oilman_15106

I sure picked the wrong time to give up smoking and booze!

Trust me, there is no wrong time to give up booze.

DougG

Had the same issue with my son. His only alternative now is to drive a car that doesn't require collision insurance for a few years until he's eligible for lower rates. He's in his last year of college and car-less right now, so will have to be on his own policy anyway in the future.

zonatandem

Be irresponsible . . . cancel insurance, sell the car(s); take the bike/bus/rent-a-car/take a cab when needed. Go car-free!

serotta

The insurance companies exist to make money, period! If they were trying to be fair, they would let those that play pay. Instead, they spread the cost of poor driving habits across the population. I've been driving for 46 years, and never had a claim against an automobile policy, but I still pay rates that are weighted in favor of the driver with insurance points on their license.

It's similar to the boss who penalizes all employees because one or two of them are habitually late for work. I say, fire the tardies and reward the one's that support the business through their good work habits.

maddmaxx 

These are the same insurance companies that do their best to avoid payouts and are presently under investigation in many states for unfair charging practices. You might also ask what size bonus the CEO gets and what stock options are being handed out.

John Q Public has problems but there are many sharks in the water waiting to take advantage of them.

bobkat

Stonecrd is right. I carry a lot of insurance but have as high as a deductible as possible. As far as I'm concerned the whole insurance thing would be much better off to have catastrophic insurance with high deductibles. Same with health insurance. It might prevent people from overusing their insurance with a lot of small er stuff (fender benders, glass insurance, etc. with auto insurance - or minor aches and pains with health insurance) It's human nature to want to get whatever you paid to an insurance company back, so unfortunately a lot of people's attitude with insurance tends to be like the Scotchman who, every time he drove by a gas station with a sign "FREE AIR" he blew out four tires!

Pamestique 

As someone who has had 3 major surgeries in 3 years, I am very grateful and very satisfied with my health insurance coverage. It definitely came in handy. My bills totalled just over $550,000! I paid around $12,000.

OK so insurance companies like anything else is a commercial enterprise. Of course they are in it for money. Isn't the comapny you work for? How else do they operate if they can't make money? Bottom line there are lots of companies out there all competing for your business. If you feel your rates are high, keep looking. There are always alternatives.

Digital Gee

I was just ranting. I realize they have to make a profit. It's a shock to go from a fairly low premium to a high one. They will recover their payout on the accident in 18 months, but I doubt my rates will come down then or even for a long time after that, if she remains on my policy. Interestingly, even though she's not driving right now, I can't take her off the policy unless she moves out of my house. So for now, I'll be paying to insure her when she's not even driving.

Pamestique 

Actually you can have her specifically excluded from your policy and that will bring down the payment. Of course that means she can not in any way drive any of your cars ever again (until she is an adult and on your own).

maddmaxx 

One of the tidbits that I have read indicated that company loyalty to you is a thing of the past. Insurance companies want your business so bad that starting rates are like introductory cable TV plans. The end result of this is insurance buyers are advised to shop every renewal for significantly better primiums. 2 or three calls later and you could be looking at half the price. 2 or 3 years with the same company will result in significant "invisable" rate hikes.

one_beatnik

Check rates with other companies. My daughter at 17 had a minor fender-bender that did $1500 to the other person's car...daughter at fault. They tried to double our premiums. We looked into other companies and lowered our rate to less than we had paid the other company before her accident.