Donate Car to Charity California, Donate Car for Tax Credit, Donate Cars in MA, Donate Your Car Sacramento, How to Donate A Car in California, Donate Your Car for Kids, Donate a Car in Maryland, Donating a Car in Maryland, Donate Cars Illinois, Donate Old Cars to Charity, Met Auto, Car Donate 2 insurers that offer low prices and great service! A huge percent of people never shop their insurance needs. That’s not necessarily a good idea considering that modern American business punishes loyalty, rather than rewarding it. The Wall Street Journal reports that roughly 1 in 3 people never shop their auto insurance. Almost half never their shop home insurance. Yet if you do shop around, particularly for auto insurance, a new report from NerdWallet.com says you’ll likely save a third on your premiums. Don’t be a data mining statistic Nearly half of all big auto insurers use a data mining technique called price optimization where they develop a customer loyal index number on you. That number tells them whether or not you shop around or if you’re the kind of person to stay with the same company year after year. If they determine you’re loyal, they will keep raising your rates year by year to make you more profitable for them. The increases will be incremental, but not enough to drive you away as a customer. My recommendation is even if you are a loyal person, you should shop your insurance every third year. If you find a better deal, call your current insurer and tell them. They may lower your rates. The thing is, insurers steadily beef up profits the longer you stay with them. They exploit creatures of habit. That’s one of the ironies of modern capitalism, as I mentioned. The deals you see, particularly in the technology arena, are typically for new subscribers only! I’ve never understood that. If you just shop your auto and home insurance, you may save hundreds each year, maybe more than $1,000. You can shop on the web, by phone, or with an independent agent. It’s your money! Read more: Best auto insurance companies Take a look at these 2 insurers If you’re with a poorly ranked insurer, there’s no question: Shop the market to find a lower price and fire them! That’s a win-win. You can get higher quality at a lower price. On the other hand, if you’re with the two elites of the insurance industry — Amica and USAA — I say you should stay even if it’s more costly. However, here’s the great news: Consumer Reports recently took a look at the insurance industry and determined these 2 top-ranked companies are cheaper than the competition! In a 23-state survey, Consumer Reports found USAA was the lowest-cost insurer for the average person. However, USAA is only available to those in the military or affiliated with the military through direct family ties. For everyone else, there’s Amica Mutual. Surveyed in 10 states, Amica Mutual was the second-lowest cost insurer. The other insurers — the ones you hear advertising all over the place — range to as much as nearly double in premium vs. USAA to 50% more than what average person pays with Amica Mutual. If you do shop Amica Mutual, I should note that the first year is expensive. Because it is a mutual, that means there are no shareholders and you must buy in to this company. But most customers typically get an annual rebate from the company of 20% of what they paid in premiums — when they have a year with no claims. So know that quality and low prices can both happen at the same time! Read more: Best and worst home insurers For more money-saving advice, check out our Insurance section. There’s a hidden dark side to roadside assistance and cell phone insurance Home and auto insurers are great about offering add-ons to your policy that seem in theory like great conveniences at a great price. But using these seemingly benign “benefits” could marginalize you in the insurance marketplace and result in jacked-up rates! Never use these things your insurer offers you Roadside assistance Some auto insurers that offer roadside assistance treat your use of it as an at-fault claim and put that through on your C.L.U.E. report. What’s a C.L.U.E. report? C.L.U.E. stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. It’s a shared database insurance companies report to when you make a claim. If you have too many claims on your C.L.U.E. report, that could make you radioactive to other insurers for three years. Why would insurers want to do this? Because it limits your ability to jump ship when they want to raise your insurance rates! “It’s the Wild West with no rules on what insurers can decide to report on your C.L.U.E. report,” money expert Clark Howard says. “And you have no right of appeal either.” So here’s the # 1 rule about roadside assistance: Never get it from your own insurer. Get it from AAA or elsewhere. Read more: Emergency roadside assistance app is an alternative to AAA Cell phone insurance Your home insurance policy may have coverage for electronics, including your cell phone, in case they get fried by a sudden electrical surge or you somehow break them. But using this insurance can be too high voltage for your wallet. Insurers are likely to report the use of cell phone insurance on your C.L.U.E. report as a claim. That will hamper you when you go to shop with other insurers. And, your own insurer may use that “claim” as a justification for hiking your premium or dropping your home insurance coverage altogether! Maybe you’re tempted to get cell phone insurance through your wireless carrier instead. That option is preferable to getting it through your home insurer — though there is a more affordable way to get better coverage. If you really want to save money, check out these cheaper alternatives to cell insurance through your carrier. Calling to ask if something is covered may be recorded as a claim! Some insurers are now also treating an inquiry — such as where you call in and ask a simple question about if some event in your life is covered — as something they slap on your C.L.U.E. report! Let’s say you have some water damage in your home and you’re thinking about paying for it out of pocket instead of filing a claim. But you want to call your insurer up to see what the process is to have an adjuster out — just in case the damage proves to be more extensive than you previously thought. Mind you, you never actually do have the adjuster out or file a claim. Even so, your insurance company could still list it as a claim on your C.L.U.E. report! Insurers are increasingly frustrated by comparison shoppers who have allegiances that can shift easily based on heavy TV advertising. So they’re trying to hit you with a mark of shame to make their competitors turn up their noses at you. Doing sneaky, tricky things like putting a phone call as a claim — or the use of roadside assistance as a claim — shouldn’t be allowed. But LexisNexis, which is the company that maintains the C.L.U.E. report database has no standards about this stuff, so insurers can put through anything they want. Here’s the best solution of all…Raise your deductible! When it comes to making small but legitimate claims, don’t do it! What you should do instead is take the highest deductible that the insurer or your auto financier will allow and that you can afford. Typically that is a $1,000 deductible. You never want to make a claim on auto insurance for something small — like a cracked windshield on a car — because the consequences are so ugly. The insurer can surcharge you for a number of years; eliminate the discounts you would otherwise qualify for; or put a black mark on your C.L.U.E. report, which effectively limits your ability to shop with the competition for 36 months. You need to think of home and auto insurance as going back to its original purpose: For catastrophic circumstances only!
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