State Farm shenanigans

I just learned from my agent that State Farm has removed the Drive Safe & Save discount from all automobile policies in California as of April 1, 2019. I did not receive anything in the mail that warned about this change. Except for this, “your auto insurance rates are impacted by the mileage your vehicle is driven.” which is how it’s always been. It goes on to say that I’m driving less miles now than before. Six months ago, my premium went up $34 and now they want $40 more. The amount due is the highest it’s ever been. Sucks!

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Before all of the practical suggestions start rolling in, like adjust your coverage, your limits, deductible, etc., I will offer one that works for me:

Ask if they’ve applied your good lookin discount. Hmm, maybe in your case, it should be a big udder discount.

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Or maybe an organic, no growth hormones, free range discount.

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It’s like you don’t know qcumber98 at all! :smile:

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First, my umbrella policy requires a minimum of 250/500k liability coverage so I can’t change that. I could change my collusion deductible from 500 to 1k and save $40 every six months. But if i get into an accident, it would take 12.5 years to break even. It doesn’t seem worth it. I want to shop around but I have four different insurance policies that I would have to transfer. Also I don’t get the cow jokes. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: Moooo…

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I didn’t know you’d gone into politics - at least you’re insured ;).

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Damn autocorrect :rage:

I shopped around a few years ago and saved about $250/year by going with Farmers. We’d been with State Farm for over 20 years. We have 2 cars, 1 home, and 1 umbrella policy. All were transferred to Farmers with no hassles.

The biggest pain was that I had to call for a quote. I almost didn’t because of that, but they were the only ones to offer any savings.

Good to know. Thanks. I have been with State Farm for circa sixty years. I think they pretty much take me for granted, and that’s not anything I like. Perhaps Farmers would be a good company to check out. Better late than never, and certainly worth a try.

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You’re welcome. :slight_smile: The bulk of the savings was the difference in the price of home insurance.

On top of that, anytime I asked my State Farm agent’s office anything, I got vague non-answers. With Farmer’s, I get answers with enough detail to understand.

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That’s the name of the game in insurance. It’s been like this for ages. Basically, they give you an intro rate when switching and they gradually bump your premium. They’re banking on your inertia basically.

Two years ago, my insurer (Erie) tried to explain why my premium was going up on the same car with an extra year of depreciation (hence lower value) while having no tickets, accidents, changes in driving habits, address, job, etc. After pointing those out, he claimed that maybe it was because my credit score was worse than before. When I mentioned that my scores across all 3 bureaus were hovering around 840-850 consistently, he claimed that it was because they use a different scoring algorithm. I was like “Oh please! Come on! Will you admit already that you just thought that you could raise my premium a bit and I wouldn’t switch.”

You can often get them to “rescore” you or look if you don’t qualify for extra discounts (why didn’t you look better before I complained?) before switching to another insurer. But sometimes, it’s just worth simply switching to reset the premium creep clock. Or just shop around every year or two. It’s not very hard nowadays online and easily worth it.

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You can take it personally, but rates are filed with the state. Just switch to a different insurer…

Just happened to me this year. Last year I switched from Travelers to Erie because they bumped my rates, this year Erie is renewing it at a rate higher than Travelers had last year. Of course, now Travelers is offering me a low rate.

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I contacted my local Farmers agent for a quote. I got an initial response and sent them copies of my State Farm policies but never heard back. I guess I have to beg them to take me in.

I signed up with Farmers by calling the number on their website. I didn’t contact a local agent first. I was assigned one later. And, to be honest, when I needed to make an urgent change to my auto policy recently, I kept getting my agent’s voicemail. So, I called the number on their website to do it. I apologized for bothering them instead of going through my agent. She told me that’s what they’re there for, to be a backup agent.

I suggest you do the same. You might not even be assigned the same agent you originally contacted. My agent isn’t the closest one to me.

Switch to geico. For me, it was by far cheapest option for my coverage requirements.

That was the case for me too, but it really varies by location and specific situation.

Five years ago, I got quotes from 12 different insurers for auto insurance. 11 of them were between $244-$322 for 6 months. Geico was $151. It’s ticked up to $210 since, so I’ll probably get other quotes before renewal, in the off chance someone will beat it.

I don’t know how well known it is, but if you own Berkshire Hathaway stock, you can get a discount on your Geico coverage. It saves me 9% (it varies by state). You can also join the Freelancers for… free and get an affiliate discount (I believe you are limited to one affiliate discount).

Like you, I’ve shopped for quotes from several different insurers. Geico was never the cheapest for me. Overall, I didn’t find any significant savings until I called Farmers for a quote. I agree that everyone has to do their own research and not assume they’ll get the same results as others.

I’m curious why so many people here don’t skip the middle man and sign up directly, or have an independent broker run several quotes through their wholesale pricing and pick the cheapest option.

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