I have been with State Farm for 20 years now and never had a rate increase that did not come from me getting a newer vehicle.
This year I got notice of a 10% increase no claims in over 12 years. I went and had a sit down with my agent and he told me they got absolutely hammered with total losses on the vehicle side like never before.
My agent has been in the business over 30 years and he used to see maybe 4 total losses a month on the high end, he is now averaging 4 per week and does not see that trend slowing down so I presume rates will continue to climb.

I shopped around every year and SF was always high on homeowners but way cheaper on Auto and they offered a rider for my wife's occupational coverage that no one else does so I was always about $15 cheaper a month with SF even after the increase.

I am currently battling them with a policy for my cabin and they want to over insure it by almost $60k so the premiums are much higher than they should.

I shopped around and now SF is not the cheapest adding my cabin I am looking at saving $50 a month going elsewhere.
For some reason they will not insure my property at a lower value than their equations say the property is worth based upon a daily lived in residence. Which is nowhere near the same value equation as a weekend cabin.
I am getting ready to let them know they will be losing all of my policies and am curious if they will change their tunes.

But in the end insurance rates will continue to rise as technology increases because the stuff just costs more. The old days of a $150 headlight is gone. Break a headlighlight you are looking at up to $3500.
Add the sensors in the bumpers and so one that a simple bump would buff out and fix for not much is now a ton of money to replace sensors.

Many people don't understand how insurance works. Risk is spread over a large geographic area. As damages (losses) increase, rates must rise. As the cost of repairs rise, so must the rates. Shop around, you can save a little. Drive an older vehicle (to a point) and you can save more. As rates increase with your age, reduce the number of vehicles and drive a well-maintained 5 or 6 year old car to keep rates down. Or get a car you can afford to replace (5 k or so) and keep only liability.

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But in the end insurance rates will continue to rise as technology increases because the stuff just costs more. The old days of a $150 headlight is gone. Break a headlighlight you are looking at up to $3500.
Add the sensors in the bumpers and so one that a simple bump would buff out and fix for not much is now a ton of money to replace sensors

This pisses me off. I want the option to buy a basic car. No DRLs, no accident avoidance systems, no smart cruise control, no back up Cam, no blind spot detection, no GPS/touch screen, no adaptive head lights, just skip all that a give me a powerful and reliable engine.

I wish someone would market to people who want a high quality vehicle with no bells and whistles.

A fender bender cost $7,000 now to fix due to sensors and stupid lights. Deploy a couple airbags and you can total a car at 25mph.

This is called "the customer penalty".

You will rarely get better rates than those you receive as a "prospective customer".

Shop - I change every couple of years if the competitive rates are 10% less or more and never lose sleep over it.

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Originally posted by CoolRich59:
Very timely. We dumped GEICO after 10+ years because they kept increasing rates despite ZERO claims.

Glad I am not the only one. Haven't had any claims in 16 years with Geico and my rates have went up for no reason the last two years.

Insurance companies are the worst. They all suck.

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Originally posted by Fredward:
As the cost of repairs rise, so must the rates. .

It's a crime what repair shops charge. My friend wanted a bumper scratch repaired and they quoted him $700. He offered cash - $300 bucks settled it. Funny how that works.

i just got off the phone with Amica. With auto, homeowners and umbrella, I will save $290/yr over State Farm.

And that's if State Farm's premiums stay the same. But, I have had State Farm for just 18 months, and the premium increased for the first 2 renewals, the renewal notice I got this week has another premium increase too (with no claims on any of the policies). So, there's not reason to suspect the next renewal wont see an increase as well.

I will check with at least one other carrier just to be thorough, but will likely be going with Amica.

Very informative information and stories you have shared folks. So here is where we are at right now, with regards to StateFarm and AAA.

I just got home from my appointment with an AAA agent. Agent was straightforward and no sales pressure. He informed me that June of this year, the Nevada Department of Insurance instructed all insurance carriers (at least in Las Vegas area) to increase their premium rates. So he said, it was not just StateFarm who increased the rates.

