Are you serious? :eek: Some were 50% higher? I have had fluctuations but you got me beat.

I still check around every few years just to be sure. Sometimes the lowest 3 years ago is now higher, sometimes no but being 50% higher really takes the cake. I think I am going to perform annual checks.

State Farm was like that to me. More than 50% more on every single element of my insurance, cars, homes, umbrella. This is after I’d been with them for close to 20 years. Guess it is a good business practice when you can get away with it.

Why did you switch?

Rates can be based on zip codes so your results may vary. Each state has it's own government department that regulates insurance.
Multiple policy discounts (home, auto, life) is usually your biggest bang for the bucks.

What I DO question is, why is it after I present you with quotes from your competitors, you don't back down? I think of going into Best Buy and showing them an ad for say $10 less for the same item. They back down and match the price. What I don't know is how one underwriter can see one thing and the other sees something else different. So what else controls them? :confused: Do they look at different criteria? When I sell something, I match the competitor's price or at least shop them and come close. I can see running promotion to get customers but some of the quotes that nate300d got are pretty far apart.

I personally don’t begrudge any business a model that works for them. Insurance is a great business to be in and clearly some mark their product up way more than others.

I just got off the phone with a Liberty Mutual rep. Liberty mutual quoted 2x what the current provider quoted for the same policy. At least this is 1/3 less than the previously mentioned inde quoted me for the same policy that I have. There is no sense to be made of what one will get quoted.

The worst part of this is that amounts to a compelling case to go back to the company I’m pissed at.

So go own your own insurance company and run at barely a profit. If you can, that is. The homeowner is not really a business so the comparison is moot. Next, is the building owned or is there a loan on it? Does your friend tell you for certain?

Could it be that this friend of yours has not invested wisely? Could he have blown money away? Could the agent have gotten an inheritance? What does he make vs what the agent makes? What does he spend vs the agent? Have you done a proper comparison or is this one of the "I don't know but a friend who......." things?

For your 2nd sentence, "usually" is the operative term but not always true. I've tried and dangled the opportunity to pick up multiple policies to make a savings overall and it usually doesn't add up. That's why i use different insurers for home and auto.

Mine got a lot better when bundled.

I asked a similar question earlier today and the response was that insurers don’t vary their rates based on the idea of being competitive. My words. It is a prerogative.

This is the exact same issue with health insurance and why the ACA came about as there is no incentive for insurance companies to compete except for in an upward nature – that is by increasing costs to the consumer.

As an aside, if it were only $10 i would not care. Most of these are anywhere from ~$150 to $1,100 + increase for the exact same thing.

Thanks. Wish i could make that work.

As long as you can manage it well, many businesses are great businesses. When you don't........ I would think that the current situation would be difficult to mark it up too much more simply because we can get quotes from their competitors. If I had to take a horse and buggy 50 miles to find another company, I can understand. I can get 10 quotes sitting naked in my bean bag chair in the living room watching movies eating cheetos so I think it is going to be hard to think that you are the only game in town.

Don't take it as personal. It's business. I have to do a lot of things I don't like for the same reasons. If I can find a better route, I'm there. Till then, I have to stay with that same crap, like it or not. I can't see spending double just because I don't like you.

Maybe it is me but I can't understand the notion of not competing. I check out my rates vs the competition every so often. I discreetly shop them just to make sure as I am sure they will do me one way or the other. Had you been with the other company, you would have switched on discovery if they don't lower the rates. I would have. I give the current company a shot at lowering the rates to save myself paperwork. So are they counting on your undying loyalty and/or your stupidity to not check? Counting on either, to me, at least, is crazy, to put it mildly.