Minute 34 of hold music is where I started taking notes on the back of our car insurance renewal notice. By the end of that week I had a page of answers, four quotes and a smaller number than the one in the envelope.
Here's the short version. Our policy covers my 2018 RAV4, which does about 15,000 miles a year on I-565, and Ben's 2016 Accord, which mostly goes back and forth across Decatur. Last year we paid $2,280 for both. The renewal said $2,690. That's $410 more for the same two cars, the same two drivers, no claims and no tickets.
The notice came the last week of June, while Harper was at camp grandma in Florence, so I made most of the calls from a very quiet kitchen table.
What raised it
My first question to our agent was, "What changed on our policy, specifically?" The honest answer was nothing. The company had raised rates across the state, and the agent pointed to repair costs and storm claims. Our discounts were all still there. Our record was clean. We'd just been swept up in a bigger number.
I sat in on enough benefits renewals at the hospital to know the first renewal figure is where a conversation starts, not where it ends. So I asked what we could change without changing what mattered to us.
What I asked, and what each answer was worth
- "What happens if the comprehensive deductible goes from $500 to $1,000?" It saved $118 a year. Comprehensive is the part that covers things like hail and falling limbs, and we have a carport and a big oak in the back, so I thought about this one the longest. Our emergency fund can absorb $1,000 now, which wasn't true two years ago.
- "Do we need rental reimbursement on both cars?" Dropping it on the Accord saved $42. Ben made that call in one sentence: "If the Accord's in the shop, I'll borrow Mom's car." His mom lives fifteen minutes away in Hartselle and has offered more than once.
- "Ben drives about 6,000 miles a year. Is there a discount for that?" There was. A low-mileage discount saved $115, once Ben texted the agent a photo of his odometer.
Those three changes took the renewal from $2,690 to $2,415.
Then I got four quotes from other companies. That took one evening online and two callbacks the next day. Every company wanted the same things: both cars' VINs, our birthdates, how far each of us drives to work and the declarations page from our current policy, which I now keep as a PDF in the same folder as the spreadsheet. I asked each one to match our liability limits and deductibles exactly.
Matching mattered. One came back looking $300 cheaper until I noticed it had quoted the state minimum for liability. Matched to our real coverage, it was the third quote below, and not cheaper at all.
| Option | Per year |
|---|---|
| Last year's policy | $2,280 |
| Renewal as mailed | $2,690 |
| Quote 1, matched coverage | $2,470 |
| Quote 2, matched coverage | $2,540 |
| Quote 3, matched coverage | $2,610 |
| Quote 4, matched coverage | $2,780 |
| Same company, after our changes | $2,415 |
What we left alone
We kept our liability limits and uninsured motorist coverage exactly where they were. Those were the first things the cheaper quotes trimmed, and they're the last things I want to be short on during a 38-minute commute in interstate traffic. We kept the collision deductible at $500, and we kept rental reimbursement on the RAV4, because if my car is in the shop I still have to be in Cummings Research Park on Tuesday morning.
We stayed with the same company. Switching would have cost us more for the same coverage, and I've learned not to switch just to feel like I did something.
The end result: $2,415 a year, $135 more than last year instead of $410. The car insurance line on our spreadsheet goes from $190 to $201 a month starting in August. Two hours on the phone and a few emails for $275 a year is a trade I'll make every July.
This is what we chose for our two cars and the way we drive them. Coverage depends on things only you know about your own situation, so read this as one family's notes, not a recommendation.
