General

Have you noticed how quickly your car insurance rates seem to go up?  Doesn’t it seem that, even as you maintain your spotless driving record, the amount you’re paying every six months is going up by leaps and bounds?

Well, it was certainly happening to me.  When I signed up with Progressive Insurance a few years ago, I managed to cut my rate in half, from over $500 to about $250 for six months.  But since then, despite having no accidents and no traffic tickets, the rate kept climbing and climbing until the last renewal slip of $600 dropped into my mail box (and that’s with an excellent credit rating!).

That was enough for me to finally get my act together and I started shopping around.  It took me all of five minutes before I found a much better deal online at Geico Insurance — only $330 for six months.  Problem solved.

So why the big difference?  Simply because most service-oriented companies bank on customer inertia to rake in the big bucks.  It happens all the time with phone companies, cable companies, ISPs and so on.  New customers always get the best deal because companies know that once they’ve signed up, most people don’t pay much attention to what they’re paying in the months and years ahead.  Insurance seems to be even more insidious since many people expect their rates to go up as a matter of course, and they do, big time.

So, do yourself a favor.  Next time your car insurance is due (or even before that, since you can usually get a refund if you cancel early), take half-an-hour and visit just two web sites (at the minimum): geico.com and/or progressive.com and get a couple of online quotes (remembering to specify the equivalent coverage).  You may be surprised to find how low the offered rates are.   And remember to check every time a renewal notice arrives.  Over a couple of decades you could find yourself saving several thousand dollars in insurance premiums if you do.

Oh, and feel free to let me know if you manage to find a better rate.

(Note, I have absolutely no loyalty or ties to either Geico or Progressive. They are both well known companies with a decent track record, but I am sure with a bit of extra surfing you will be able to find other sites you can use for further rate comparison shopping.)