Esurance

[Funkmasterr]

I just wanted to let anyone with insurance woes like I have know, that esurance might be the route for you. I was paying $385/month with Progressive, which was previously the cheapest I could find (I got quotes at Farmers, State Farm, Allstate, AIG, Geico and Progressive.)

With Esurance, my insurance just went down to $164.90/month - which is still with 2 red light tickets, a speeding ticket and a DUI on my record. And this was also with me increasing my personal bodily injury from 30k/60k to 50k/100k. Pretty awesome.

[Fash]

That sucks!... mines about $80/month been with nationwide for 12 years and they've always taken great care of me.

[Aslanna]

$55 a month for me at State Farm. Which I still think is too much since I barely drive!

[Spang]

With Esurance, my insurance just went down to $164.90/month - which is still with 2 red light tickets, a speeding ticket and a DUI on my record. And this was also with me increasing my personal bodily injury from 30k/60k to 50k/100k. Pretty awesome.

Your insurance would be a lot lower if you weren't such a wreckless driver.

[Funkmasterr]

With Esurance, my insurance just went down to $164.90/month - which is still with 2 red light tickets, a speeding ticket and a DUI on my record. And this was also with me increasing my personal bodily injury from 30k/60k to 50k/100k. Pretty awesome.

Your insurance would be a lot lower if you weren't such a wreckless driver.

I understand that Mother Teresa, that will just make it all the better when those tickets drop off of my record (3 of the 4 will in the next 12 months, 1 in the next 6.)

[Aslanna]

Minnesota sure doesn't seem to care who they let drive. How many points is that on your license and how many does it take for them to suspend it?

(Oh, nevermind, I see they don't have a point system. What kind of backward state is that!)

[Deward]

I have a hard time buying somethign as important as insurance from a company that uses cartoons for its advertising. Admittedly the gecko isn't much better but I just couldn't buy cartoon insurance. If the advertising is fake then what is the insurance like.

Just for reference, my wife and I pay under $200 every 6 months for two vehicles. Just liability coverage though.

[Neziroth]

Esurance girl is hot.

Let us know how they are if (god forbid) you get in an accident. I'd be wary of them if they operate mainly off a website, which is the impression i get from the commercials and obviously, the name.

Do you get a representative assigned to you? Or do you call and get put on hold and have to wait for an operator?

[Boogahz]

They probably do not assign one person to your account, as you are not buying through an agency.

Funk, with that big of a price difference, I would check to see if they are actually charging for each of your tickets.

[Funkmasterr]

No, it's just like Progressive in the sense that when you call you wait on hold for the next person.

I made sure they were charging me for all of my tickets because I thought it was too good to be true. Hopefully I will never have to find out about how they are with accidents, but I did a little looking online and wasn't able to find anything about it being bad.

[Zaelath]

I have a hard time buying somethign as important as insurance from a company that uses cartoons for its advertising. Admittedly the gecko isn't much better but I just couldn't buy cartoon insurance. If the advertising is fake then what is the insurance like.

Just for reference, my wife and I pay under $200 every 6 months for two vehicles. Just liability coverage though.

Yeah, price is important with insurance, so is a willingness to actually make payouts. That varies wildly between insurers, however you can bet the lower the premium the less they pay out. Either that or they go bankrupt.

[Boogahz]

I have a hard time buying somethign as important as insurance from a company that uses cartoons for its advertising. Admittedly the gecko isn't much better but I just couldn't buy cartoon insurance. If the advertising is fake then what is the insurance like.

Just for reference, my wife and I pay under $200 every 6 months for two vehicles. Just liability coverage though.

Yeah, price is important with insurance, so is a willingness to actually make payouts. That varies wildly between insurers, however you can bet the lower the premium the less they pay out. Either that or they go bankrupt.

That's something that I have been concerned about whenever I hear of someone going to Esurance. I have yet to hear anything at all regarding their claims experience, but I have heard of issues actually getting any kind of change done on policies. The customers that came to our company from them which I have talked to referred to it as getting what they paid for. They knew they were getting an "online" policy, and that was the limit to the service they had...BUT, YMMV. They sell policies for the company I work for as well, which leads me to really wonder what kind of company they are. They have been around just under 10 years in one form or another.

