Is everyone experiencing that the first year insurance premium is less (say 1K or so) and then ramps-up badly to 2 or 3K annually? Or is it very state or zip code specific? If it is slowly hiking it regardless of location then I need to start saving up more for insurance next year.

 

Google Premium Optimization. Every company does it. Your chances of evading it are microscopic. I would think you should plan on a new carrier every 6-7 years at the latest.
Bruce in Fl

 

Not sure it’s just the LC insurance costs jumping, all my cars have gone up. Unfortunately AAA here only writes 6mos. Policies, maybe they assume you won’t notice the increase as much as yearly premiums. I do get a bit of a “discount” on the LC since it’s stored for the winter (but I also don’t get to drive it).

Agree with Bruce, we’re at about every 5yrs and we start trolling for a new carrier. They usually set the hook with a lower cost but only the 1st year.

 

Well, here is a long winded post about insurance hell, all because I purchased an LC500 last year. Almost bailed on my purchase after attempting to get it covered. In the end I sorted it all out, but a warning to others about doing your insurance research before you sign the contract.

I live in the NY Metro area. I was previously with State Farm for 50 years and left them a few years ago because they were charging me almost double the quote I got from Hartford when I joined AARP (with identical coverage). Even after all those years with no claims against me, perfect credit score, no traffic violations and 70 years old, they would not match or even counteroffer. Dropped State Farm and made the move to Hartford.

Fast forward to 2024. I purchased my LC500. My existing cars with Hartford were a Porsche, a Mercedes SUV and an Audi A6. I was only paying $2700 per year for all three with full coverage and a 1k collision deductible. Happy as a clam. I sold the Porsche and just wanted to just transfer the policy to the LC500.

Here is where the nightmare began. Hartford would not add the car as it was not on their “approved list” (told me it was considered too expensive to repair, had a big V8 and was high risk to them). Really? I had a Porsche, as well as an Audi RS5 covered previously by them. The RS 5 was way faster than the LC500, and cost almost the same as LC. So back into the market again. I wanted to keep the two other cars I had with Hartford as it was only $1700 after pulling the Porsche off. I had to get coverage ASAP for the LC and tried the Zebra app. I could not find a single company from them to take the car as a standalone. Tried Geico and they would put it on all by itself with no problems, but they wanted almost $6K a year with $2500 collision deductible.

I wanted an umbrella policy too, and found out I could not have some cars with Hartford and an umbrella policy with another company, so I ended up having to reorganize all my insurance and bunded my homeowners, a 2 million umbrella policy and my 3 cars through a local independent broker. The total quote for all this was way better than ala carte, but still seemed high for the cars. The broker suggested running the policy quote in my wife’s name instead of mine. I asked why that would matter. Our driving records are both clean, we are close in age and our credit is all joint with virtually identical scores, but I said sure, give it a shot. When he ran the same coverage under her name it came in 28% less than under my name. So, I guess even 70-year-old men are still considered higher risk compared to a similar aged women in the same driving household.

After this torturous process, I ended up only paying about $3K for the 3 cars, but did need to up my deductible from $1k to $2.5K to keep premium reasonably close to my previous policy cost at Hartford before the LC was added. A bit bitter for that piece, but this is life in the new world of insurance.

Gird your loins folks, do a lot of comparison shopping (every year), and bundle if you own a home. Even doing all of this, with all these huge natural disasters happening around the country and taxing insurance companies cash reserves, it will probably get worse.

 

It is JMO that your insurance difficulties lie mainly with the State and City where you reside.

When you get bored you should Google Insurance Premium Optimazation. It is an INDUSTRY PRACTICE where they will calculate how much they can raise you Annually without you leaving. This can and will Double your premium in just a few years.

