Car insurance rate hikes

[P7M13]

Insurance is costing me ~$110 more per month than last year for the same cars (4) and motorcycles (2). Basically each policy premium went up 20-23%.
Wife backed into a concrete barrier pillar and had her rear bumper replaced, and they've turned the screws to get their money back.
I've dropped one car and added the X5, and it's an additional $60 more now. Yes, I feel it.
Pricing other agencies, like mentioned above, State Farm is still my cheapest.

 

[gmerkt]

I pay my car insurance annually and got the bill last month. The premium for two cars went up 34%. $1,937 for the two cars. Of that amount, I pay $680 for collision coverage. One vehicle is a 2006, the other is a 2012. In the "olden days," it would've been considered just short of insane to pay for collision coverage on vehicles that old. However, in contemporary times, I'm concerned about replacement cost.

Our insurance comes from "The Hartford" by way of AARP. Which supposedly gets you better rates for being old. Last year, I wondered if this was just bush-wah, so I went down and talked to my ins. broker who finds me the best deals on home owner's insurance. She looked around and said she couldn't do any better than AARP.

I've got two other vehicles insured under a separate policy with a different company which provides insurance for "collectible" vehicles. I don't know the exact numbers offhand, but for those two, the annual premium is about $200. Bearing in mind the policy is granted with certain restrictions but "driving for pleasure" is allowed. Their main thing is they don't want the vehicle used for everyday transportation.

The policy through the AARP makes a big deal about driving for hire, that is, Lyft and Uber. They don't permit it on my policy for obvious reasons. I've wondered before if Uber drivers bother with commercial insurance, or do lots of them just scab off their personal vehicle insurance and hope that it works if needed.

 

[billdeserthills]

I paid under $800 last year for 100,000-300,000 full coverage on my 06 Chevy p/u, this year due to my bumping into a car my insurance hit $1,400. I too called the Hartford and they wanted even more money

 

[Alexx1401]

Contrary to what many think the Insurance companies do not exist to just give away money. WA voters kept telling lawmakers they wanted criminal scum to have a free ride to steal all the cars they want. They said they were fine with people driving with no license or insurance. So when a car is stolen or wrecked and the owner has insurance? The owner expects to get paid. Insurance Co can't print that money.

 

[Jay Walk]

Every sixth car you pass on the street has no insurance, we are paying for that with our increased rates, you see those uninsured drivers crash too and someone has to pay to fix your car, the person who pays IS YOU. It will get worse.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I pay my car insurance annually and got the bill last month. The premium for two cars went up 34%. $1,937 for the two cars. Of that amount, I pay $680 for collision coverage. One vehicle is a 2006, the other is a 2012. In the "olden days," it would've been considered just short of insane to pay for collision coverage on vehicles that old. However, in contemporary times, I'm concerned about replacement cost.

Our insurance comes from "The Hartford" by way of AARP. Which supposedly gets you better rates for being old. Last year, I wondered if this was just bush-wah, so I went down and talked to my ins. broker who finds me the best deals on home owner's insurance. She looked around and said she couldn't do any better than AARP.

I've got two other vehicles insured under a separate policy with a different company which provides insurance for "collectible" vehicles. I don't know the exact numbers offhand, but for those two, the annual premium is about $200. Bearing in mind the policy is granted with certain restrictions but "driving for pleasure" is allowed. Their main thing is they don't want the vehicle used for everyday transportation.

The policy through the AARP makes a big deal about driving for hire, that is, Lyft and Uber. They don't permit it on my policy for obvious reasons. I've wondered before if Uber drivers bother with commercial insurance, or do lots of them just scab off their personal vehicle insurance and hope that it works if needed.

AARP is the debil!

 

[coreymet]

One explanation I read alluded to the fact that it so now much more expensive to repair cars. For example, our car had a small crunch in the rear door from someone backing out of a parking spot. You know, turning too soon as they backed out. Of course they left NO information so we could later contact them.
Took it to the auto body shop and it was going to cost $4500.00 (about). The shop explained to me that with the new cars they essentially have to remove and dismantle the entire door to do the work. Then repaint and reassemble. Gone are the days when a good toilet plunger would pull out the dent. And our car was in the upper $20,000 range when new, so not a Mercedes or BMW.
Ah, inflation.

