Being a frequest visitor/poster of these forums and as a licensed insurance broker I wanted to share some information for the “why did my rate go up?” crowd…or simply for those who aren’t familiar with how insurance works.
I have been in the business just over 8 years, and i have NEVER seen the market this bad. I can only speak for the northeast, but rates with just about every company are increasing anywhere from 15% to 40% on renewal. Some companies are even re-evaluating loss history and flat out dropping people. It’s pretty wild times and the more you understand it, the less the sting will be when you get that renewal. A few things to note.
–While YOUR rates are mostly determined by you (your credit, location, claim history, vehicles, drivers etc)…insurance as a whole is still based off the risk of the overall pool of people. Therefore, the more claims that get put in with each respective company, the higher their loss ratio is…which in turn forces companies to increase base rates regardless of whether you got in an accident or not. Claims have increased over 300% the last 3 years, and the cost of claims has increased almost 50% due to increased cost in medical, parts, labor, property damage, etc. You can do the math.
–In today’s world of insurance, you should be shopping your policy every 3 years regardless. But there are three triggers where you should ALWAYS shop. When you get a new vehicle, when you buy a home, and when you add/remove drivers from your policy.
–Bundling is great, and usually recommended…but its not necessary. I can’t tell you how often I insure clients auto with company A and their home with company B…it’s all about the numbers. Sometimes it just makes more sense, don’t be afraid to consider that as an option as you could be leaving some pretty good savings on the table.
–Do yourselves a favor, if you are getting a new vehicle find out how much it is going to be on your insurance. Those scumbag dealers will scream in your ear how allll these new safety features will save you money on insurance blah blah blah…when the reality is they just cost more. These new cars are EXPENSIVE and EXPENSIVE to insure. Just a brutal feeling spending all of this time hacking a lease only to realize all of the time you spent getting that extra discount is washed away because your insurance is going up $140 a month.
If you have any generic questions please feel free to reach out to me directly. It’s a brutal market out there and the more you know the better.