A Cheaper Car Insurance.

A Cheaper Car Insurance.

by Liv | Published on May 20th, 2009, 2:26 pm | Advice

So I've been with progressive since 1993. The policy is up for renewal and it looks like they're upping it another $100.00. We've had no accidents and no tickets.... so I'm a bit perplexed, none the less I went to the Allstate site and they're quoting me about $240.00 for six months on the two cars. That's cheaper then the $270 I've been paying for at progressive.

So I emailed them and asked if they'd negotiate a lower price in lieu of me cancelling my policy and going with all-state. We shall see.... Anyone else had any luck with this tactic?

You didn't give the Gecko a chance? May 20th, 2009, 2:31 pm Reply with quote

You didn't give the Gecko a chance? :lol:

Wait until Chance reaches 17. I'm paying about 4 times that. I can only dream of those rates

I found Progressive to be the best deal after living in the U.S a year. I was still paying $1500 for 6 months. My 14 years of experience driving in the U.K counted for nothing:(

Shop around Liv. Loyalty means NOTHING to insurance companies any more. Like SFI says... give Geico a chance. They beat my State Farm plan (of whom I had been with for 20+ years with no recent accidents in the past 15 years) by 45%. Almost half.

They emailed me back and said "Call us"....

I hate it when companies do that.... If I had the time to call you, I'd have called you....

What's the point in having a email account for customer service if you defer to phone?

Okay I read it again...

Because insurance companies have different costs of doing business, rates will vary from one company to another, and no one company will have the lowest rate for every driver. It is for this reason we do not engage in price matching.

So it's off I go to another company.... Boy that's anti-competitive.

Liv wrote:Okay I read it again...

Because insurance companies have different costs of doing business, rates will vary from one company to another, and no one company will have the lowest rate for every driver. It is for this reason we do not engage in price matching.

So it's off I go to another company.... Boy that's anti-competitive.

You'll get an emailed quote from Geico in 20 minutes.

Careful about how many times you inquire though because it could hurt your credit score.

Yeah.... I think I'll be doing that... I've got till the 15th of June to figure it out... I'm just shocked that their sticking it to me.

BecauseHeLives wrote:Careful about how many times you inquire though because it could hurt your credit score

Why would inquiring hurt your credit?

smiler125 wrote:I found Progressive to be the best deal after living in the U.S a year. I was still paying $1500 for 6 months. My 14 years of experience driving in the U.K counted for nothing:(

A friend of mine from Australia who now lives in the states claims that's the very reason he hasn't bothered to get his driver's license yet. Apparently just to be insured is more than he can afford. Unreal. I think I'd just bite the bullet for a few months until those extreme rates subsided, but that's just me.

A Person wrote:
BecauseHeLives wrote:Careful about how many times you inquire though because it could hurt your credit score

Why would inquiring hurt your credit?

Because it does. I don't know the logic behind it but when you apply for insurance they can legally pull a hard inquiry against any or all of the big three CBs. Supposedly you are a hugher risk if your credit is poor. Every hard inquiry does hurt your score exponentially.

Sanjuro wrote:
smiler125 wrote:I found Progressive to be the best deal after living in the U.S a year. I was still paying $1500 for 6 months. My 14 years of experience driving in the U.K counted for nothing:(

A friend of mine from Australia who now lives in the states claims that's the very reason he hasn't bothered to get his driver's license yet. Apparently just to be insured is more than he can afford. Unreal. I think I'd just bite the bullet for a few months until those extreme rates subsided, but that's just me.

That's one reason that living in a big city with decent mass transit would be a decent option. No real need for a car, if you can walk/ride for a reasonable cost, who needs a car day to day?

Interesting. I found this which explains the scoring in some detail:

...
You have recently been seeking credit as reflected by the number of inquiries posted on your credit file in the last 12 months

Research shows that consumers who are seeking new credit accounts are riskier than consumers who are not seeking credit. Inquiries are the only information lenders have that indicates a consumer is actively seeking credit.

There are different types of inquiries that reside on your credit bureau report. The score only considers those inquiries that were posted as a result of you applying for credit. Other types of inquiries, such as account review inquiries (where a lender with whom you have an account has received your credit report) or consumer disclosure inquiries (where you have requested a copy of your own report) are not considered by the score.

