I have something that I need to get off my chest and this is pretty hard to say as a personal finance blogger…
I have had State Farm auto insurance since the day I turned 16 and I have never price shopped anywhere else. Some of you might be asking yourself how could I have done such a thing. Well, to be very honest with you, it might partially be from laziness. But, 98 percent of the reason why I have never shopped around for car insurance is because I have been happy and felt safe with the coverage ,and the company as a whole.
Those of you who have been following OneSmartDollar.com for awhile now have heard me talking about my accident a few years ago. Wel,l it turned out that the car that hit me did not have any car insurance. This could have meant a lot of doctors bills that I would have been responsible for paying. State Farm stepped in and with my uninsured motorist coverage they paid for all of my bills. They didn’t fuss over the claim, which help me out by not adding any extra stress in my life.
That was then and this is now. I now have a nine moth old daughter and she is showing me just why people say it is so expensive to have kids. I have gone into complete money saving mode. A couple of months ago I changed the data plan on our cell phones to save $50 per month. I am about to drop Comcast cable in order to take advantage of the two years of savings we will receive with free DirectTV. Now, it’s time to start looking at how I can save money on our car insurance.
Like I said, I have been extremely happy with State Farm over the past 16 years, however, we are paying nearly $730 every six months to insure our two cars and that includes our good driver discounts. This past weekend I decided that I was going to get a rate quote from Esurance.com. They have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and they are backed by Allstate Insurance.
Comparing Esurance.com and State Farm
To start my comparison I pulled out my policy papers from State Farm and made sure I had all of the details for the insurance I currently have. I plugged all of the numbers into the sign up form and it told me my premium would be $89.63 per month or $500 for six months paid upfront. That means I would be saving roughly $230 for each six month period.
That is a good chunk of money which could easily be used to pay for diapers. The issue for me is reliability. While I might be saving money, am I going to have a the same kind of reliable service as I would with State Farm? It’s really hard to say.
The Final Decision
Knowing that State Farm is going to take care of me if something happens is worth the extra $38 per month that I pay. I am glad that I decided to chance my ways and become a proactive shopper. Even though I have decided not to switch my insurance for now, I will revisit this issue each year and re-evaluate the situation.
So, when is the last time you sat down to evaluate how much you are paying for your car insurance? If it’s been awhile, I would encourage you to check out Esurance.com and see what they have to say. Had my savings been a little greater I might have considered making the change. Maybe next year…
My step mom and dad whom I’m pay my insurance too is paying an arm and a leg for their Farmer’s insurance now that they lost the home-owner’s discount since they sold their house. I keep telling them to shop around. My dad qualifies for USAA auto insurance as a former member of the Air Force and everyone I speak to who gets them for insurance pays less for great insurance.