Car/Home Insurance - Grey Power

[RedRose]

Group Insurance vs Comparison shopping? Has anyone gone either of these routes?

I just received my car insurance bill for 2 cars. I am recently widowed so one car will be either sold or going to my son eventually, but I will still need to insure it as he is now driving it. His car is parked up in my garage and up for sale.

The bill is $1819.00 a tidy sum. We bought 2 Hyundia's just last Sept/2010 as my husband thought they would last us another 10 years like the last set of cars we had. Now I don't need his brand new Sante Fe. I get around quite well in my little Elantra.

The Ins bill.
1M Liabiliy premium 177
1M property damage 133
1M fam protection 27 + 12
Accidental Benefits 235
Comprhens. 83 (300 deductable)
Collision 196 (500 ")
Rental car 64
rental car 19

Vehicle 1 total premium 932
Vehicle 2 total premium 887

Safe Driver rating of 6
62 yrs licenced over 30 yrs

Any advice sincerely appreciated.

[OhGreatGuru]

1. You'd better make sure your son is listed as a regular driver on the policy.
2. Tell your son to pay half the insurance, as otherwise you have no need for 2 cars.
3. The extent of coverage is reasonable, and many people now are even looking at $2M+ liability due to inflation.
4. You could get a rate reduction by increasing your deductibles. But then you need more emergency funds of your own.
5. Talk to agents about combining your home & car insurance with one company. You can often get a rate reduction this way.
6. It will be difficult to comparison shop until you get rid of the 2nd car - your son being the principle driver will complicate matters.

[RedRose]

Thank you Guru for your response.
There always seems to be a confounding aspect to everything financial I am finding... If I sell the 2nd car after 6 months will lose big time approx, 10K...what to do huh?

I do have Home and Auto combined with this company.
My husband had always renewed every year with them. It was less complicated that way as his health was failing.

Thank you again,

[MoneyGal]

What are you "losing" when you sell the second car?

[andrewf]

The depreciation is a sunk cost. You can't recover that lost value by keeping the car.

[OhGreatGuru]

PS. Considering you are insuring 2 practically brand new vehicles; and neither one is the cheapest model Hyundai sells; your insurance cost is probably not unreasonable.

[RedRose]

Thank you for the suggestions and advice. My son will buy the Sante Fe off me so as to save the larger loss. I would rather the depreciation loss go to him than a stranger.
He has a Ford Explorer to sell and has just reduced his price for a quick sale and this would just pay out his loan on that vehicle.
So until all this happens we are insuring 3 cars just for the time being.
Thank you all so much, I am not functioning the best with mental clarity to think these things thru.

I still have the pension vs lump sum quandry to sort out too...:confused:
And on it goes...

[carverman]

Group Insurance vs Comparison shopping? Has anyone gone either of these routes?

I just received my car insurance bill for 2 cars. I am recently widowed so one car will be either sold or going to my son eventually, but I will still need to insure it as he is now driving it. His car is parked up in my garage and up for sale.

The bill is $1819.00 a tidy sum. We bought 2 Hyundia's just last Sept/2010 as my husband thought they would last us another 10 years like the last set of cars we had.

Getting 10 years out of any vehicle these days is debatable. Even if unused and sitting in the driveway, things rust out on them..like brake rotors/brakes seizing
up and other things deteriorating, even when sitting around most of the time.



The Ins bill.
1M Liabiliy premium 177
1M property damage 133
1M fam protection 27 + 12
Accidental Benefits 235
Comprhens. 83 (300 deductable)
Collision 196 (500 ")
Rental car 64
rental car 19

Vehicle 1 total premium 932
Vehicle 2 total premium 887

Safe Driver rating of 6
62 yrs licenced over 30 yrs

Any advice sincerely appreciated.

That does seem a bit high to me, especially the property damage premium ($133?) considering your driving and claims free record.

Why are you paying $83 in premiums for a rental car
when you have two cars in your family available to you?

Surely both cars are not going to be in an accident at
the same time?
Ok, I suppose that the Santa Fe has a different car rental premium over the Elantra, but still
this seems unreasonable premium if you are paying for
both and both cars are located at the same address.

I've tried GP in the past, frankly even with my long claims free and retired senior's driving record, their premiums seemed to be a lot higher than some of the other insurers I got quotes from in the Ottawa,
Ontario market, but I don't know what insurance market you are in, so the premiums may make a bigger difference in the larger cities.

I am retired an own a 13 year old Dodge truck that has cost me $2000 in repairs this year, and a V8 gas guzzler
to boot, but I like driving it because it is comfortable for me, and I can haul a lot of stuff around in the back.

I went back to President's Choice financial this year after getting quotes from GP and others..Pres Choice were the least expensive premium ($697) for what I got..

Liability (1 million) $260
Property damage $ 6
Accident benefits $189
Uninsured automobile $ 6
Direct compensation
property damage $ 68
Comprensive/Collision $111
Family protection (1mil) $7

and the
driving record protector $50 (this one allows the first accident claim (comprehensive claims excluded), that
you make to be "forgiven" by the insurer against future premium increases.
It doesn't protect against the yearly premium increases, but against any premium increase due to the accident claim you submitted or reported.

While the rental car premium may sound like a necessity, it is an option that you can drop from
your coverage.
This is one area that you can (probably) micro-manage yourself in case of an accident where your vehicle is rendered unusable for several days being repaired.

You may not need a rental car every day, and there are other options available.

For myself I decided that that particular coverage (rental car) is not what I really require being retired and within walking distance of a grocery store.

I prefer to spend that portion of insurance premium on protecting my claims free record... or as the insurance
company calls it "accident forgiveness".

[carverman]

5. Talk to agents about combining your home & car insurance with one company. You can often get a rate reduction this way.


I am hesitant about combining a both home and auto policies with the same insurer/agent unless you know for a fact that your home or auto insurance premium isn't going to increase due to a substantial claim on one
or the other. It probably shouldn't, since these are independent coverages, but it all depends on how the insurer sees you as a risk, I suppose.

With more than one claim on either your auto or home, you may see much higher renewal premiums than if you use separate insurers.

For the 5% to 10% saving, you need to really understand if there are any premium increase risks involved on both coverages, should there be a claim on either.

It's great for the insurers if you are claims free as they get more business from you than otherwise.


This year, I experimented with that route with GP to see how much of a saving there was..in my case (claims free on both auto/home) there was NO savings combining them..I got better rates going with separate insurers
over GP. I didn't get another quote from another underwriter, but this was my experience with GP.

[RedRose]

Thank YOU Carverman. That is a good point about the car rental part.
My hubby put that on as went we went down to Florida which was 2-3 times a year, we didn't need to take the rental car insurance, so it was a big saving.

I will eliminate that now as I will not be going to FLA again for a while at least until the raw emotions and memories are easier to handle. Then I would probably be with my son, daughter or friends that would drive me around.

Thank you for thinking this out for me. My mind had not been too clear that is why I am so very glad I found this forum to run things by others.

Just in time as I have to renew on the 19th.