I believe the property side must be a little bit different. We have absolutely no flexibility without changing underwriting guidelines.

@pr0k: Rates are filed and yet flexible.

TBH, I am an insurance broker - on the life side. We can always quote standard rates but use a competitive bidding process to squeeze a price match in. I've done it a few times this week.

There is no such thing as "price matching" with insurance rates. Underwriting guidelines and the rates themselves are all filed through the state and are very very specific.

If they lowered your rate upon request, they were either charging you more to make more commission from you in the first play, or not giving you a discount you already qualified for you, but were ignoring to try to make even more money from you.

My Geico insurance has automatically put new discounts that I have qualified for every 6 months. I haven't had to ask for these, and I pay much less then anywhere else I've quoted. No reason for your attitude.

@pr0k: Maybe in fairyville, but in the real world I live in, you don't get price matching unless you ask for it.

Restated: "Find a discount" was imo code for price matching the Progressive quote. Except they don't want to say they have a price-matching policy - they do it when it's good for THEM to do it.

Now that I am in the workforce, I still get to take advantage of that discount because I use the subway to get to work instead of drive.

Actually fire/police/ems are considered government employees and see better rates (typically) with Geico.

"Being that Geico stands for Government Employee Insurance Company, we do try to get our best rates we can for our military and government employees."

You are correct that you do not get a discount, but actually this is applied to your overall rating factor. That is most of the time BETTER than a discount. (Discounts can sometimes only affect certain coverages, and may be dropped if you have claims.)

Actually in certain categories GEICO gives a 5% renewal discount that stacks up to 3-4 times.

My insurance has gotten lower every 6 months.

Agreed. I'm an insurance agent, and too frequently do I see people lie about these sorts of things.

Defrauding your insurance company is a class "D" felony and usually results in AT LEAST the company not paying your claim.

Credit usually has nothing to do with discounts, and everything to do with rating factor. People with bad credit typically file more claims and have more reason to commit fraud. Why would an insurance company NOT use this as a factor?

I'd be pretty bothered if I had to call and ask for discounts I should already be getting.

The only reason an insurance company would have for not giving you said discount, would be to make more money from your premium. So even though it may seem like Liberty Mutual is doing you a great service by applying that discount, they actually should have been giving it to you all along.

Lowering your coverage limits can also save you from lawyers. I had a bicycle vs. car incident where the rider at fault and cited by the cops, but in my state the motorized vehicle driver is still responsible for injuries if you you have PIP coverage. Soo...the other party decides to go after me, personally (bahahah!! I got nuthin'..), just in case. My insurance company hired me a lawyer who told me, "you know the only reason they're going after this for so long is because you have high coverage limits. If you had the 25/50 minimum, we wouldn't be here right now. They want the whole thing."

@masterasia:

#1 - Her credit is better than yours

#2 - Cause to terminate the policy and deny claims

@JohnQPublic:

John - That's what your agent is for. Make picking an agent like an interview process. Find one you like and trust, and go with them.

There is always google. Look up insurance limits and what they mean. Decide for yourself. Can you afford to pay out of pocket for a claim if you get lower coverage?

Think of this: If you go with state minimum coverage (often a split limit of 25/50/25) and cream a pedestrian or cause a serious accident - you will be on the hook for ANY damages caused over $25,000.

The 25 is the "per person" limit and the 50 is the "per accident" limit. The second 25 is your "property damage" limit. A telephone pole in CA can run upwards of 20k. If you hit a car with 2 people in it, one claims 10k of damages and the other claims 30k, you are under the 50k per accident limit BUT over the 25k per person limit on Mr. 30k... so you owe him 5k.

Anything your insurance won't cover is your responsibility.

Find an agent... really. I'll admit there are some sleazy ones out there, but most of them are honest people who look out for their clients.

What usually happens is that the member organization agrees to promote the company in exchange for the discount. The size of the discount depends on the size of the organization and how desirable the members are to insure.

For some reason, when I get a quote under my name it's always $200-$300 higher than if my wife would to get the same exact quote.

Here's my Trick #2:
Put your residency in an area where Insurance is cheap like why out in the country or in Wisconsin.

My cousin has lived in MN for 4 years, but his license, address, plates are still in Wisconsin. That damn crook.

