lowering car insurance premiums, help please

[Piglets Mommy]

Definately look into raising your deductible if you can...that will affect your monthly payments...and shop around to other companies too. I'd also liik into dropping collision on the car if it's only valuing at 1500 if totaled...I'd even consider dropping it on the truck at 3k...If you get a good agent, they should be able to work up pricing for you various ways, and you can see hoe much the price will change by changing various options. Also, make sure they know the truck isn't driven much...that should affect the pricing as well. I'm with many others on here...I would NOT reduce liability....the savings you would get is not worth the risk of losing your home in a worst case scenario situation. (and in this day and age, even a fairly minor accident can result in a costly lawsuit)
I know exactly where you are coming from...no you're not starving, but every penny couints, and if you can save a few, why not?!?

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

Wow, you can get sued if an accident isn't your fault! How???
I'm sorry to hear that happened to you and your DH, that must have been very stressfull.

Since DH was driving the passengers all sued him/us. He hit a semi truck on a foggy / icy road in January that had slid across an intersection. The truck was at fault as he did not have the right-of-way. It's pretty typical that in an accident everyone involved gets sued. One of Dh's passengers had a broken back, the other had torn all of the tendons in the top of his wrist, had his hip fractured, DH had back issues for years and had a broken arm and concussion. One passenger got a settlement of over $1 million from the company that owned the truck, the other got $800k, we got virtually nothing.

 

[mamacatnv]

I agree leave the liability alone
Shop around - we switched to AARP(a member of your household must be at least 50) and were amazed at what we saved and we increased coverages.
Drop all but liability on the 2 beaters.
Is your van paid off? If not make sure your lender does not have deductible requirements. My lender on my van does not allow anything higher than a 500deductible.
Consider parking the truck for 6 mo to a year and cancelling the insurance until things get better.

 

[minnieandmickeymouse]

Since DH was driving the passengers all sued him/us. He hit a semi truck on a foggy / icy road in January that had slid across an intersection. The truck was at fault as he did not have the right-of-way. It's pretty typical that in an accident everyone involved gets sued. One of Dh's passengers had a broken back, the other had torn all of the tendons in the top of his wrist, had his hip fractured, DH had back issues for years and had a broken arm and concussion. One passenger got a settlement of over $1 million from the company that owned the truck, the other got $800k, we got virtually nothing.

That is pretty crappy of them to sue you 2 even when it wasn't your fault. Sounds like they were money hungry.

BTW, I love your dogs! Your german shephard is beautiful!!!

 

[minnieandmickeymouse]

I've talk it over with Dh and he agreed to drop the collision on both the car and truck. I already raised the deductable to 1,000 on both of them this morning, so that is already done.

We do use the truck a lot less in the winter, so we may just park it for then, so we don't have to pay insurance then. But we do use it more so in the summer.

I just keep thinking after I do all this, something will happen, and we will total one of them, lol..

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

That is pretty crappy of them to sue you 2 even when it wasn't your fault. Sounds like they were money hungry.

BTW, I love your dogs! Your german shephard is beautiful!!!

Thanks, she is a sweetie

Both of the passengers were in their 50's and both ended up on disability after the wreck. I don't begrudge them what they got, and it's pretty much standard practice to sue the driver. They mainly did it so they could get the $100k from our insurance - otherwise our insurance would not have paid them anything.

 

[Darcy03231]

I think we will be taking collision of the car. My insurance Co. said it's worth 1,300-1,800. and if it was totalled we'd most likely only get 1,500 for it.

To us the truck is worth more to us then the car, and the insurance Co. said it's worth 3,000.

Keep in mind you get what its worth less your deductible. So if its worth $1,800 and your deductible is $1000 you'll get $800.

With a $3000 truck and a $1000 deductible you'd get $2000 for it.

With those lower values I'd get rid of the collision coverage. We have a 2000 Chevy Caliber and a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo, both of which are in good shape, but not worth much according to KBB. We dropped the collision coverage on both of them and saved over $800/year.

 

[LindaG4458]

Shop around - we switched to AARP(a member of your household must be at least 50) and were amazed at what we saved and we increased coverages.

