I called up my agent and switched from AIG to Progressive. I was quoted $100 a month for my full coverage. You can imagine my surprise when, two days before the EFT was to take place, I got a friendly reminder from Progressive that my $180 payment would be coming out as scheduled.

Um... Needless to say, I flipped and made a friendly call to Progrssive, since I know this isn't something my agent did wrong. (He's a good guy and we go way back.)

I speak with a guy who tells me they found an at-fault accident dating to August 04 that I "Must have forgot" when I applied with them. I told him that I hadn't forgotten it, but that it wasn't an at-fault accident. This *was* a collision claim, but damages were sustained due to my driving over something unknown, like a rock, which damaged the undercarriage of my car.

I was advised to contact www.choicetrust.com/servlet/com.kx.cs.servlets.CsServlet?channel=welcome&subchannel=clue. I finally got around to calling them this afternoon and it's cool enough that I thought I would share.

The guy at Choice Point took some information from me and pulled up my driving record. He told me that he saw the claim I was talking about and said that American Family, who covered me at the time, failed to report the claim as at-fault or no-fault, so obviously Progrssive just assumed I was at fault for this one.

He mailed me out a copy of the report and once I've viewed it, I call back with my consumer number to dispute the error. At that point, they go back to AmFam and give them 30 days to resolve the issue or they decide in favor of me. Then I can take the results to Progrssive as strong evidence in favor of them crediting me for the over charges.

Pretty cool, huh? I'd never heard of this before, but I think it's an extremely valuable tool for us car guys. I know there are a lot of vandalisms, robberies, and wrecks in this community, so checking out your driving record might show you that you've been getting hosed on insurance for some reason like me!

Hope it helps someone out.

So how long have they been over charging you $80 a month? That could be a nice little bonus for you! :cheers

Hrm...I'm going to have to check this out. There has got to be some reason my insurance is so high.

BTW Brian...is this new ins. guy Terry per chance? I heard he was getting back into the business. I was thinking about giving him a call.

100 dollars a month for full coverage is pretty impressive.

You must be old.

Lol.

Originally posted by slowmitsu
BTW Brian...is this new ins. guy Terry per chance? I heard he was getting back into the business. I was thinking about giving him a call.

It is Terry. Been with him all this time. Last I talked to him, he was out, but still handling things on the side. Worth a call..

i pay like 165 a month for full coverage on 2 vahicles. the eclipse and the blazer.

-Kevin

I pay $94 a month with Progressive for full coverage on my 2007 Nissan Maxima. My BMW was $65 a month. :(

I pay $80/mo to insure myself, my g/f, and my 3 cars, liability only thru AIG. I did the math and decided that unless I have a new car that I owe more on than it's worth, that there's really no point in having comprehensive if your loan terms allow you not to have it.

Filing a claim, regardless of fault, will negatively impact your record for YEARS and drive up your rates thousands of dollars more than the actual repairs would have cost out of pocket. Now I just have a savings account labeled "Car insurance".

But as far as record accuracy, it's super easy to get fucked up. Once a cop filled out an accident report for my g/f who got hit by a drunk driver, and mixed up "Driver 1" and "Driver 2" halfway through the report. It took us 6 months to get the "at fault drunk driving accident" off her record, since the cops refused to change their report.

Originally posted by thedawg
I pay $80/mo to insure myself, my g/f, and my 3 cars, liability only thru AIG. I did the math and decided that unless I have a new car that I owe more on than it's worth, that there's really no point in having comprehensive if your loan terms allow you not to have it.

This is true. I look at it as, I pay $70/month for liability (which is a function of driving record as well as your physical location), so the additional $20/month for comprehensive and collision on a car I want to keep forever is worthwhile investment.

Originally posted by thedawg
Filing a claim, regardless of fault, will negatively impact your record for YEARS and drive up your rates thousands of dollars more than the actual repairs would have cost out of pocket. Now I just have a savings account labeled "Car insurance".

Absolutely correct, but the difference between the formula used to determine rate increase based on at-fault vs not-at-fault vs comprehensive claim is substantial. My rate jumped almost 40% because Progressive assumed this was an at-fault claim.

Your insurance savings account sounds like a damn fine idea. I might have to look into that. I plan on dropping coverage to comp on Daisy when she gets parked in February and, considering the Galant is a beater destined for hard times off road, why bother? :P

Originally posted by thedawg
But as far as record accuracy, it's super easy to get fucked up. Once a cop filled out an accident report for my g/f who got hit by a drunk driver, and mixed up "Driver 1" and "Driver 2" halfway through the report. It took us 6 months to get the "at fault drunk driving accident" off her record, since the cops refused to change their report.

Oh damn. Did she kill him? Because I heard she's got a temper and a good killing is not beneath her. :p

Originally posted by DR1665
Oh damn. Did she kill him? Because I heard she's got a temper and a good killing is not beneath her. :p

LOL guilty as charged there. I showed her this and she laughed her ass off, punched me in the chest, and yelled "I do NOT have a temper" as she walked out of the room.

Bet you were on the ground heaving...