Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I had State Farm for years but would periodically check and compare rates with other companies. If I found a lower rate, I'd call my agent and poof, magically they would match it. I had homeowners and auto with them.
Just how did they do this? Lowering your coverage? The agent can't change rates...
before i switched to liberty mutual, i called up geico to give them an opportunity to match liberty mutual's rate. they wouldnt. it seems like it is not a standard practice with insurance to match rates.
before i switched to liberty mutual, i called up geico to give them an opportunity to match liberty mutual's rate. they wouldnt. it seems like it is not a standard practice with insurance to match rates.
They can't "match rates" unless the rates they filed happen to be the same...
I use to work in this industry and as others have said, Insurance Agents CAN NOT determine your rate/monthly premium. They can't just go around giving you whatever price they feel like charging you. If they magically matched that lower rate that you got quoted from another company, the agent made changes somewhere in your policy for example: the deductible, lower coverage, less mileage driven, etc, whatever it is, something changed that's for sure.
Now, if you have an independent agent who have contracts with many insurance companies instead of just one company like an agent from Allstate, State Farm, etc. He/she can price shop for you and switch you over to a cheaper rate from year to year. You'll still have the same agent, but your car/home will be insured by different insurance companies over the years depending on which rates is most affordable during those years.
Just how did they do this? Lowering your coverage? The agent can't change rates...
Now I am reading the responses and I wonder if they didn't in fact change my coverage? Because they definitely lowered my rates when I said I was switching companies if they didn't. If that's the case, pretty sneaky!
That was in the mid 1990s, if that makes a difference. I'm in a different state now and have my insurance with Farm Bureau (auto, home, business liability) because they gave me the best rates.
How much of a difference does an agent make in premium rates when using a national company, in this case, Allstate? We've used the same office for 8 years and were satisfied. Last year, our agent retired, and sold the business. Since then, our rates have gone up every 6 months.
The agent claims it is due to the corporate increases, but it seems to me that our rates should be decreasing, not increasing. The cars are older, and the listed dependents are too. There have been no tickets, or accidents, in all the time we've been with this agency. Today, our latest bill arrived, and shows our rates increasing $250.00 over 6 months.
If it's likely an increase being passed on by Allstate I might let it pass, but it's curious to me our rates had steadily dropped under the old agent. Should I look for a new office?
shop around. liberty mutual did this to me for 3 consecutive years, even as my wife and I crossed the 30 year old mark. our cars each got a year older, we got older, our records clean, and our rates increased rather substantially. i shopped it...left and went to geico and on 2 cars with full coverage i saved $900/yr. due to some odd circumstances, i ended up talking to liberty again...they quoted me $200 less than geico was charging me. i also saved on my home owners (which liberty had also increased 3 years in a row).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