I agree. We just switched our NH homeowner's, umbrella, and both cars to AARP (provided by The Hartford), increased our coverage, and still saved $400 per year. Now, if they only sold coverage for our FL property.....

 

[DawnCt1]

I agree. My DH was in a serious car accident -he was driving but was not at fault. It was car pool and the two passengers had very serious injuries. We were sued for $3 million by one and $1 million by the other along with the driver of the truck that was at fault. We settled out of court after 3 long years for what our insurance would cover which was $100k/$300k. So each passenger got $100k. Now we carry full coverage $300K/$500K on one vehicle and have at $1 million umbrella policy. Our other vehicles all have the $100K/$300K coverage

If you have any assets at all I wouldn't lower your limits. You might try shopping other insurance companies to see if you can get a better rate.

Wow, what a painful thing to go through. We have a $2 million umbrella. It isn't that much more for the premium but well worth the peace of mind. OT, but does your DH have a relationship with the car poolers anymore?

 

[golfgal]

It makes zero sense to have a $1000 deductible on a car worth $1500-you are only going to get $500 if you total that car and the amount you will save monthly won't make up for that $500 for many, many years. Do NOT reduce your liability limits-first, it won't save you that much and second as other's have said you are putting yourself at great risk financially. Do you have renter's insurance or homeowner's insurance? If not, check into getting that-especially if you rent. Often the discount on multiple cars with a home/auto discount pays for the renter's ins AND saves you money overall.

The uninsured motorist protection protects YOU in an accident so don't lower that amount. What your current 100/300/100 coverage covers is injuries in an accident and property damage. If you go down to state minimums and are at 25/50/10 that means you have 25K to pay for injuries in a car accident, which is about 15 minutes in an ER. The other consideration is that you only have 10K to pay for property damage so if you hit a car and run into a guardrail, you will be well over 10K in damage and the rest comes out of your pocket.

For everyone that mentioned having assets to protect--everyone has assets to protect because they can garnish future wages to pay for damage so you could be paying for a fender bender for the rest of your life if you don't have enough insurance.

 

[golfgal]

Wow, what a painful thing to go through. We have a $2 million umbrella. It isn't that much more for the premium but well worth the peace of mind. OT, but does your DH have a relationship with the car poolers anymore?

Knowing what your DH does for a living you might want to give serious consideration to increasing your umbrella. First, having MD after his name make you more suseptable to a lawsuit because everyone "knows" you have money. Also, the courts see his earning potential and say "2 million, big deal, and award the injured party a lot more then that, also, chances are your retirement accounts are fairly healthy and they can take funds from that as well. A good rule of thumb is 2x's your net worth. Just something to think about.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

Wow, what a painful thing to go through. We have a $2 million umbrella. It isn't that much more for the premium but well worth the peace of mind. OT, but does your DH have a relationship with the car poolers anymore?

They were basically just car pool buddies. They were both quite a bit older than us and we didn't really socialize with them before the accident. DH has a 50 mile commute one way so everybody car pools. We see them once in while, I think the one that got the most money blew through it right away - he bought a Hummer H1 as soon as he got his check Given his injuries and on going problems he probably didn't get enough $$.

 

[allison443]

For everyone that mentioned having assets to protect--everyone has assets to protect because they can garnish future wages to pay for damage so you could be paying for a fender bender for the rest of your life if you don't have enough insurance.

This is one of those things that varies among states. For example, I believe in Pennsylvania wages can only be garnished for child support, not judgments in civil cases.
I concur with those who recommend the umbrella policy. It will cover you for car accidents as well as premises liability (like if someone falls on your steps, gets hurt in your home, etc.). Definitely worth it for the peace of mind.

 

[golfgal]

This is one of those things that varies among states. For example, I believe in Pennsylvania wages can only be garnished for child support, not judgments in civil cases.
I concur with those who recommend the umbrella policy. It will cover you for car accidents as well as premises liability (like if someone falls on your steps, gets hurt in your home, etc.). Definitely worth it for the peace of mind.

Car accidents aren't always tried as Civil cases, often they are criminal cases too. What would be the point of having civil trials at all if you can't garnish wages because most people are not going to have the cash or assets to pay a claim-thus making the trial a huge waste of time to begin with. Odd.