Insurance
Racer
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 431
Likes: 5
From: Chico CA
Very regional. Fill out your profile to get better answers. In NorCal, I can't beat Farmers Mid Century Auto, not even with AARP, GEICO, or an employer-sponsored plan. For four cars, including my Vette and my teenaged son's car, I'm at about 200 per month (paid semi-annually, about 1200 a whack). And the kid can drive anything on the lot. If I moved 30 miles northwest, to the I-5 corridor, it would about double.
Any of the big names are worth looking into, but check with the rating services (AM Best, S&P, local BBB, etc.), to see that the company will actually pay when they need to. A friend ended up suing an insured from one of the large, well-known companies because their insurer wouldn't pay on an accident where their insured was at fault. Costly for the insured.
Another point is that you want adequate limits of liability. The rule of thumb has been to buy limits that exceed your net worth. Okay, so you just got out of college and have a net worth of -$100,000 due to student loans. Guess you only need state minimums, right? Not really. Many courts will look at your earning potential and give a plaintiff a big percentage of your expected income for many years. My wife has the various insurance licenses, and when she went through the training we decided that I didn't want to give 60% of my net income for the rest of my career (about 12 years) to someone because of an accident. So make sure you have adequate coverage.
Put another way, if you have California minimums (I think it's still 15/30/10k for BI and PD), you have a total of $40k if two people are injured. Your insurer's lawyers and investigators may go through all of that, leaving you totally exposed, in even a fairly minor accident - you total someone's Prius, for example. When I lived in the San Francisco area, with the Mercedes and BMW density, we carried big limits of Property Damage in addition to high Bodily Injury.
Insurance isn't just a nuisance, no matter how it seems. I've paid insurance for nearly 40 years, for a total of perhaps $75k. But I had a guy pull the swoop-and-squat (dive in and jump on the brakes) several years ago. With high limits, my insurance company had motivation to hire an investigator and find out that the injuries the guy was claiming were reported in a Worker's Comp claim four months prior to the accident. Challenged with that, he fessed up to the deal with his lawyer, who advised him to get rear-ended by new car, and he could retire.
Now before I get flamed by the attorneys, not many are that seedy. But it just takes one. I consider the $1500 or more I've paid over the year to have been a good investment - I didn't have to raid my 401(k) or home equity to hire a lawyer or PI.
Sorry for the rant. I just hear people say insurance is a rip-off, but it's really pretty worthwhile, and the cost does depend on your risk factors (age, driving record, location) and willingness to shop.
Good luck with it!
Any of the big names are worth looking into, but check with the rating services (AM Best, S&P, local BBB, etc.), to see that the company will actually pay when they need to. A friend ended up suing an insured from one of the large, well-known companies because their insurer wouldn't pay on an accident where their insured was at fault. Costly for the insured.
Another point is that you want adequate limits of liability. The rule of thumb has been to buy limits that exceed your net worth. Okay, so you just got out of college and have a net worth of -$100,000 due to student loans. Guess you only need state minimums, right? Not really. Many courts will look at your earning potential and give a plaintiff a big percentage of your expected income for many years. My wife has the various insurance licenses, and when she went through the training we decided that I didn't want to give 60% of my net income for the rest of my career (about 12 years) to someone because of an accident. So make sure you have adequate coverage.
Put another way, if you have California minimums (I think it's still 15/30/10k for BI and PD), you have a total of $40k if two people are injured. Your insurer's lawyers and investigators may go through all of that, leaving you totally exposed, in even a fairly minor accident - you total someone's Prius, for example. When I lived in the San Francisco area, with the Mercedes and BMW density, we carried big limits of Property Damage in addition to high Bodily Injury.
Insurance isn't just a nuisance, no matter how it seems. I've paid insurance for nearly 40 years, for a total of perhaps $75k. But I had a guy pull the swoop-and-squat (dive in and jump on the brakes) several years ago. With high limits, my insurance company had motivation to hire an investigator and find out that the injuries the guy was claiming were reported in a Worker's Comp claim four months prior to the accident. Challenged with that, he fessed up to the deal with his lawyer, who advised him to get rear-ended by new car, and he could retire.
Now before I get flamed by the attorneys, not many are that seedy. But it just takes one. I consider the $1500 or more I've paid over the year to have been a good investment - I didn't have to raid my 401(k) or home equity to hire a lawyer or PI.
Sorry for the rant. I just hear people say insurance is a rip-off, but it's really pretty worthwhile, and the cost does depend on your risk factors (age, driving record, location) and willingness to shop.
Good luck with it!
