by Hope
Took the time today to get on the phone with our auto insurance company and consolidate all of our policies. Sea Cadet and I had remained on the same policy, but since History Buff lived away from home for a couple of years, he had his own.
Auto Insurance Savings
The motivation was two fold: 1) save History Buff some money on a monthly basis and 2) be prepared for Sea Cadet leaving at the end of next month. (We have determined that Sea Cadet will be covered by an Americorps policy while he is working there, so I will be able to remove him from ours while he is away without worrying about a gap in insurance.)
By moving History Buff over to my policy and applying for the good student discount (maintaining a 3.0 GPA) he will save about $60 a month for the same coverage. Woot, woot!
The call did take about 45 minutes of my day, but I think the coverage and peace of mind is well worth. Have you called your insurance broker lately to check on your policies and coverage?
Do You Bundle Your Insurance
I have all my insurance coverage with USAA – renters, life and auto. Do you use different companies for different insurance or do you bundle yours with the same carrier? When the twins turned 18 I had them do a school assignment where they had to get insurance quotes for auto and renters policies from three different companies. No one came close to USAA rates. Not to mention their service and access has always been fantastic.
I would love to hear more about your insurance experience. As the twins grow closer to leaving the nest, I am encouraging them to research and make the best decision for themselves in these matters. But I always emphasize not only checking rates but also reputation. There is nothing worse then having a none responsive insurance company when tragedy happens.
You should check a local independent agent or a local bank’s insurance department to get quotes from a few companies at once
I also have USAA, will never change, so I’ve no need to research others. Auto, homeowners, credit card, investments, etc. Very happy. However, since you are the dependent (like I am), and unless this rule has changed, the ability to get the insurance does not pass on to the 3rd generation. So the twins should do some serious research before picking new policies, as they won’t be priced as well (particularly due to their age/gender). Again, don’t know if that rule has changed, but needs consideration going forward.
I use USAA. Even if the rates were higher I would use them because the customer service is really top notch.
I think it’s good to shop rates every few years and re-evaluate. Did you look into health insurance?
I called around for new auto insurance just last month. Our rates dropped $60 a month. We also changed homeowners insurance to bundle them, but that went up $45 a year (more coverage though!). The increase of home insurance was worth the auto savings.
I just shopped both my homeowners and auto and was able to save about $800 a year by putting the homeowners with USAA and the auto with Allstate. I used to sell insurance so I know to compare apples with apples, etc., and this was totally worthwhile. I’ll continue to shop my policies, especially auto, every time they renew.
USAA here, also, and YES to bundling! They seem to have more discounts than others. We did put auto w/Allstate some years ago to save some money, but it was a real hassle, and I switched back after 6 months. Hubs has been a USAA member since birth. Our kids have accounts there, and #1 is also in the service, so gets better cust service than we do. We have several of their products. Our local bank has higher interest on checking, savings, CDs and other liquid accounts, though.