Ok, I have a decent record. When I was 17(i'm 22 now) I had one minor accident involving a guardrail. It cost Allstate $900. In the time I have been with them, they have pulled in over $5,000 from my just for liability coverage(it wasn't cheap when I was a teen). Now they're telling me that full coverage on a Scion xA is going to be nearly $200 a month even though it's an economy car.

Outside of getting married(I'm not even getting engaged until next month), or waiting until I turn 25, what can I do to get the insurance rates down? I intend to put $5,000 down on the car, so I won't be paying much more than $150 a month, so if I could get the insurance down the $150 somehow, that would be great.

Also, if I can avoid switching providers, I'd prefer it. Any ideas?

 

you should buy an old and cheap car and tell the insurance company that's your everyday car. tell them you only drive the scion for weekends.........that should bring it down abit.

 

Shop around for a new insurance carrier.

When my Allstate premiums went up a few years ago (I was paying $120/month for full coverage on a 93 Eclipse non-turbo then it was jacked up to $210/month). As soon as I head I shopped around and found Nationwide would cost me $130 for better coverage.

I still have nationwide now with one accident that happened a year and a half ago. It cost them about $15,000 total (3 cars and a utility pole) and my rates have yet to increase because of it.

With only one small $900 accident on your record there is no reason at all you should have to pay $200/month for an xA... unless you live in New Jersey

 

I would check prices with State Farm....

Im 21, and have my xB under my own policy and with a $0 deduct, I pay $82 a month.

Then again, this part of Oregon (knock on wood) has a very low crime rate. So obviously if you in a big city- it will be more.

I know State Farm discounts when your 21 and not 25..... so that helps. And if your previous accident if off your record I would'nt metion it to any place you get a quote from...

 

Definitely check around. Allstate is one of the highest priced companies. Their "good hands" really put the squeeze on folks.

 

SHOP AROUND..... I work for an insurance company and pricing is a huge issue. Insurance companies match their pricing to specific locations. For example, if you live in the City you will pay higher rates then if you live in the country due to population density and car theft rates. If your credit sucks that will add to your policy pricing along with the specific line coverages. It is more expensive to have a $100 deductible for comp and collision then a $500 deductible. Depending upon your own budget, I would not go higher then $500 collision and $250 comprehensive, get rental car coverage it pays for itself after two days of use of a rental car. ONCE AGAIN, SHOP AROUND!!!!!

 

There's maybe 10,000 people in this town. That shouldn't be an issue.

Yeah, I figured I'd hate to shop around. I'll just have to convince them to lower it by threatening to go with someone else... politely of course. I called when I was at work, so I didn't have time to debate, but I asked how much it would be if I was married and it would drop down to just over $100. Also, they already dropped my when I turned 21, and will do it again when I'm 25, but this is crazy. When I couldn't believe that the marraige thing caused such a significant drop, she was like "well statistics show..." Had I had the time to argue, I would have said that I am not a statistic and that they ought to do like their commercial that says safe drivers cost everyone less, so they should have to pay less.

In 5 years they have made over $4,000 on me for JUST liability coverage on old throwaway cars. My one accident was when I was 17, and quick thinking is what kept anyone else from hitting me. I flipped the car on the highway when I hit the guardrail, so I grabbed the relective orange barrel, ran up the road about 50 feet(it was nighttime of course), and put it in the middle of the passing lane where my car was draped over because I didn't want anyone else involved.

That was just teenage stupidity. I shouldn't have been driving in that snowstorm, and I shouldn't have been so confident in my new(BRAND ****ING NEW) tires that I got a couple weeks before.

Well, I'll just have to see who can give me what and try to get Allstate to match it. I'd much rather stay with the same company and get what I want out of them than to jump to another one. The longer you stay with a company, the easier it is to get them to bend over and take a big one from you in order to keep you as a customer. Repeat/longtime customers are the most expensive to replace. They know this.

So I guess I'll see what happens.

 

using progressive, i pay bout 170 a month for my insurance. after a multicar discount (girlfriends car is 80 or so full coverage. also getting lowjack or an alarm will both drop your rate. and if your insurance company allows you too, take traffic school for no reason and you can drop your insurance again that way. remote keyless entry system might even drop your rate. GPS navigation, add your mother too the vehicle (or father, whichever looks the best too the agency) and say theyre going to be the main driver. liability for a bug for me was like 180 when i FIRST got my liscence, but i added my mom and it dropped to about 80 or so. also see if anyone wants to add their car to your policy and pay you the rate for the car. a multicar discount will help. thats about it from me :-\

 

I'd switch providers, unless they are gving you a discount for being a loyla customer there is no reason to go to a company that charges more than others. also you have to remeber that unless you are paying cash for the car you are pretty much required to have full coverage.
I had a friend who had a new car and thought he could just keep liabilty on it. Long story short: he had an accident and his car was totaled, the insurance company wanted the title, bank had the title... at the end he has to pay 18K for a car he doesn't have, he can't afford another car and is stuck living with his parents while working fast food.

I pay about $600 every 6 months for my xA(full Coverage) and a 78 Celica(liability) that has no engine but I am 30y/o and havent had an at-fault accident in 8 years

 

That's exactly how much they said it would be for me too

Well, the goal is to convice them to charge me as little as the other companies so I don't have to switch.