Regarding my quote, AAA was actually $15 "more" per month for all 4 vehicles. The home insurance was $350 more per year. So, for now, I will have to stay with StateFarm (until I find a different carrier with lower rates). I will try All State next week, and few other carriers,

I'm going through this exercise right now.

One thing that makes it a wee bit less painful, I'm using an independent agent who is doing a bunch of the shopping for me. She is not only presenting premium costs, she is also telling me the good and the bad about each option.

She used to be the branch manager at the credit union; her husband, who is also a banker, suggested that she had the brains and the motivation to do well as an independent insurance agent.

She also wants to go shooting with us at the gun club.

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What does the insurance company want? For us to pay insurance, and for us not to use the car?

The next Liberty Mutual commercial.

I have figured a way to make any increases irrelevant. It's a necessary evil...You HAVE to have it.

My solution, which keeps my blood pressure down when I pay the annual insurance bills; My Agent is a closet machinist. Always enjoyed working with metal. Took some course on lathes, mills, etc.

He has a complete shop set up on his property and loves to work on guns. He seldom charges me anything for a rebarrel, action blueprint, etc. I am not a total leech, I do buy any shop supplies needed , assist where I can and supply my own reamers and barrels.

Just got my Homeowners bill today...All the great work I get sure takes the sting out of the bill.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
I'm going through this exercise right now.

One thing that makes it a wee bit less painful, I'm using an independent agent who is doing a bunch of the shopping for me. She is not only presenting premium costs, she is also telling me the good and the bad about each option.

She used to be the branch manager at the credit union; her husband, who is also a banker, suggested that she had the brains and the motivation to do well as an independent insurance agent.

She also wants to go shooting with us at the gun club.

I have a life/home/auto combo with massive discounts. My combined payments have not increased more than $10 over the last five years. Guess I'm lucky. Even still I have my agent double check every year. We are former coworkers/friends it's great having your agents cell number and bring able to text him at 10pm.

He did have to fix twice some kind of premium increase on the auto portion, even then it's only gone from $79 to $83 a month for good company, good coverage.

Always use brokers not captive agents.

I have not filed any car insurance claims in 33 years. My premiums go up every 6 months no matter which company I am with. (Currently with USAA, but will shop around at next renewal)

I have used a broker of sorts for years. It’s an insurance firm, but they go through or have access to most everyone (State Farm, and I think Allstate are the exceptions) out there. So when my homeowners, auto, and motorcycle policies come up for renewal, they'll go hunt around for me, and if they find something better, they’ll call me and ask permission to make changes. I’ve been done sticking with one company for many years. I pay a little higher for the autos because the same company deals hard on my homeowners. I’m just glad that they continually will do the work so I don’t have to. Some years I get a call “We can save you $500 this year by switching to X”. Other years I’m getting a premium increase and they tell me it’s still the best deal out there.

I am amazed at the fact that every year I’ve got to research, hard, and continually switch my home kwh/power contract, make sure I’m on terms, with a discount on my wireless, satellite, internet, so at least with vehicle/homeowners I’ve got people working for me to get the best deal for my money. In this day and age you’ve got to be on top of all these things or you’ll get took. I’m moving my money over to an investment guy I trust, and have faith in. All this shit is getting unmanageable so I’m picking and choosing my battles for my own mental state.

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
I have used a broker of sorts for years. It’s an insurance firm, but they go through or have access to most everyone (State Farm, and I think Allstate are the exceptions) out there. So when my homeowners, auto, and motorcycle policies come up for renewal, they'll go hunt around for me, and if they find something better, they’ll call me and ask permission to make changes. I’ve been done sticking with one company for many years. I pay a little higher for the autos because the same company deals hard on my homeowners. I’m just glad that they continually will do the work so I don’t have to. Some years I get a call “We can save you $500 this year by switching to X”. Other years I’m getting a premium increase and they tell me it’s still the best deal out there.