@JollyRogargh: Yes, but is that not called "profiling"? Consdiering they feel you are more of a risk if you have the lower coverage.

I've often wondered how affiliation discounts happen. Do the member organizations pay the insurer, or guarantee some number of customers? And I agree with you that these discounts can be perverse. My insurer offers a discount to members of a college honors society that charges steep fees and accepts students in the top 15% of their class. Seriously? The top 15% of students at my school are the ones who can tie their shoes after consulting a diagram. I wound up joining a more selective general honors society. It's smaller, so there's no discount even though better grades supposedly indicate lower risk.

The purposes of 211 CMR 79.00 are:
(a) To promote the public welfare by regulating insurance rates so that they are not excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory;
(b) To promote the accuracy and fairness of private passenger motor vehicle insurance rates;
(c) To protect the interests of policyholders during the transition from a Fixed-and-Established Market to a Competitive Market;
(d) To promote price competition among Insurers so as to provide insurance rates that are responsive to Competitive Market conditions;
(e) To prohibit price-fixing agreements and other anticompetitive behavior by Insurers;
(f) To provide regulatory procedures for the maintenance of appropriate data reporting systems;
(g) To authorize essential cooperative action among Insurers in the ratemaking process and to regulate such activity to prevent practices that tend to lessen competition substantially or to create a monopoly; and
(h) To provide price and other information to consumers to enable them to purchase insurance suitable for their needs.

[www.lawlib.state.ma.us]

Also, Geico has a page in their web interface that lists your current discounts and suggests others. The CSRs are also well-informed and willing to review discounts.

Also, members of certain organizations get discounts too.
[www.geico.com]

Your carrier might have something similar. What annoys me is that fire/police/ems do NOT get discounts, even though we are required by our jobs to have spotless safe driving records. You'd think that someone who drives an emergency vehicle and has completed the related operator courses could get a slight discount, but that's not the case. I asked Geico, State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, 21st Century, and Farmers. Nope. No discount. But if I was a member of the "Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County" then I'd get 10% off.

WTF insurance companies. :|

@Al Swearengen:

A lot of people confuse rating a car as pleasure vs. "low mileage discount"

Few companies give an actual "discount" for it - most just "rate" the vehicle as pleasure, which can in turn lower the premium.

So if you drive 50 miles to work every day then get a job closer to home, make sure to update it on your insurance as it will probably lower your premium. Typically a commute under 5 miles one way will be considered a "pleasure" use vehicle and will be rated as such.

@imationlh: That depends on the insurer and their rating model. My insurer only uses credit when you write new business. After that it is a different rating model that doesn't use credit. I personally think that using credit to determine my insurance rate is unacceptable.

@Orv: That is very true, now with all the modeling being used by major insurers it's easy to have your rates increased if you have a couple of towing claims, or a comprehensive claim or two.

@astraelraen: that applies only in certain states. In TX State Farm doesn't rate based on mileage, so no discount for us here. :(

@startertan:

I had switched from State Farm to Allstate over 10 years ago, and the switch saved me about 50% on my rates back then. But now my Allstate rates are high, even after discounts, and my agent can't get it any lower. He even tried to talk me into dropping my current plan and switching to the Allstate plan where you pay to keep your rates lower! And then I tell him I'm going to switch and he gives me some BS about I can't switch insurance mid-coverage-year. What is that crap? I'm going to jump ship.

Which insurance companies give a low mileage discount? I have Allstate, and they don't give a discount for that.

I feel the need to point one thing out here. This wasn't in TFA but I get this allllll the time.

Insurance companies *cannot,* I repeat *CANNOT* "haggle" prices. The most they can do is find discounts you qualify for that weren't on the policy, and add them.

There is no "well what can you do for me, XXXX company offered me 10$ lower per month." Rates and discounts are filed with the state and are *not* able to be altered except through overall rate increases/decreases filed through the state.

So the next time you call up your agent and try to pit a lower quote against your current policy, he's not telling you "sorry nothing I can do" to be a jerk... there really is nothing he can do short from lying on your policy and adding discounts on you don't qualify for.

@chaoss13:

A lot of insurance companies offer a "coverage discount." In some cases, bumping up your coverage can lower premiums.

I've seen people schedule items on their renters or homeowners policy and drop the rate as well.