The scores can identify "rate shopping" so that one credit search leading to multiple inquiries being reported is usually only counted as a single inquiry. For most consumers, the presence of a few inquiries on your credit file has a limited impact on FICO scores.

A common misperception is that every single inquiry will drop your score a certain number of points. This is not true. The impact of inquiries on your score will vary - depending on your overall credit profile. Inquiries will usually have a larger impact on the score for consumers with limited credit history and on consumers with previous late payments. The most prudent action to raise your score over time is to apply for credit only when you need it.

As time passes the age of your most recent inquiry will increase and your score will rise as a result, provided you do not apply for additional credit in the meantime. Our best recommendation - apply for credit only when you need it.

I wouldn't have thought asking for an insurance quote would count as applying for new credit - but stranger things happen in the banking industry.

This is taken from the state of Maine's website but the federal regulations apply.

Can an insurance company look at my credit information without my permission?
Yes. Both the federal and state Fair Credit Reporting Acts (FCRA), say that insurance companies may look at your credit information without your permission when they review your application/information to decide if they want to insure you. However, you must be told either at the time that you apply for coverage or at your policy renewal (if you have not been previously told) that credit information may be obtained.

The laws that govern the use of credit information are: the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, United States Code, Title 15, Section 1681, et seq., the state Fair Credit Reporting Act, Maine Revised Statutes Annotated, Title 10, Chapter 210, and the law entitled, “Use of consumer reports in insurance underwriting” found in the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated, Title 24-A, Section 2169-B.

The federal law may be found on the Internet at http://www.ftc.gov/. Maine law may be found at the following link: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/lom/ ... 250-30.htm.

http://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/cons ... ochure.htm

There's a bit more there as well...

I used to be heavily in the credit repair business so this so I'm fairly familiar with this kind of stuff.

I don't think you're legally required to provide a social though.

Liv wrote:I don't think you're legally required to provide a social though.

You are correct. In fact there isn't a primary key in your credit profile. They attach information to you based on the perctage chance that it belongs to you. Usually your SSN, Name (as spelled), and address are the biggest standards of whether something is attached to your profile.

Hint: That's why if you have negative information on your profile (from when you lived at another address) you try to get them to remove that old address from your personal profile BEFORE you challenge anything negative on your reports. Old spellings of your name should be purged as well unless you have good lines of credit attached to it.

A Person wrote:Wait until Chance reaches 17. I'm paying about 4 times that. I can only dream of those rates

I just paid $3,000 for 4 people/4 autos. Two of the people are males about 20. Kwityerbitchin'

Applying for insurance quote will have no effect on your credit rating. It's not a loan application. Even if it were, 'rate shopping' is permissable so inquiries occurring within a 45 day window are treated as one 'event'

However a bad credit score CAN affect your insurance rates

A Person wrote:Applying for insurance quote will have no effect on your credit rating. It's not a loan application. Even if it were, 'rate shopping' is permissable so inquiries occurring within a 45 day window are treated as one 'event'

However a bad credit score CAN affect your insurance rates

You're wrong AP. Any time an insurance agency obtains your credit report it WILL ding your credit score. Sure, there is a such as rate shopping but that typically only applies to car and home loans. Even then the CBs usually manage to screw that up because they are notorious about coding them wrong. Even under rate shopping, where several like inquiries in a specific period are grouped as one, it still counts as a hard inquiry.

The rule of thumb is that any time a company does an inquiry against you (and you aren't already doing business with them (such as a credit review), it will count as a hard inquiry. Soft inquiries happen when YOU inquire on your own reports or a company you do business with reviews your credit from time to time.

I've seen people take 12-14 point hits with a single inquiry and I've seen other take only a 2-3 point hit. It's heavily dependent upon how solid and old your credit is and how many OTHER inquiries you've recently had.

As a side note, inquiries are fairly easy to bump off your report if need be.

LCMUWill having my insurance quoted affect my credit rating?

No. When an insurance carrier requests your credit report, it appears as an "insurance inquiry". Credit score calculations, such as those used when applying for financing, exclude insurance inquiries as a determination factor.

CarInsurance.com Does getting rate quotes affect your credit score since the insurance companies check your credit history?

Many insurance companies do check credit scores when determining insurance rates. It is true that credit rating companies such as Experian, Trans Union and Equifax have been known to use inquiries towards your credit report to impact your credit score. Those queries that affect your credit score are queries for obtaining credit NOT inquiries that review your credit (like an insurance quote) or use credit as a portion of your insurance score.