I am amazed at the fact that every year I’ve got to research, hard, and continually switch my home kwh/power contract, make sure I’m on terms, with a discount on my wireless, satellite, internet, so at least with vehicle/homeowners I’ve got people working for me to get the best deal for my money. In this day and age you’ve got to be on top of all these things or you’ll get took. I’m moving my money over to an investment guy I trust, and have faith in. All this shit is getting unmanageable so I’m picking and choosing my battles for my own mental state.

Great post.

My brother-in-law has been with some insurance broker since he was a teenager and swears by the guy. So, when I went to move from GEICO 18 months ago, I called the guy thinking he'd go to bat for me as you described. Unfortunately, the guy was non-responsive and when he finally provided me a quote, a little checking on my end quickly showed that I could do better myself. I took a pass and told my bro-in-law he should be double checking himself.

I would like to find someone I could trust who would do this for me like you have. I would even be willing to pay a (slightly) higher premium if I was confident the broker was doing the kind of legwork and negotiating yours does.

I faxed over a letter to my State Farm agent cancelling my four policies. I got a call from him about 5 mins later wanting to discuss why I was leaving.

Well, in addition to the constant rate increases, *maybe* another reason is that this is the first time you've ever responded to me in a timely manner about anything I contacted you about.

Switched from USAA to State Farm earlier this year. Might have to shop around when the State Farm policy gets close to expiring. I'm sure they took a beating with Hurricane Irma this year.

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Originally posted by Fredward:
Many people don't understand how insurance works. Risk is spread over a large geographic area. As damages (losses) increase, rates must rise. As the cost of repairs rise, so must the rates. Shop around, you can save a little. Drive an older vehicle (to a point) and you can save more. As rates increase with your age, reduce the number of vehicles and drive a well-maintained 5 or 6 year old car to keep rates down. Or get a car you can afford to replace (5 k or so) and keep only liability.

That's not true, new vehicles are cheaper to insure than ones older than 3 or so years old. The new one has all of the latest safety equipment, maintenance is not a question (tires/brakes), etc.

Anyways, I have been with progressive for at least 7 years now and my rate is always the same within a few $

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
I faxed over a letter to my State Farm agent cancelling my four policies. I got a call from him about 5 mins later wanting to discuss why I was leaving.

Well, in addition to the constant rate increases, *maybe* another reason is that this is the first time you've ever responded to me in a timely manner about anything I contacted you about.

I ignored the call from my State Farm agent, and he followed up with an email. I was going to delete it, but after having a tall glass of bourbon, sent him this note late last night.

xxxx, thanks for your note.

You ask if there's anything that State Farm could have done or if it was simply price. From my perspective, the answer is 'both'.

My agreement with State Farm in May, 2016 was that I would buy auto insurance at a cost of $xxx for 6 months. While I never expected that price to remain static indefinitely; all things being equal, I expected it to remain stable for some period of time. Instead, six months later, although I had done nothing to increase risk to State Farm, State Farm nevertheless saw fit to increase the price of the product by 6%.

Now, a year later, still having done nothing to increase risk for State Farm (no tickets, no accidents, no claims), I'm still paying approximately 4-5% more for the same product.

I know, of course, the argument about "unanticipated losses" that need to be spread across State Farm's insured base. While that may or may not be true (and I have my doubts), it is what it is. And, seeing that it is what it is, I can only surmise that this year's storms in Texas and Florida, together with the wildfires out West, will result in more "unanticipated losses" for State Farm that will lead to more premium increases in the near future.

Accordingly, since I've seen nothing but higher premiums from State Farm, and can only anticipate even higher premiums in the future, I elected to find another carrier.

Best regards

We have all of our insurance, auto, home, personal liability, and life insurance with the same local broker for almost 20 years. Except for the life insurance they shop the rest. They've kept us with well-rated companies with market competitive rates.

A quality broker is hard to beat.

Silent