Variability of Insurance

Today I had planned on doing laundry. But we’ve got a house full of teens who wanted a safe haven from the post-prom parties, and now the plumbing has backed up. So while I wait, I decided to shop auto insurance. The variability has me amazed.

As background: This year our daughter started driving. This drastically increased our policy. Her turning 16.5 took our policy from $1916 per year to $3688 per year. The transitional year was difficult to change, but this year I decided to look around. As background, she did have a chargable accident her second time out on her learners permit (under $2K in damage, just our car), and she’s been stellar ever since. Her driving has also upped the mileage on our cars this year as she went back and forth to high school; that will go away in the next policy year as she’ll be at UC Berkeley with no car. Based on that, I estimated using 2/3rd of this year’s monthly mileage.

So how varied were the quotes? Remember, our AAA number from last year was $1844 for six months. GEICO came in with an amazing $843.40 for six months (I don’t know how much that will change if Karen would be a homemaker vs. retired engineer). Esurance came in at $1,494 for six months. They also estimated some other companies–in particular, $1,333 for six months from Safeco, and $1,505 for six months from 21st Century… but it looks like they didn’t get deductable numbers right. Progressive, which advertises as saving money, came in at a whopping $2765 for six months, the bulk of that being just one car at $2189. I’ve still got to call State Farm.

For a few hour exercise, it was worth it. When I get this year’s information from AAA, I’ll call them and give them one chance–otherwise we may just switch back to GEICO (we were with them many many years ago).

Music: Till I Loved You (Barbra Streisand): Love Light