 

[Bobbygun]

One explanation I read alluded to the fact that it so now much more expensive to repair cars. For example, our car had a small crunch in the rear door from someone backing out of a parking spot. You know, turning too soon as they backed out. Of course they left NO information so we could later contact them.
Took it to the auto body shop and it was going to cost $4500.00 (about). The shop explained to me that with the new cars they essentially have to remove and dismantle the entire door to do the work. Then repaint and reassemble. Gone are the days when a good toilet plunger would pull out the dent. And our car was in the upper $20,000 range when new, so not a Mercedes or BMW.
Ah, inflation.

My hunting buddy has made similar comments. He is retired and buys cars at auction to fix and sell for gun/hunting money. He also mentioned that insurance companies are quicker to "total" cars now due to the high cost of repairs.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Thankfully health insurance came way down.






Lulz

 

[Ten 2one]

We added a teen driver to our account this last year, zero claims in 14-15 years, credit around 800, all cars paid off and it went from $176 per month to $446 per month. Freaking highway robbery. I'm considering dropping the coverage on my $80k truck to liability only, freaking thieves. Like I said, zero car payments so what gives?

It is more than just your car that you're insuring. Other people are driving super expensive cars, and expensive to fix. Suppose by some situation you hit a car, and that car hits another car. One of those vehicles is an $80k truck like yours that hits an $80k Tesla/Mercedes/SUV. Your insurance company has $240k in claims liability.

The shortage of auto parts in the past 4 years caused so much damage .... the insurance companies were paying for months, and months of rental cars, so they began cutting their losses and just totaled cars that were not getting fixed. It was cheaper to pay a claim on a car that just sat there, rather than pay the months of rentals AND the cost of repair.

For home insurance look at the cost of lumber in the past four years. Repairing a tree falling on your house with today's lumber costs is $500/thousand board feet. Two years ago it was $1200/thousand BF. $1300 BF in 2001.

Also look at contractors and builders using cheapest ways to get the job done. The condo collapse in Florida was poorly constructed, and killed 98 people. Somebody had to pay for that, and they spread the risk.

Insurance companies lost so much money in the past three years that insurance companies that insure insurance companies took a hit (yes, insurance companies insure against financial loss too).

Yes, not enforcing car theft is a portion of it for sure. There's more than the price of a couple Kia cars being stolen in the equation.

 

[kmk1012]

It is more than just your car that you're insuring. Other people are driving super expensive cars, and expensive to fix. Suppose by some situation you hit a car, and that car hits another car. One of those vehicles is an $80k truck like yours that hits an $80k Tesla/Mercedes/SUV. Your insurance company has $240k in claims liability.

The shortage of auto parts in the past 4 years caused so much damage .... the insurance companies were paying for months, and months of rental cars, so they began cutting their losses and just totaled cars that were not getting fixed. It was cheaper to pay a claim on a car that just sat there, rather than pay the months of rentals AND the cost of repair.

For home insurance look at the cost of lumber in the past four years. Repairing a tree falling on your house with today's lumber costs is $500/thousand board feet. Two years ago it was $1200/thousand BF. $1300 BF in 2001.

Also look at contractors and builders using cheapest ways to get the job done. The condo collapse in Florida was poorly constructed, and killed 98 people. Somebody had to pay for that, and they spread the risk.

Insurance companies lost so much money in the past three years that insurance companies that insure insurance companies took a hit (yes, insurance companies insure against financial loss too).

Yes, not enforcing car theft is a portion of it for sure. There's more than the price of a couple Kia cars being stolen in the equation.

Oh I understand why, I just don't have to like it

 

[JRuby]

We just totaled a vehicle out a couple of weeks ago. I figure the insurance company is going to want thier money back. Waiting to see how high our premiums go.

 

[gmerkt]

It is more than just your car that you're insuring. Other people are driving super expensive cars, and expensive to fix

I choose to drive an older car in good condition, and I save money by not replacing it with a new outfit. Yet I'm helping insure other people's cars that cost more money, as you said. So I'm not saving as much as I should. So maybe I should just throw caution to the wind, and go out and buy a new, expensive thing with AC seats and automatic back scratcher. At least I could better enjoy my wasted money that way.

