I had mine redone a couple of years ago (through an agent), and saved a lot of money. My car insurance is bundled with my homeowner's. One reason why the new policies cost so much less with the new carrier is I had the pool filled in. But it would have been less anyway even without the pool factored in.

Hope you have a similar result!

We seem to change about every 2 years because of ridiculous increases. We went from GEICO to Hartford to Travelers to now, State Farm. We saved a lot by bundling each time, with homeowners and auto but after each year, they raise their rates an unreasonable amount. Like you, we never have made any claims.

We've been with State Farm for 44 years and we need to find someone with cheaper rates too. It is just ridiculous what we are paying. No claims for us either and our cars keep getting older and older, thus not worth as much.

Same here. We have Allstate and every time we get a new car the rates keep going up. Sooner or later there has to be a cut off for rates. I could see if the rates went down every year we own the car but no they stay the same. We bundle also and still don't save. Same with our cable bill, we bundle and it still keeps going up. I said to my DH, I'm ready to cancel everything and keep just basic cable, wifi and our landline. Our phone is only $8 a month. I said we could probably stream all the programs we watch on the internet anyway. So why are we paying over $200 a month for this.

I too had trouble when DH passed away. Allstate thru an independent agent said my insurance would go up over 100.00 because I was a single woman driver. I suggested very strong that would be not legal, but he just said he could not do any thing and I even called the main Allstate office and they said the same thing. So I changed to a local ND insurance company that I have my house insurance thru and it went down over 400.00 per year and when I move to Minot, it dropped another 100.00. Don't know why? but big difference. They do a lot of farm policies also.

Insurance rates go up as accident repair costs and the level of accident and loss claims go up. If those underlying costs were decreasing, rates would decrease too. It's a competitive market, a company charging too much won't have customers after long.

For car insurance quote, just make copies of your insurance cards. Get a couple of quotes.

Unless you're using a company whose prices are way out of the range of others (and many people are), rates are often quite comparable.

If you have any connection to the military or any family members that do you might check into the USAA insurance prices. A few friends of mine found out they qualified due to family connections and their prices were much lower.

I have wanted to check it out for us because my husbands son was in the military for years and so is our grandson and his wife.
We are with state farm currently and yes it does go up, we have all the discounts, good driver, onstar, multiple vehicle etc which helps a little.

USAA

Here are some good points and information on buying insurance
Buying Auto Insurance

Thank you Ravencajun! I just got an online quote from Ameriprise with a Costco discount. It is $400 a year less expensive. I'm running over to American Family. My father and grandfather were in service, but I don't think we would qualify as both have passed on. I'll check out the other site !

I got a USAA quote on my house a couple of years ago and it was double (yes, 2X) what I was paying. That was a shocking and unexpected way to find out that my current carrier's premium is reasonable.

Holy cow, Batman!

My head hurts. Yikes. The 2 cars vary, from (for both) $600.00 to $1,200.00 per year LESS that what we are paying now. The 600 has some umbrella coverage, the others don't. The home insurance varies from $280/year to $500.00/year less. OMGosh, we've been paying through the nose for a lot of years.

Be very careful. You get what you pay for.
You may have trouble collecting on a claim.
You may be dropped quickly and then have
trouble finding another company.
Read reviews of insurance companies on-line
before you switch.

Here is a link that might be useful: Consumer Affairs reviews

I checked around awhile back, The Hartford had higher coverage limits.....more medical pay, $500K per accident limits....other companies didn't even offer that high a coverage limits. I can save money if I want "LESS" coverage.

My USAA quote ....was about $20% higher than Hartford with an AARP discount and they had lower limits.....

It's been a couple of years....I'll be checking around again...

We have used Mercury Insurance for years for the cars.

lindakathy, thank you for the link. Not one insurnace company has more than 1 star so I think I'll just stick to Allstate until I retire, get rid of the car and move into an apartment. Then all I'll need is renter's insurance. Hopefully, I'll be close to a bus depot. lol

The consumer site posted above, all have 1 star ratings-lol

maybe not the cheapest but the service has been awesome!! aaa way back when I got a divorce in 1968, they were only ones who didn't insist I use x's last name or "pretend" I wasn't divorced....made the sad mistake of changing for a while to farmers...when I came back I'd lowered the rate by $400....and I do use the card for service, ect....

Went today and changed our car and house insurance from State Farm to Travelers. Wow....what a savings! Have to go tomorrow and cancel with State Farm.

I thought AAA was a supplemental "roadside assistance" service, not an actual insurance policy?

The Consumer Affairs site linked by lindakathy is a for profit, not editorially independent website that has an intentionally misleading name. It's not the well known Consumers Union that publishes Consumer Reports magazine and other pubs.

AAA is a federation of 50 or so regional members that offer similar services in their assigned territories - insurance, travel planning, roadside assistance, etc. They're independent of one another. They make most of their money from selling insurance. The California operators - Auto Club of SoCal and Cal State Auto Assoc tend to have prices at the high end of the market. Even a "membership" for roadside assistance typically costs 2X or 3X what the same thing costs from other insurance providers. Members can book travel as if dealing with a travel agent and can get the nice travel guides and road maps they produce, but both travel services and the guides aren't used by people as much as they used to be.

That's funny, Lindaohnowga, we did just the opposite, changed from Travelers to State Farm and saved about $500. Travelers was going to raise our homeowners policy over $400, because of "claims that they had to pay out to other policy holders after rain damages earlier in the year." Yeah, there's always a reason.....

I'm sure, in a year or two, we'll be calling around again, looking for a better rate, as State Farm will surely increase their rates.

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.

Flamingo, on just "one" of our cars we were paying over $600 for 6 months coverage and with Travelers $500 is the cost for "both" cars for 6 months.

IF the rates on Travelers goes up "a lot" as time goes on, we too will be looking to change again. I do feel bad about leaving State Farm after being with them for 44 years but we are retirees on limited income and just can't afford this rise in their prices.

Interesting, two.25acres. I have 7 or quotes. The lowest was $1,200 less, supposedly for the same coverage. Most of the other ones varied, but just within $100=$200. ALL of the quotes were a LOT less than what we are being charged for the next 12 months. We have been with that insurance company for almost 20 years. I called to see if they could find us any savings. And no, they say we have them all. The most expensive of the quotes was for $1,256/year. That included the "premier" rider that needs to be included with umbrella coverage that we have decided to get. probably... lol I think we are going with the 2nd most expensive, with a little more coverage, and umbrella coverage. We will be getting 2 autos, home owners insurance and an umbrella coverage. All of those equal the same for what we are being charged for 2 automobiles now. It's been interesting to say the least.

Our homeowners had 250 deductible, but most of the agents I spoke with said that going with the 1,000 is better for us. . . crazy, crazy!