OK, I just spoke with my statefarm agent. Heres the skinny... If I were to add my son to the policy, he would be considered an "occasional driver" because there are less cars than drivers in my household. If I were to purchase a 3rd vehicle, he would have to be a primary driver for one of those vehicles and would cost me more. So, the best deal for me is adding him as an occasional driver. His rate would be based on the least expensive vehicle. Also, theres a good student discount that would apply for grades B or better. A savings of $240/year. BTW, he's currently an "A" student. They quoted me $400/6mos. $520/6mos w/o good grades. I have to admit its not as bad as I thought it would be.

Ahhhhh....deep breath. Thank you all for your wisdom and replies! I'm going to look into the companies you suggested as we still have time to change before our old coverage expires. Now that I'm calmer (!), I think I wouldn't have hit the ceiling if yesterday's email from Esurance had included a statement like: "Please note: if this vehicle was purchased within the past XX days, please confirm that the registration has been updated to reflect your ownership" or something to that effect. I simply opened the email and was blasted with the notice that they'd found something that we'd apparently hid from them, and my interpretation of that was that it was slamming our ethics. I'm not saying that very well, but you get my drift. I also find it terribly creepy that they put the full name of a stranger in our email. When we purchased the truck last week from a long-standing reputable dealer, never in any paperwork was the previous owner's name listed. Frankly, we're buying a used truck, and the previous owner's name is none of our business. So that email on top of the previous one that claimed we'd provided inaccurate information about a gap in our coverage on top of our current insurance agent's genial incompetence on several occasions (not that his incompetence had anything to do with Esurance!) was enough to send me around the bend. We have excellent credit and a clean driving record other than a deer hit at the end of 2009 (the deer hit last fall didn't count against us since no insurance was paid out) so this should be SO simple. Thank you all again. I'm off to do some internet research! You guys are the best!

Sorry that you've had this hassle to cope with, apart from the expense. Around here, we have no fault insurance. When I was in an accident and not judged at fault, my insurance paid for the write-off of my old car ('93 Ford Taurus). Paid me about what I'd bought it for, about 6 mos. previously. When I (evidently) ran the red light, as I was found to be at fault and ticketed, there was no compensation ... I had to suffer the loss of my car. Actually, I fixed it, at larger cost than it had cost me to buy it, about 6 mos. earlier, as it appeared, at about 120,000 mi., to have potentially quite a few good miles left in it and it seemed a waste to scrap it, though it was close to 20 years old. It costs a great deal of precious energy, plus adds to not only pollution but to global warming as well to build a new car for me (or the portion of its life that I'd use in an older model). Even if she had insurance, if she had no driver's licence, they likely would not have covered, in any event. The owner of the car had responsibility to ensure that only licensed drivers drove it - apart from it being stolen. When my friend the milk man wanted to go on holiday, with his son to drive the route, son had to upgrade driver's licence from, supposedly, permission to drive truck to one with air brakes. There was ice in the home when I visited, as it appeared that the son had only licence to drive a car, the Dad had given him the devil, the Mom was angry at Dad for hurting her son's feelings ... and found it hard to get her head around the fact that every time the son drove that truck out the lane unaccompanied by a properly licensed driver, he put at risk everything that they owned ... as the insurance company would not have covered any trouble. Actually ... I upgraded my truck licence to coverage for air brake and rode around sitting beside the son as he did the driving, or I drove the truck myself. ole joyful

I've sold for 15 years for the same big Illinois company. Many things get factored into the rates. Experience ratings of both the vehicles and the drivers. Unfortuneately as we get older - 70 and above - rates increase. Your not going to see rate decreases unless you've lost a driving discount in the past and it is restored. Just because a car gets older doesn't mean diddly. That assumes if there is a loss that it will be a total loss and you will recieve a check for the cars value. Cars today don't get totaled that often, instead they are repaired and the cost for parts, labor etc. don't decrease so therefore they are passed on to us, the consumer. Cars that are 10 years old or more, the parts become a bit more difficult to find. Insurance companies don't want customers shopping every year or two and they certainly don't want stand alone policy holders. There's a lot of initial cost to setting up a policy, there's my time, the cost of running CLUE reports, credit and MVR's. Those are not free. Odds are a stand alone policy holder will file a claim while they are there, leave and the insurance company has lost money. Your Geico's, Nationwide and Progressive companies tolerate the "shoppers" until the claims hit them then they increase the rates to make up for it. They bring in the new blood which today is really your single under 30 drivers or those who only want liability insurance. Longevity does pay off with a company, it may not feel like it but it will. Having an agent to bounce things off of can be very beneficial. I have customers that I've worked with for 10 - 15 years, we both know they could probably go elsewhere and pay a little less but they won't get the service I give them. I'm licensed to sell insurance, I 've gone on websites to get quotes so that I can see what the average consumer is faced with when they do an online quote. How would you know what coverage is adequate and why you should have it unless you can talk to someone about it. If you do leave your company, don't immediately cancel your current carrier, big mistake. Cancel the automatic withdrawal and go to direct bill but wait until you have your new policy, the coverage's are what you wanted and the premiums are what you were expecting. Alot of companies underwrite after they bind you, pull the reports and guess what, there's a change in premiums. To keep the business, perhaps a deductible is increased or a coverage lost. Most companies can back date a termination as long as you provide proof that you are covered elsewhere. As for deductibles, in my experience the best way to go is a minimum of $1,000.00 on your home and $500.00 collsion deductible with a $100.00 comprehensive deductible. As for your homeowner's renewals, watch them closely. Many companies are going actual cash value for roofs and siding. Depending on the age of your roof, that can be a costly oversite. They will also offer you the renewal with a different deductible. I've seen the same company renewals come out with a 1% deductible. That is not 1% of a loss, that is 1% of your dwelling coverage. In this area our average dwelling coverage hovers right around $300,000 making the deductible $3,000.00. I could go on but I'll stop here. Just remember, insurance is one of those things we love to hate, it's not tangible but most of us today could not afford to self insure and that's what it's there for. Use it for the big stuff, forget about the small claims, they will cost you triple in the long run.