On the list of boring things to do, shopping for car insurance is near the top. But there’s no time like the pandemic present, and the savings you’re likely to get will brighten your day.
Nonprofit Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook and Checkbook.org compared prices charged by the area’s largest auto insurers and found that most area drivers can save $500 or more a year by making a better auto insurance choice. Checkbook researchers collected prices for carefully specified circumstances and found big differences in premiums. For example, here are prices Checkbook found:
A couple in Mountain View with clean driving records who have two cars would pay $2,169 per year with Ameriprise, $2,539 with Wawanesa, $2,631 with USAA, or $2,684 with MetLife, compared with $3,744 with State Farm (the state’s largest insurer), and more than $5,000 with Liberty or Nationwide.
If that couple has a less-than-perfect driving record (one speeding ticket in the past year), they’d pay $2,763 with USAA, $2,895 with Ameriprise, or $3,131 with Wawanesa, compared to more than $5,000 per year with seven of the other largest insurers in California.
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Editor’s note: The Chronicle is partnering with Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org, a nonprofit consumer group with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices. Checkbook is supported by consumers and takes no money from the service providers it evaluates. You can see Checkbook’s evaluation of auto insurance companies until June 7, 2020, at www.checkbook.org/CHRONICLE/auto-insurance.
For a family living in the same area with clean driving records, adding a teenager to their policy, annual premiums are $2,934 with Esurance, $3,639 with Horace Mann, and $3,876 with Wawanesa, compared to more than $6,000 per year with Allstate, Farmers, Progressive, Travelers, State Farm, and several others, and a whopping $12,000-plus with Infinity or National General.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the largest U.S. insurance companies are giving auto policyholders some form of relief; changes in driving habits have resulted in fewer accidents and claims, which will save the insurance industry tens of billions of dollars. Some companies are giving customers bigger breaks than others. But a 25% discount off a few months’ premiums isn’t a terribly generous offer if that company charges twice as much as its competitors. Don’t let news of one insurer’s generous pandemic refund stop you from shopping other companies, which may have lower rates.
You don’t have to wait until your current policy term expires to take advantage of the savings you’d get from a switch — when you switch to a lower-priced company, your old insurance company will refund the unused share of your premium.
You also don’t have to forsake service for a better rate. In addition to comparing the prices offered by insurance companies, Checkbook asked insurance customers and auto body shops rate insurers for their claims-handling service. Checkbook’s ratings reveal that some highly rated companies offer low rates.
It’s reasonable to think that if you’ve been driving for many years without an accident and with few speeding tickets that your insurance company will offer you its best rates. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily the case. Insurers often offer their best rates only to customers who meet criteria that have nothing to do with their driving histories.
You want to buy enough coverage to protect yourself — but not so much that you’re wasting money. Avoid common car-insurance mistakes by doing the following:
• Make sure you maintain the highest deductible amount with which you’re comfortable.
• Be sure not to let your coverage lapse.
• Consider dropping collision and comprehensive coverage when your car’s value drops below $3,000 or so.
• When shopping around, find out how much more it will cost to raise limits beyond standard coverage. It is usually inexpensive to increase liability limits above standard amounts.
• Some optional coverage, like rental car reimbursement, isn’t worth much, but companies charge a lot for it.
• For repairs, insist on using an auto body shop you can trust—as long as it charges reasonable rates. At Checkbook.org, you’ll also find ratings of area auto body shops for quality and price.
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