[Neziroth]

Is this just a New York thing or do single males under the age of 25 pay out the ass for insurance everywhere? If so I'll be checking esurance and hope for the kind of difference funk found.

I have a perfect record and the absolute cheapest I could find (With Allstate -- didn't check esurance, did check Progressive, State Farm, Geico (most expensive of all) and a few other smaller name companies that I can't remember right now) is:

$1150 / yr for Chevy Cobalt SS full coverage -- $500 / $500 deductable
$265 / yr for minimum coverage (comprehensive?) Pontiac Sunfire -- $500 / $500 on same policy
$1100 / yr for full coverage on a Ninja 600 -- $1000 / $1000 deductable

Apparently the age 25 is a magic number where insurance rates drop drastically. I have a friend who's 26 and has a ninja 600 as well with a clean record and he pays about $400 a year compared to my $1100.

[Funkmasterr]

Is this just a New York thing or do single males under the age of 25 pay out the ass for insurance everywhere? If so I'll be checking esurance and hope for the kind of difference funk found.

I have a perfect record and the absolute cheapest I could find (With Allstate -- didn't check esurance, did check Progressive, State Farm, Geico (most expensive of all) and a few other smaller name companies that I can't remember right now) is:

$1150 / yr for Chevy Cobalt SS full coverage -- $500 / $500 deductable
$265 / yr for minimum coverage (comprehensive?) Pontiac Sunfire -- $500 / $500 on same policy
$1100 / yr for full coverage on a Ninja 600 -- $1000 / $1000 deductable

Apparently the age 25 is a magic number where insurance rates drop drastically. I have a friend who's 26 and has a ninja 600 as well with a clean record and he pays about $400 a year compared to my $1100.

Yeah, I know it's hard to imagine, but when I turned 25 my insurance dropped 75 dollars a month immediately (like that day) and another 50/mo when my policy renewed.

[Boogahz]

Rates do level out for males at the age of 25. They do not always drop by a huge amount at 25 though. The company I work for actually lowers rates gradually from 19-25 for men, but the company I have my own insurance with lowers it only at 25. Each company does their rates differently.

You might want to look at the policies you quoted yourself Neziroth. I know that the company I work for generally does not write annual policies in New York for Auto (only have six-month terms available), but we only write annual policies for Motorcycles. If those are your annual rates with Allstate, they aren't that bad for the cars you have. I am guessing that they may rate the Cobalt SS the same as they rate the base Cobalt.

Also, be wary of references to "full-coverage." This actually does not exist. Some companies will use the lienholder's definition of full-coverage (comprehensive and collision with the state required liability) while others will use all available coverages. Make sure that you check on what is actually included in each quote.

[Nick]

You guys are lucky, to insure a car here costs about the equivalent of $3000 a year minimum. (For anyone under 25).

That's even if you've never had an accident and never once been caught breaking the speed limit. This place is the most expensive on Earth for car insurance afaik (at least in the top 5).

[Boogahz]

You guys are lucky, to insure a car here costs about the equivalent of $3000 a year minimum. (For anyone under 25).

That's even if you've never had an accident and never once been caught breaking the speed limit. This place is the most expensive on Earth for car insurance afaik (at least in the top 5).

I don't know about Ireland specifically, but I think your available coverages are very different than here too. I have read through some German and Aussie policies, and they provided a hell of a lot more than any one policy (except an umbrella policy) in the US. Then again, I don't know if those policies were the norm or higher.

[Winnow]

You guys are lucky, to insure a car here costs about the equivalent of $3000 a year minimum. (For anyone under 25).

That's even if you've never had an accident and never once been caught breaking the speed limit. This place is the most expensive on Earth for car insurance afaik (at least in the top 5).

What's the fine for not having insurance?

[Fash]

I was always looking forward to age 25... Then when it happened, I was surprised and pissed off when it actually went UP!... It was only a few dollars difference, but damn... everyone said it would go down at 25 and it didn't. I sought out other quotes at that time, but nobody was cheaper. Just don't get your hopes up.

