horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Hey Gang,

Getting old has its advantages; if for no other reason than car insurance, my wife and I just joined AARP and signed up for the AARP/Hartford auto insurance. Compared to Liberty Mutual, where our policies have been parked since the mid-1990s, the auto insurance alone for our 2006 TL and 2016 Mazda3 dropped from $2,682 per year to $1,111; and the Hartford insurance actually has slightly better coverage.

Best regards,
A couple of old farts.

ifeliciano

That's a great savings. Need to sign up with AARP and reap some of the benefits.

LoveMyTL-S

Since the mid-1990's? Wow, now that's loyalty!!! Glad you were finally able to break away and reap the savings. My agent looks for deals every few years. Actually I need to call them. Thanks for the reminder.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Identical coverage, same limits?
Years ago checked with them, but they didn't offer auto insurance for NJ, so just stayed with the sky high State Farm coverage.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Same coverage in virtually every metric except the AARP/Hartford has glass coverage and my Liberty Mutual policy did not.

Midnight Mystery

My mom uses that policy. It's great! A little expensive. The RDX is about $150+ a month but it is registered in New Orleans, which is a very expensive insurance city. Their service is pretty good and payout on a total is top dollar.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Wow, our two cars combined are less than $100 per months (on an annualized basis).

Jackass

I have always been "iffy" on shopping around my insurance too much. Just never know what level of service each company offers and how well they handle claims and the punishment that follows some claims. I was with American Family from 16-23, then moved from the burbs to the city and my rates tripled. Switched to Allstate for a couple of years, but after 2 break-ins and an accident (not my fault), they decided to not renew me. Their service was top notch, but they had zero tolerance for perceived claims risk. Note....these two years with them were the first time I had ever had an insurance claim.

I then moved on to Country Companies and have been with them for 15+ years for my house and my car. My wife has USAA since she started driving. Neither of us are willing to leave our auto insurance companies behind to unify policies. USAA is quite a bit cheaper on auto if I were to switch my car, but they are quite a bit more expensive for home owner. Both companies have been absolutely fantastic to work with over the years. My wife had a very rough 12 months in college with multiple accidents/claims. USAA was top notch in dealing with it, didn't drop her, but for sure cranked her rates up. After 12 months, her rates dropped back down to cheaper than my 10 year claim free rates.

With any of these insurance threads, there are huge differences state to state and even zip code to zip code on rates and coverage. Insurance is regulated at the state level so me moving 10 miles West from where I am (MO --> KS), my rates and coverage would be completely different. Anyone that carries base coverage amounts I think are crazy...especially in MO where the base minimum won't even cover the cost of a new Sentra. I don't understand people who drop comprehensive and collision coverage either. Unless your car is worth $1500 or you are ok with the $5000-6000 payout to replace your car, why would you drop those coverages? Unless you are absolutely prepared to drop the replacement cost out of your checking/savings accounts, don't drop your insurance. At my age and risk levels, dropping to liability only will only save maybe $20-30 per month which to me isn't worth dealing with buying a new car if something happens to mine.

In MO, any car that is older than 10 years old doesn't require a title to be scrapped. It makes older cars a target for thieves. As long as they can grab it and get it to a shady scrap yard before you make the police report, your car is a goner. The more legit yards will hold the car for a week...while the slightly more shady ones smush it the day they get it. But if I am on travel, I may not know my car is missing and won't be reported until it is too late.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

@Jackass, all valid points. In this case, the folks on AARP have rated the Hartford customer service to be pretty good; easily as good as Liberty Mutual. For a hundred dollars or two, I wouldn't have bothered making the change, but for $1,571 per year (Liberty - $2,682, AARP - $1,111), yeah, making the change made a hell of a lot of sense.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Waiting for paint o dry, so just thought I'd mention, here in Jersey 3 cars, 2 drivers, full coverage $3800 p/year,
no accidents/claims. Now when I say full, $1 million max, but the no threshold we choose doubles the price.
The no threshold allows one to sue after an accident whereas the threshold is a no sue policy. We're not sue
happy, in fact, never sued anyone, but just wanted the ability to do so if necessary. Have checked other
companies with same limits, etc and, just as an example, Geico was $530 more.

If you don't like high car insurance, and/or high property taxes, stay out of NJ.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

LOL, when we moved from New Jersey to New Hampshire back in 2002, our property taxes went down a bit but our car insurance went up by an equal amount. Go figure.