Re. increased insurance rates of all kinds. It's just part of general inflation, our money isn't worth as much as it used to be and we have to spend more of it to get the same results out of it. In this case, I don't like playing Devil's Advocate, but we can't expect insurance rates to remain static while wages and groceries keep going up. It would be nice of increases matched percentages of other things going up, though.

Inflation affects insurance coverage, too. We may see some people without mortgages (meaning mostly older people) give up homeowner's insurance coverage. Simply because the 2 or 3 grand they have to cough up has gotten to be too much for a modest income. Some of them have become "house poor" over time. On paper, their place has become way more valuable than it was when originally purchased, and those numbers have driven up their cost of insurance. Catastrophic loss is rare, meaning, it's not usual for people to experience a complete loss. It does happen, look at those forest fires in western states, or tornadoes in the Midwest. Actuarial studies probably show that the catastrophic loss rate compared to the number of insureds is very low. So people may elect to take their chances, depending on where they live.

Industry-wide, property damage claims for the past dozen years averaged around $15K, which suggests not all that many were not of a catastrophic nature.

I don't know how they know, but the industry claims that in 2023, 88% of homes were covered by active insurance policies. Which means that 12% were not.

If you have a mortgage, it's normal for the lender to require HO insurance to protect their interests so there isn't an option on not having it.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I choose to drive an older car in good condition, and I save money by not replacing it with a new outfit. Yet I'm helping insure other people's cars that cost more money, as you said. So I'm not saving as much as I should. So maybe I should just throw caution to the wind, and go out and buy a new, expensive thing with AC seats and automatic back scratcher. At least I could better enjoy my wasted money that way.

Re. increased insurance rates of all kinds. It's just part of general inflation, our money isn't worth as much as it used to be and we have to spend more of it to get the same results out of it. In this case, I don't like playing Devil's Advocate, but we can't expect insurance rates to remain static while wages and groceries keep going up. It would be nice of increases matched percentages of other things going up, though.

Inflation affects insurance coverage, too. We may see some people without mortgages (meaning mostly older people) give up homeowner's insurance coverage. Simply because the 2 or 3 grand they have to cough up has gotten to be too much for a modest income. Some of them have become "house poor" over time. On paper, their place has become way more valuable than it was when originally purchased, and those numbers have driven up their cost of insurance. Catastrophic loss is rare, meaning, it's not usual for people to experience a complete loss. It does happen, look at those forest fires in western states, or tornadoes in the Midwest. Actuarial studies probably show that the catastrophic loss rate compared to the number of insureds is very low. So people may elect to take their chances, depending on where they live.

Industry-wide, property damage claims for the past dozen years averaged around $15K, which suggests not all that many were not of a catastrophic nature.

I don't know how they know, but the industry claims that in 2023, 88% of homes were covered by active insurance policies. Which means that 12% were not.

If you have a mortgage, it's normal for the lender to require HO insurance to protect their interests so there isn't an option on not having it.

Yes, remember all those legacy/ owned for generations swaths of uninsured properties in New Orleans and Hawaii.. and then they cry.

 

[Jay Walk]

Wifes car was rear ended a couple of years ago, the extent of the damage was to remove, paint and re-install both front and rear bumper covers.
$4,000

 

[JRuby]

Insurance is a money generating business why would you expect insurance to go down. Are people having fewer accidents ? Are cars cheaper to repair than last year. As long as people will pay the premiums why would they decrease the premiums. It's a business like any other.

 

[Ducati_Meister]

What burns me up the most is how they just raise the rate without any real explanation or any heads up as a courtesy. I think many would agree, loyalty means nothing looking at the big picture.

 

[Hawaiian]

Both my auto and homeowners rates recently took big jumps. Just like my utility rates did, along with groceries and everything else.
Insurance rates are regulated by the State, just like utility rates.

 

[Barefootdog]

I've shopped around with other companies, the rates come out to be within a few dollars of each other. Not enough difference to be worth switching.

I keep getting the idea insurance companies talk to one another including what they are charging you. I don't see evidence of real competition.

 

[64MercurysRule]

Both my auto and homeowners rates recently took big jumps. Just like my utility rates did, along with groceries and everything else.
Insurance rates are regulated by the State, just like utility rates.

I hear ya brother . We've never had a home claim , last car claim was in 1996 and have been with same insurance for 30+ years but we are being penalized now for being responsible . Our cars are 23 23 26 & 60 years old . No good deed goes unpunished .