[Nick]

You guys are lucky, to insure a car here costs about the equivalent of $3000 a year minimum. (For anyone under 25).

That's even if you've never had an accident and never once been caught breaking the speed limit. This place is the most expensive on Earth for car insurance afaik (at least in the top 5).

What's the fine for not having insurance?

Probably jail? Or a driving ban for a couple of years (I'm not too sure, but I do know it's very harsh).

[Zaelath]

You guys are lucky, to insure a car here costs about the equivalent of $3000 a year minimum. (For anyone under 25).

That's even if you've never had an accident and never once been caught breaking the speed limit. This place is the most expensive on Earth for car insurance afaik (at least in the top 5).

I don't know about Ireland specifically, but I think your available coverages are very different than here too. I have read through some German and Aussie policies, and they provided a hell of a lot more than any one policy (except an umbrella policy) in the US. Then again, I don't know if those policies were the norm or higher.

You only have to have 3rd party personal liability insurance here (i.e. covers the cost of hospitalising/killing people, no coverage at all for other damage), which runs about $300/year with some small variation between ages. IIRC that covers something crazy like $5-20 million in dead and dying passengers/bystanders, but nothing at all for the driver.

You can also get 3rd party property insurance (covers the other guy's car/house/boat) with $20 million coverage pretty cheap too; just did a test quote w/ one company, 18 year old driver w/ no tickets, 12 year old car (which usually makes things worse), $369/year w/ a $1200 under 21 excess, about $600 excess from 21-24.

In short, you can look to spend about $1000/year on insurance and rego here on a "reliable" car and not be at any risk of being bankrupt for life on the basis of one accident. Plus, no-claim bonuses build up on 3rd party property insurance, so by the time you buy a nice new car at 25 you're paying 40% of the standard rate....

I'm not sure what the impatient asshat tax is

[Funkmasterr]

Obviously no one wants to go through any more grief with a claim then they have to, but to be honest I am much more concerned with saving money then I am with how quick my claim will be processed if I ever do have one.

It's not like they can legally refuse to pay out on coverage that you are paying for. They would have been sued and it would be all over the news by now if that was the case.

[Neziroth]

It's not like they can legally refuse to pay out on coverage that you are paying for. They would have been sued and it would be all over the news by now if that was the case.

I've heard rumors that low rated insurance companies or companies that are extremely cheap to buy will go to any length to pay you as little as possible for a claim.

i.e. company x will say that you have $1200 worth of damage to your car while allstate or progressive would call it $3700. They'll still pay you money, they'll just overlook damage or "miss" the little things that still cost a lot to fix.

Dunno how true that is though, hopefully it's just an ugly insurance myth.

[Zaelath]

It's not like they can legally refuse to pay out on coverage that you are paying for. They would have been sued and it would be all over the news by now if that was the case.

I've heard rumors that low rated insurance companies or companies that are extremely cheap to buy will go to any length to pay you as little as possible for a claim.

i.e. company x will say that you have $1200 worth of damage to your car while allstate or progressive would call it $3700. They'll still pay you money, they'll just overlook damage or "miss" the little things that still cost a lot to fix.

Dunno how true that is though, hopefully it's just an ugly insurance myth.

Indeed, I'm not talking about "speed of payment" I'm talking about "amount of payment".

If Company A takes in $500/month, they can happily pay out $400/month and make a nice 20% profit.

If Company B takesx in $200/month, they're not paying out $400/month and making a 100% loss, they're paying out $160/month and making a 20% profit.

Certainly, some companies (like Geico) probably spend way more on advertising and shade their profit margin a little "higher than industry average", but the low premium companies can't magically pay you the same as the higher premium companies.

It's a lot simpler than shading with the damage assessment costings, you simply write your policies to reduce your exposure. Two insurance policies for $10,000 may be vastly different in coverage.

You also tend to be a lot more agressive when it comes to imposing fault on the driver if there appears to be too much wear on one of their tyres, or not enough fluid in the brake master, etc, etc, etc.

[Aabidano]

Both my kids had Esurance for a couple years with no problems, including an accident each that was resolved with no hassles at all.

[Xanupox]

Move to MS, you dont need insurance