@not_a_virus.exe.vbs:

Insurance agent here. You just gave your company the only reason they need to deny any claim you ever file with them. Good job.

@azzie: If you have car insurance in NJ and move away to a completely different region (other than NYC or California) you need to call the insurance company upon establishing a new address. Often they are able to refund you on the difference of your new lower rate and the former NJ rate...

@mac-phisto: Yeah, classic car insurance stated value plus alot of those policies require a lockable garage for the vehicle plus pictures of the vehicle...

Make sure your insurance matches where you live and go to university especially for college or graduate school students. If you attend a college in a cheaper insurance state than your parents home is in, make your insurance and registration match that state.

I'm looking at you Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) medical students driving around with NJ and NY license tags...

I was with Allstate since I could drive at 16 (I'm now 30) and I finally decided to stop being lazy and see what the company discounted offerings through Liberty Mutual could get me for both my car and homeowners insurance. I went from a total of $2700/year (2 cars, 1 detached single family home) to $1500/year with the same coverage levels. I called Allstate to give them a chance to counter since I've been with them so long and my agent told me there was nothing he could do...he couldn't even come close.

I mean he didn't even try, there was no "well the best I can do is $2200/year" or something like that.

Anyone notice that most of the list are silly expensive suggestions?

Drive a different car.. A.K.A. buy another car.

Drive less, even says to move closer to work. Yea, most people move to save car ins. money.

Buy a vehicle with an anti-theft device (again... who can't afford a car right now). Even having one installed. Unless you install it yourself, it's usually about $200+ for a cheap system.

Reduce your Ins. levels isn't accurate either. I increased my coverage from the state minimum to a nice middle-high range of coverage...my rates dropped. Apparently, profiling people by the coverages they elect is fine. They told me that most people who get minimum coverage are more likely to have accidents.

Good comments section for real world tips. But that article is a little brainless.

before you go buying a beater 1983 olds 88, make sure you read all the fine print. some of these plate/insurance programs restrict your driving considerably to qualify.

something as simple as "are you married?" may seem trivial, but that can give them leverage to cancel your policy & refuse to pay when you need it most.

the funny thing is that before i had on-street parking & now i have a driveway.

i understand the reasoning for the profiling, but the b.s. part to me is that i drive the same roads as i did before, i just get to pay an extra dollar/day to do it.

when you get to the part of interview where they're asking you to disclose your indiscretions over the past 3-5-7 years, don't disclose anything other than what's in those reports.

personally, i'm amazed that anyone in that state can get a driver's license, let alone insurance. =P

I considered reducing coverage slightly or increasing deductible, but these items would have saved me a mere $7-$20 per year while significantly increasing my personal financial risk. Frankly, I think it is poor advice to increase a deductible (exposing yourself to hundreds more in risk) just to save $20 a year. And I checked this with my carrier (Liberty Mutual) and others - Progressive, Geico, State Farm.

When it came down to it, I just called Liberty Mutual and said "I saw a lower quote from Progressive, based on a match in the coverage listed on my deck page. I don't really want to switch, but money is tight and price has to be the priority this year." Miraculously, my premium went from $780/year to $620/year, AND they found a discount they applied retroactively to make my amount due for the next 6 months of coverage $501 total (This for $100k/$300k/$50k policy with 2 drivers). The person on the phone at Liberty Mutual actually listened to me and treated me like a human being, too (yay). I got her email address and sent her an email thanking her and praising her professionalism, and expressing that I remain a customer because of her. I hope she forwards it to her boss.

So, I would replace "Increase your deductible" with "Just ask."

@astraelraen: I do the same low-milage thing with State Farm, but it made very little difference for me; something on the order of $20 / 6 months. It may be correlated with having them as my insurance for 25 years without any accidents or claims of any sort along with a whole bunch of other discounts(multiple cars, multiple lines, etc.).

The mileage thing is pretty huge. I work 2 miles from my office and my wife is a stay at home mom. A friend tipped us off on low mileage insurance discounts.

In our case, State Farm offers one if you drive <7,500 miles a year - which we do.

It literally cut our 6 month premiums in half.

I find it shocking but I'm paying less for two cars in MA than I paid for a single car in NYC.

And don't even bother having car in NJ !