my agent at SF who has gotten too comfortable and gets horrible reviews now than he did 20 years ago. Plus he is never there. His assistant who I always dealt retired 5 years ago and he has young bloods there I guess running the show under his name. 

Your State Farm agent doesn't have anything to do with the rates you are charged. That's all the underwriters and the actuaries who design the risk models that determine this. Amd SF agents are contractors who can only sell SF products and their big push has been financial products the last 15 years anyway. 

That said, I finally dropped State Farm for vehicle coverage this after having them consistently since 2004. And my house in OKC, it isn't covered by State Farm either. For very, very similar coverage they wanted $1100/more per year on my 1800 sq ft home.

Using a broker, my vehicle/house insurance is actually cheaper without them being at the same company and getting multi-line discounts.

z31maniac said

Your State Farm agent doesn't have anything to do with the rates you are charged.

 

I can tell you from experience that you are 100% incorrect

And while I'm here, can you tell me what this means?

My state minimum is 25/50/25.

Our auto insurance is different and I don't know what (specifically) these numbers refer to

$25k per person, $50k total, $25k property damage. So $25k per person (medical costs, pain and suffering, etc), up to a total of $50k for everyone involved. And $25k of damage caused to other vehicles, buildings, etc.

At this point I'd be incredibly surprised if human agents are able to save you money in any way other than finding discounts that the quoting system missed or being able to cross shop between different companies. But I'm not an insurance expert by any means so I could be wrong.

In Phoenix, the land of uninsured drivers, you almost have to have collision and underinsured/ uninsured coverage.  I have been burned in the past.  100/300/100 runs me around ~750 every 6 months.  Unfortunately, there is no multi car, so it doubles for 2 cars, 3x for 3.  It does keep the car count down as insurance for 2 years costs the same as a beater.  Makes it cheaper to rent a truck or jeep when needed vs keeping around.

dps214 said:

$25k per person, $50k total, $25k property damage. So $25k per person (medical costs, pain and suffering, etc), up to a total of $50k for everyone involved. And $25k of damage caused to other vehicles, buildings, etc.

At this point I'd be incredibly surprised if human agents are able to save you money in any way other than finding discounts that the quoting system missed or being able to cross shop between different companies. But I'm not an insurance expert by any means so I could be wrong.

Brokers who buy from companies without national ad budgets will cheaper and since they aren't a contractor of one company, they can shop from multiple ones in your state. But just remember the minimum of coverage offered is what is the same. Different companies have different limits, exclusions, etc. 

ZIP Code, credit score, claim history, etc, all have a big part in at as well. 

Oklahoma is expensive for auto/home insurance because of the frequence of wind/hail damage to both your home roof and your vehicle.

In reply to Peabody :

To expand on dps214's comments, it's specifically the liability limits for paying out the other vehicles occupants medical and property expenses if you are at fault in an accident. It's the minimum most states require to legally drive on the road. This reference does not specifically include similar coverage values to cover your own cars occupants medical and property expenses for if you are not at fault, but the at fault motorist is either under-insured ($25k coverage and causing $50k damage) or un-insured. Nor does it cover collision (repairing your car from a collision), comprehensive (repairing your car from a non-collision), or personal injury protection (you and if necessary your cars occupants medical even if you're at fault)...Which would all ba a part of 'full coverage'.

.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) & mad_machine (Forum Supporter) :

Holy carp! I'm trying to recall the last time (if ever) that I've paid more than $100/mo/car. One of ours is currently even under $50/mo...And that has historically all been with a 100/300/100 of full coverage on each, more recently going to the 250/500/100 minimum required for an umbrella..

I realize that this thread was probably zombie canoed, but I carry Collision and Comprehensive on every vehicle.  The Liability part is what's expensive - C&C hardly add anything to the premium, so why not?  Especially in a world full of uninsured or underinsured 'state minimum' drivers.

Also, for race cars, get a Comprehensive-only policy.  It will be something around $20 a year and will cover the car any time it is not being driven.

[edit]  Oh, and past-Duke made present-Duke feel guilty, because I still don't have an umbrella policy.  Get on it, future-Duke.

Our provincial minimum for liability is, I think, $300k. I have that, plus an umbrella policy which tops it up to $1m. But I called yesterday to get a quote on something and my agent said something interesting. Looking at my account she said, you've been with us for so long you've reached the point where we can not cancel your policy, which is quite rare. So you can get as many tickets, have as many accidents as you want and we can't cancel your policy. I'd never heard of that and thanked her for her encouragement, but told her I don't plan on having any more at fault accidents for a while.  
 

That one last year is costing me About $15/month