Compared Insurance with My Current Company and Saved $250!

Recently got a reminder that every once in a while you ought to check your insurance policies to see if they're still the best deal. I did and was amazed that through the same company I could get a policy for $250 less than I was paying!

I had been with Progressive for several years, having an auto policy with their Drive.com service. The prices had been the lowest when I first got them, and hadn't been going up so I was renewing them each 6 months (saving $60 by paying the premium up-front rather than monthly). Late last year, my old 1984 Ranger pick-up truck finally gave up the ghost and I had to replace it. Found a nice used 1994 Toyota pick-up to replace it.

So I contacted my insurance company and they said the policy would be $70 higher. I couldn't figure it out because nothing was changing, so I questioned it. My agent checked and said that Progressive assigns each type of car a value based on the damage it can cause in an accident (not on the safety of its passengers but on the property damage it would cause). She said they rated the Ranger as a 4 but the Toyota is a 10, so my liability costs would go up.

I was frustrated because the Ranger and the Toyota were equivalent size trucks, so such a big disparity seemed incongruous. It triggered me to look around. I contacted other companies and got quotes and then remembered the TV commercials for Progressive.com. I visited their website and got a quote -- I used my old policy to make sure the same coverage was specified. Was I surprised when the quote came back as $200 less than if I went with their drive.com insurance!

And by signing up on-line I got an extra $50 discount the first 6-month policy too, meaning I was paying $250 less than if I had just kept the same coverage with another part of Progressive. I checked with an on-line agent to make sure I could switch my policy within the company and there was no problem.

Same company, same coverage, $250 less... not bad. Turned out the boost in policy my agent quoted was the catalyst to make me do what I should have done anyway. So you can bet that when my other types of policies are coming due, I'll be doing some cost comparisons too.