And yes, the Umbrella policy sure does complicate the issue. State Farm has Optimized me to 2x in 3 years. I really should fire them. The bloody cramp of getting a new U Policy is what is stopping me. It's not to critical issue by any means, just that Florida Sparrow horsefly that bites hell outta my neck and sucks blood out once a month.
Bruce in Fl AsKidsWedCatchThoseBtardsRipOneWingOffAndDropThemInTheBiggestFireAntBedWeCouldFind

 

Looked at that "Insurance Optimization" topic. Optimizing profits is always a concern for any business, but adding the AI computed customer payment pain threshold to the mix seems to take it to a whole new level. It is one thing to use your location, age, car type, historical driving and claim history to project risk, but adding a payment tolerance to the formula is outright discriminatory. I have gotten to the point that I now consider insurance just for catastrophic claims. Filing any claim (even if not your fault, will likely cause your premium to be increased). I filed a claim 5 years ago for a cracked windshield (had zero deductible full glass coverage) and was the only claim I ever had filed. When I looked for new insurance, the agent I was working with told me my premium was adjusted upward because of that claim. It did not go up while I was with my current provider, but it does become a gotcha when you look to switch carriers.

The next big thing we all need to watch out for is data sharing from our "connected cars". Car manufacturers can monetize the data stream collected from your cars computer (such as acceleration, cornering or hard braking g-forces, top speeds and such) and could sell it to data brokers or insurance companies. In the future, unless successfully legally challenged, this likely will be another source of data to make premium adjustments. With unrestricted monitoring and sale or disclosure of driving information, even the cars GPS app could theoretically send speed information to local authorities, and they could issue tickets remotely to the registered owner like speed cameras currently do. Look, police already can get court orders to use DNA data from consumer apps like Ancestry and 23 and me to research cold cases, so any data on us that gets collected for what appears to be benign reasons might end up getting used for things you may or may not have authorized in those fine print EULA agreements we just click accept on in our phone apps. Our personal information is nowhere near as private as it was not too long ago, and if it can somehow be monetized, it will be.

 

Yea, we always pay for the "no deductible" full glass (windshield) coverage, especially because of the "road trains" we have here (multi-trailer semi's). Had two windshield repairs last year and yes, they were still marked as claims (along with calling and asking a question). My LC coverage was less than the 2021 RXL I turned in when at first, couldn't believe it and thought it was misquoted. At one point I thought maybe AAA didn't know what it was. But then the creep started for our cars; 2024 $1898.89, $1966.85, $2203.53 and now $3176.43 for 6mos. premiums (that's with the LC in storage, which is currently $130.40). Crazy thing is they write the Home and Umbrella policies for 1yr, only the Auto's are 6mos.

As for tracking, another Forum discussion talked about the Lexus App and making sure to "Opt out" of the Drive Pulse and Trips section. I don't remember if it's automatically set to "Opt in", but it specifically says what it's tracking and sending to Lexus about driving behavior to include locations.

 

This should tell you that they are not comfortable locking rates in for more than 6 months on autos...and you should always prepare for a bi-annual increase in premiums.

 

Yea, but it's getting to be only "catastrophic" insurance (like our healthcare 18K family deductible). Soon enough two of the vehicles will go away with the Kids, hopefully.

 

Well after 6 months of purchasing my Two car policy, my rate already going up by 23% for the new renewal period.
6 months ago I cancelled my AAA home, auto and Umbrella policies and initiated coverage by Progressive and now this. It seems that the trend is 6 months policy periods and premium increases at renewal.
ife sucks.

 

I've been buying home and auto insurance for 60 plus years, and I don't ever remember paying for insurance on a yearly basis It's always been biannual.

Lou

 

Well, for the past 30 years, I always paid on annual basis in one lump sum amount, then it seems that it depends on insurance provider.

 

Re; SecondTimeAround's post on our data being seized from us.
It is already common practice in at least the U.S. to supeona the data from a vehicle's black box to substantiate degrees of At Fault in accidents.
So, unless you are able to actually remove said box after the accident and Destroy it, the courts can determine Exactly your degree of Evilness when you plowed into that bus load of nuns.
I also believe I recently saw a class action suit against some car makers for selling driver's data to insurance companies.
It's already started...
https://fox2now.com/news/contact-2/a...nce-companies/

Bruce in Fl
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AND probably the state in which you are insuring.

 

What I never see in these threads is people talking about Geico and Progressive insurance. I shop my premium every year when it comes up and these two are always the cheapest by far every time.