Will the COSECO credit inquiryaffect my credit score?
No. The presence of a credit inquiry will not impact your credit score. A common misconception is that every inquiry decreases your credit score by a certain number of points. This is not true. While all inquiries are recorded on your personal credit report, a credit score inquiry for insurance purposes will not impact your credit score.

If GMAC Insurance checks my credit while giving me a quote, will that affect my credit rating?
No. Insurance inquiries do not affect the credit scores used by GMAC Insurance, and therefore do not affect one's credit rating. Credit inquiries are grouped into 2 categories:

•Hard inquiry – An inquiry made by a creditor/lender as a result of applying for credit or a loan
•Soft inquiry – All other inquiries which are not related to obtaining credit or a loan, such as when a consumer requests a copy of their report
A consumer is able to see both hard and soft inquiries if they are viewing a copy of their own report. Creditors and lenders can only see hard inquiries on a consumer’s credit report. Therefore they are not able to use soft inquiries in making any credit related decision.

All insurance inquiries are considered soft. Thus, creditors/lenders do not have access to insurance inquiries.

Lending Tree

Credit Inquiry: Soft pull vs. hard pull
A soft credit inquiry or pull does not hurt your credit score, but a hard credit pull does.

On a credit report, when a third party looks at your credit score, this is called an inquiry. All inquiries, however, are not created equal. Some hurt your credit score, and some do not. An inquiry known as a soft inquiry does not affect your credit report, but a hard pull does.

Soft inquiry
A soft inquiry, or soft pull, is a term used to refer to an inquiry into your credit history that does not adversely affect the credit score. Often, you are not even aware that there has been a soft inquiry on your credit report. For example, if you receive a solicitation in the mail offering you a credit card, the credit card company has most likely conducted a soft pull to see if you qualify. When mortgage lenders pre-approve you for a loan, they initially use a soft pull. Potential employers use it as a part of background checks, and your current credit card companies use soft inquiries to check up on you. Banks use them to verify that you are who you say you are when opening an account. If you check your own credit report, which you can do for free once a year, this is done with a soft pull. Most of the time, you do not even know when they occur, and they do not affect your credit report.

Hard pull
A hard pull on a credit report is different. It does affect your credit score. Anytime that you are actually getting a loan or a new credit card, the lender conducts a hard pull on your credit report. This stays on the record. It also lowers your credit score by about five points for six months. For this reason, it is important to guard your credit report from too many hard pulls. If you get a store credit card just to save 10 percent on a single purchase, you have hurt your credit score. That is probably not worth the 10 percent savings. Some banks even use a hard pull if you are opening a savings account, so be sure to check your potential bank’s policy. Additionally, the incentives that credit card companies offer for signing up may not be worth the hit to your credit score.

A good rule of thumb for your credit report is to try to avoid any inquiries that are considered hard pulls. By limiting them your credit will be in good shape and you can qualify for the best interest rate available to you when it comes time for you to apply for a loan that you truly need.

Alright, got a copy of my policy today and things make a lot more sense.... and you too might want to check your policy (NCers)...

A new law recently passed in NC mandating that uninsured motorist coverage (UM) must be at least equal to the highest limits of bodily injury/liability coverage for any one vehicle under your motor insurance policy

Basically you can no longer decline uninsured drivers insurance, and Progressive automatically assigns the highest level it can.... Thus another $100.00 on insurance.

Well got my car insurance today!!!! It's through Geico, and is about 1/2 what Progressive was going to charge me....

I looked at the J.D. power list of recommended list of auto insurances, and really, really wanted a quote from Amica.... sadly, their website refused to give me one..... in fact, several companies for some odd reason wouldn't provide a quote online.... and as a web-centric individual, I'm not about to call....

Geico's site worked flawless... gave a great rate and I didn't feel overwhelmed....

Done.

Liv wrote:Well got my car insurance today!!!! It's through Geico, and is about 1/2 what Progressive was going to charge me....

I looked at the J.D. power list of recommended list of auto insurances, and really, really wanted a quote from Amica.... sadly, their website refused to give me one..... in fact, several companies for some odd reason wouldn't provide a quote online.... and as a web-centric individual, I'm not about to call....

Geico's site worked flawless... gave a great rate and I didn't feel overwhelmed....

Done.

Congrats!