Car insurance

[Miulang]

If you have a car insurance policy from Progressive, see if your rates either go up or down (based on your address) the next time you have to renew your insurance. Apparently Progressive may now be charging premiums based on where you live: people in less desirable neighborhoods (e.g., where there's lots of crime or lower income residents), your insurance rates may go up.

All the insurers up here have been adjusting rates based on your residential address for years. Lately, they've also been adjusting rates depending on your credit rating, which I think is highly discriminatory, since I haven't yet seen a report that your credit rating also determines how much of an accident risk you are (it might determine whether you pay the premiums on time, but I don't think there's a direct correlation with being a bad credit risk and a bad driver).

You guys have to keep your eye on this one, because if it turns out that Progressive is in fact doing this, all the rest of the auto insurers in Hawai'i will want to start doing it too, and then after that, they'll start looking at your credit rating to figure out how much to charge you.

Miulang

[tutusue]

Re: Car insurance

[...]You guys have to keep your eye on this one, because if it turns out that Progressive is in fact doing this, all the rest of the auto insurers in Hawai'i will want to start doing it too,[...]

Hmmm...I was under the impression that this was always the case. Maybe that's a carry over from my California days. Dunno!

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: Car insurance

Progressive suddenly jacked up my insurance rates (last year, I think it was)due to a mistake on THEIR part and not due to any fault of mine. I've already switched to another insurance as a result. The kicker was that they didn't even bother sending me a "heads up" letter about their mistake--they just sent me the bill, as though they thought I'd mindlessly pay it and not notice that it was almost double what I was paying before.

Don't miss Progressive at all.

[Tiabla]

Re: Car insurance

Progressive suddenly jacked up my insurance rates (last year, I think it was)due to a mistake on THEIR part and not due to any fault of mine. I've already switched to another insurance as a result. The kicker was that they didn't even bother sending me a "heads up" letter about their mistake--they just sent me the bill, as though they thought I'd mindlessly pay it and not notice that it was almost double what I was paying before.

Don't miss Progressive at all.

Progressive did the same thing to me last year. They doubled my premiums for no reason, and the person on the phone said that "pretty much all Hawaii premiums went up substantially." Later that day I switched to Geico and haven't looked back.

Now, if I could somehow qualify for USAA and their superior rates and service, I would switch to them in a minute!

[Lalalinder]

Re: Car insurance

I have Geico as well, and am very happy with it.

[lurkah]

Re: Car insurance

If you have a car insurance policy from Progressive, see if your rates either go up or down (based on your address) the next time you have to renew your insurance.

Eh Miulang, aren't you able to qualify for AARP discounts yet?

[LikaNui]

Re: Car insurance

I have Geico as well, and am very happy with it.

And I'll be the third one in this thread to say that I have Geico and am very happy with it.
I understand that Geico will jack up your rates big time if you ever actually file a claim, but that's okay by me. Only accident I ever had was when I was 16 and had only had my license a few months... and my car got rear-ended.
By a COP!

Hopefully I won't have to file any claims and my Geico rate will stay nice and low.

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: Car insurance

I have Metropolitan for my auto insurance. There was a time, not long after when I first came here, where I had moved from the town of Barrington, RI to a new address less than .75 miles away, across the Palmer River, into the town of Warren, RI. My semi-annual auto premium jumped from $450 to $600, just like that, because my new billing address and place of residence was the less desirable Warren.

I called up Metropolitan and asked why should my premium should go up so drastically just because I relocated to an new address, less than a mile from where I had been living. Where I was living in Warren was essentially indistinguishable from my old address in Barrington...the two neighborhoods were practically identical in every aspect. The explanation was that Warren suffered a much high incidence of auto theft, and no matter where an insuree lived in Warren, be it the tony coastal neighborhood of Touisset to the dregs of the Warren waterfront, they would pay a higher rate.

Later, when I relocated to Bristol (4 miles south of Warren), my rate went back down to the $450 level. It has, of course, increased through the years, to where it is now $630 every 6 months. I imagine the same coverage in Warren would now be over $800 semi-annually.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Car insurance

I have AIG and same thing. When I moved from Honolulu to the Big Island my rates went up as well. I guess the news was correct...Big Island drivers really do suck!

[Konaguy]

Re: Car insurance

Craig, actually Bruce McClure, the DPW head, said that inflamatory comment.
http://aaronstene.blogspot.com/2006/...-comments.html

As much I respect and appreciate the help Bruce McClure has given
to me over the years. I found his comments that "Big Island drivers
suck", inflamatory and inappropriate. WHT article on this meeting.


Dear Mr. McClure,

I read your comments in WHT that you made about
Big Island drivers suck. Please don't get wrong with what
I'm going to say. I have a lot of respect for you and I appreciate
your help when I bring issues to your attention.

But I strongly believe that comment was inflammatory
and it could've been said in less inflammatory way.I'm willing to
bet this will be poster material for the people in West Hawaii
who are angry at county government for their apparent lack of action
in West Hawaii.Again please don't take my comments personally.

Back on topic, I've been with State Farm for 9 years and have been
very happy with them.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Car insurance

I almost choked on my cough medicine (yeah I'm sick) when I saw that article. But then as the saying goes, "this is the Big Island" and as much as that statement is correct (for the entire island not just west), you're right that he should have said it a bit more eloquently? Basically he's saying, "Hey Big Islanders...you suuuuucccckkkkkkk!"

I'm sure he meant to say that off the record. Either way there's a lot of ignorance on this island and I'm surprised that more lawsuits haven't emerged as a result of these kinds of statements and reporting that goes on here. I tell you I think a Poly science class at UH Manoa could run this island better. Notice how I said Manoa and not UH Hilo? We all know about the student body issues going on there.