Unfortunately my DH and I were kicked off our condo insurance. Why? Because last year we switched from our combination home, auto, and umbrella insurance to Progressive auto insurance and home insurance with Commerce. Unfortunately Commerce won’t write home insurance without doing the auto insurance. So I’ve had to start shopping for new home insurance and possibly auto insurance.
Well I started by calling Progressive for home and umbrella insurance. Unfortunately it more than doubled our home . insurance at $423/year, thus negating the savings for our auto insurance. It also was an extra $200 for umbrella insurance. We currently pay $996 for auto insurance annually. The total insurance package for the year is $1619/year!
I then called AAA and got a quote for auto, home, and umbrella insurance from Commerce Insurance. For the auto it was $1130/year, home and umbrella for $444/year for a total of $1574. Ouch, it appears that we are going to be spending a fortune.
I also followed up with a broker who gave me a quote with discount for Liberty Mutual. It wasn’t any cheaper. It was $1165/year for the auto, $392/year for the home, and $287/year for umbrella insurance. After shopping around I was very disappointed with the total of $1844/year.
I decided to further investigate other options online. What did I find? Well turns out it’s that Costco offers a discount insurance rate with Ameriprise. So did we save money? Yes! Well turns out it will be $637/year for auto insurance, $188/year for condo insurance, and $270/year for umbrella insurance. Thus all three insurances will cost us $1095/year! Great deal, thank you Costco. If I wasn’t a loyal member before, I am now.
Also as executive members for Costco we get free roadside assistance, annual renewal automatically guaranteed, home glass repairs up to $1k/year, 2 home lock outs up to $100/year, and 2 home owners claims a year guaranteed! Very, very nice bonuses.
Next up life insurance. I believe it’s time for us to start investigating life insurance. Of course I plan on starting with Ameriprise and Costco.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Lynn // Jul 15, 2009 at 11:57 am
I am sure you checked but is the coverage the same? That is a huge difference. Costco is good but I can’t imagine they are THAT good.
You usually get a discount getting all the policies together so why did you switch in the first place?
My policies in NJ are so much more expensive than that its crazy. Our home insurance is 1500K, auto insurance is $1925 and the umbrella is $346. And this is all with a $2500 deductible. UGH!
2 LAL // Jul 15, 2009 at 1:01 pm
First off yep I checked coverage. Second realize a lot of things. One my insurance is CONDO, not home insurance. It’s substantially cheaper. Our master condo insurance that my DH pays is $2500/year. This covers the exterior rebuilding of our condo.
Everyone in the condo has to buy interior condo insurance. Thus the total is probably something close to $3500/year or $4k/year for everyone’s together.
Second, our cars are cheap because they are liability only. Progressive is not that much higher for car insurance, but they don’t write the home and umbrella. Someone else does, thus the much higher prices.
Liberty Mutual and Commerce are still keeping customers who didn’t bother shopping around in MA.
MA unfortunately until last year had state run insurance. That means prices were set by the state and they were 2nd in the US. If you were a good driver you basically paid the same as a bad driver because the risk was equally shared.
People in MA were such bad drivers that the state stepped in to regulate insurance. When they deregulated, then good drivers got much better rates.
But most people I work with and know, don’t bother shopping around so they are paying substantially more than US. They only know paying $2k/year for liability because that’s what we paid in 2005 when we came until last year when we could shop around finally.
But the state run insurance guarantees you get insurance. When you go to a free market like every other state, companies no longer need to insure the worse drivers.
We’re cheap because we drive OLD cars, high liability but no collision/comprehensive coverage.
We paid $2k for liability only before, I love this system.
When we left CA we were paying around this much with shorter driving histories because we had clean records and could shop around. At the time we had AAA.
We came to MA with clean driving records and paid a fortune.
3 LAL // Jul 15, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Besides quotes from brokers are ALWAYS higher. How do you think they make a commission or cut?
Going directly to progressive or GEICO is cheaper because they have no go-between agent.
4 R. May // Jul 15, 2009 at 1:19 pm
LOL. When I went to school in NH was the first time I encountered Mass*h*les as they’re called. Really very true – it’s bizzare that one state can be home to so many horrendous drivers for no apparent reason.
5 LAL // Jul 16, 2009 at 9:01 pm
R.may that is so true. People here just drive beaten up cars all the time. It’s so not worth since people hit you in the parking lot and leave.
6 LAL // Jul 17, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Mass*(*(&8(* for sure.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/survey-reveals-that-boston-is-a-city-of-ldquocourageous-commutersrdquo,895690.shtml
Boston is the courageous commuter. Sigh. Typical. They seriously need to get a life. I am a neutral navigator, come from living in LA for so long. Traffic is a way of life.
Out in CA, you sit there and listen to music. And leave for everything 1 hour early because there is tons of traffic.
7 R. May // Jul 21, 2009 at 4:30 pm
hehehe – i used to go up through western mass, into vermont and then across to NH. little longer but at least i figured my chances of arriving in one piece were better.
8 LAL // Jul 23, 2009 at 10:17 pm
MA drivers are interesting. Everyone here has a beater car.
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