Month: April 2014

And, miraculously, it paid off.

I’d been happy with our insurer, GEICO, until they inexplicably raised our rates by over 20% last August. My husband and I have perfect driving records and have always simply carried basic liability on both our automobiles, so the rate raise was hard to justify. I found it quite ironic that the rate raise seemed to correlate with their massive increase in ad campaigns advertising their LOW RATES.

GEICO, however, was completely unsympathetic to my plaintive complaints, and simply offered the option of an online defensive driving course to lower our costs. But there was the inevitable catch in the fine print: the discount was only good at GEICO and the meager savings it offered wasn’t worth the time/expense of the course, in our opinion.

So, we reluctantly renewed our policy last year and resolved to look into a better rate before renewing this year. Naturally, being a typical American procrastinator, I didn’t get around to it until just about 2 weeks before the policy was set to expire. And I wanted to get it all over with as quickly as possible.

Can you think of anything more dull than spending a day on the phone talking to a bunch of insurance agents about car insurance rates? Me either, other than spending the day proofreading computer code.

Needless to say, I was HIGHLY MOTIVATED to find a workaround solution, and I found a great one.

Whether you live in Texas or not, you can make great use of a little-known tool the state of Texas has devised to allow its citizens to compare car insurance rates for about 50 different insurers (such as Liberty Mutual, Safeco, Hartford, GEICO, Allstate, AAA, etc.).

Simply enter your basic information (TX zip code–use any TX zip if you’re not a resident—, type of auto, how it’s used, marital status, age bracket, etc.) on an online form & you’ll get a sortable list of insurers and their annual sample rates. It also shows each company’s AM Best Rating, Complaint Index, and Rate Changes over the last 12, 24, and 36 months.

I ran this form, sorted by annual sample rate, then worked my way down the list by best prices (and complaint index), calling or filling out online forms with 4 different insurers. It took a little more than an hour to find my ideal insurer and we traded GEICO’s $567 annual rate for a $404 annual rate (from Liberty Mutual) for exactly the same insurance coverage for two cars. Well worth the time invested!

Do your family a favor & check it out here: HelpInsure.com

Happy hunting!
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originally posted elsewhere on the web, 8/15/2011