Yeah, I know. That's the problem.

I wish I could even get it down to $150 a month... at least then I wouldn't be paying more for insurance than I'd be paying for the car.

I have been in one accident, but i was the only one involved, nobody was hurt, and the only damage that was claimed was the $900 for the 6 feet of guardrail I took out. I cant' believe a guardrail is that expensive. No wonder taxes in my state are high.

Wow... all those things could possibly drop the rates huh?

Well, I'll have to spend more time talking to them about that, because if doing something doesn't take much time or money and will save me in the long run, I'll do it. I don't mind having a car alarm... I would just never use it. It would only be there to lower my insurance. The reason I wouldn't use it? Doesn't take much to set them off. I hate them. Now that lowjack... is that the vehicle tracking thingy? I'd be pretty ok with that being in the car.

So, are any of these things available on the car from the factory, or are they aftermarket things that I have to do? You know, like the alarm and stuff?

Anything that won't completely kill my wallet and bring the insurance down to $150 a month would be fine. I could deal with that I think.

 

The big cost is liability. Anyway, the easiest way to lower your insurance bill is to contact an insurance broker. They'll shop around and give you a list of places and the best prices. We saved hundreds a year by doing that, and we already had a good rate. You can also raise your deductible.

 

Good luck! I'll bet that when you take the lowest quote to them the Allstate agent will just look at his premium schedule and say "don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out!"

Don't get stuck on an insurance company. It's a product, not a marriage!

 

According to the breakdowns I saw when i got my quotes, collision was the big cost.

It's possible, and if it happens, I'll leave. I don't stay with companies that don't give me what I want, but when I'm already with them, I like to give them a chance to do that before going to the trouble of going with somebody else.

 

Allstate is soo expensive. I had Allstate since I started driving 9 years ago, and damn I have been getting ripped off. I had been paying $ 100 a month for 2 old cars (no comp/collision, state minimum coverage) With my Scion I was going to be paying 220 a month!!!

My husband and I both have excellent driving records, so that was rediculous. I switched to State Farm am paying 110 a month and have like 4 times as much coverage. They take credit ratings into account, and I have good credit so that helped.
Shop around, and be carful! Geico and State Farm are both pretty good, I was reading reviews that Progressive was cheap but sucked with paying out claims. Go to Edmunds.com or your state's dmv site to check out average rates for drivers in your state as well as reviews of insurance companies.

 

You know, I think there's a State Farm just down the road from me... I should go check them out and see what they can do for me. For whatever reason, I couldn't get a quote online through them.

 

Originally I had a policy with AIG but I have saved 1300 dollars a year by switching to Geico

 

Im with state farm...I think Im paying like 120 for my VR6 VW and 70 something for the scion. I have a flawless record though.

 

1. shop!
21st Century sent me a nice brochure that listed a bunch of ways to compare the quality and service of various insurance companies - ask or see their website and I'm sure they'll give you the same thing.

2. Multi-car discount is something to think about if parents will go for that.

3. Add side-air bags, anti-theft, do driver training,etc. and so forth (varies with carrier), and that'll lower your rates as well.

4. After the first year with a carrier, but before the plan is due to expire, get quotes from all of the insurance companies and compare once again. Then take the prices into your current agency to talk about lower prices.

5. The xA is pretty darn low for insurance rates -- it was the bottom of the pack out of my list when I asked about the insurace rates from State Farm to cover a new car (others I asked about, Corolla, Civic, Mazda3, Camry, G35 - maybe one or two more I forget). Switching to a more 'popular' car like the Civic/Corolla was actually more expensive, and even vs. a similar Mazda3 (thiefs don't steal them as frequently - no parts they can sell as easily).

6. Try not to get into another accident! It's often as easy as doing the 3 second rule -- keep everything 3 seconds away from your front when driving and stay alert. So many accidents occur simply because you're following too close to brake in time, and in the case of the xA with =only= a rated 0.74g grip (was it Motor Trend review of the 2004?) on stock tires, you have far less grip than most regular compact cars (which typically can do at least 0.78 to 0.80g). This means, which I've seen on the xA already, that you'll start skidding far earlier in the xA than on other cars (I'd say 70% fast braking pressure = start of skidding here with my xA).

7. Consider swapping tires to high-performance, low-profile grippier tires. www.tirerack.com has the various comparisons to show you what increase in g-ratings you'll typically get in one of their articles. Here, it's worked just fine on my older cars -- eg. 93 Sentra, skidded all about on skinny stock tires; after a nice upgrade to various Bridgestone/Kuhmo high-performance plus-one's, baby easily did 40 mph+ turns w/o worry. Heck, you could throw yourself senseless before the upgraded tires lost grip!
Naturally, the single biggest benefit? Shorter braking distances = saves you from hitting someone else.

 

^^^ definitely great advice!

The tires are one of the main downfalls of the xA and it's performance in magazine tests and reviews. Switching to stickier, wider tires yield many benefits not seen by many!

 

That's not an issue. I was 17 and out in a snowstorm that I had no good reason to be out in and I was simply driving way too fast for the road conditions.

When it snows, I drive much slower now, but I suppose being 22 helps with that a little bit.

And tailgating is the last thing I do.