I think insurance as a general whole is a rip off, and I honestly have no clue what we pay. We use the USAA that we get through the military and its combined with the renters insurance. But its not that much

Here in Massachusetts it is pretty costly. The rates are set by the state, although we are going away from that system next year.

I pay around $1,100.00 a year to insure my Volvo. I have a clean driving record, so there are no penalty points, or added on fees. I have very good coverage, with towing and rental reimbursement. I also have high limits, just incase I get into an accident aqnd someone is injured.

Five years ago, when my daughter received her license, I can remeber how stunned we were with an over $5,000.00 annual bill to cover her car that cost us $6,000.00. Here in Massachusetts, if you put lower limits on a childs car, by default those limits go to your car. That combined with parental liability, really has parents over the barrel. Now that she is 22, and on her own policy, she is still paying over $2,000.00 a year in Massachusetts, to insure her 2006 Jeep Wrangler. Even though she has been driving for 5+ years. She told me a few weeks ago, that she is changing her insurance to New Hampshire, since she became a resident a few months ago, and her insurance is going to go down to around $900.00 a year.

I can remember 23 years ago, being a 19-year-old air force wife, and moving to Alabama. I believe that I was free on the policy, verses the whole Massachusetts disaster.

Car insurance rates can definitely stink around here. Oh, our rates are also based upon the town that you live in, so if I was in a city, I would pay significantly higher. Massachusetts is also a state where companies can not refuse coverage, based upon a driving record. There is a pool that money from all the policies, even the good drivers, pay into, it goes towards offsetting the rates for the really bad drivers. Car insurance is also mandatory here.

I used to work in the auto insurance industry, if you can't tell....

No, Shelly. If we have illegal immigrants, they're flushed out pretty quickly, sent back and asked to apply legally. It's not really an issue here at all. Most of the illegal entrants we have here are either from the islands of the Caribbean or western Africa. They usually have such hard luck stories, it's sad to have to send them away, but they usually can be back with proper papers in a couple of years.

It's some comfort to hear that car insurance is a headache all over the place, though. We decided to suck it up and pay, as if there's an alternative. Argh. What a racket!

shellyinphx wrote:

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i dont think that you can blame illegal immigration on the problem Kae is having. Kae does Canada even have as big of a problem as we do?

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I just meant it was a huge problem here. I've heard so many horror stories from friends... You have to drive in a way to avoid the bad drivers because you know you're rates will go up if there is an accident. My rates were better when I was a teenager. You'd think they'd go down now as I'm married and have a clean record.

Shelly, what on earth took you to the Sioux? It's such a little rat hole, lol!

I think we do have decent policies based upon humanitarian principals and all. There will always be those cheats who want benefits without paying taxes, and I've lost all sympathy for them. Remember the Philipina religious nut that wanted me to pay her cash while she was still on severance pay?

It's ridiculous what we pay!

All three of my kids have managed to have minor incidents, and that sent the rates skyrocketing.

My youngest daughter was in an accident about a year ago that wasn't her fault (had witnesses, and everything), but the guy who hit her was (1) uninsured (2) driving without a license (3) without proper ID, and probably an illegal, and (4) didn't even own the car that hit her.

Her rate went up.

My son will be 22 in November, so being a guy under the age of 25, his rates were already high. After his minor little accident (well, something on the road hit his car and caused damage, so there was no one to go after), he rates went nutso.

My oldest daughter is in the same boat, even though she's now just turned 24. She had a minor accident at our local gas station. She hit a post that we've ALL almost hit because it's placed in a bizarre location. It did enough damage to require repairs, so there again the rates went up.

I don't know the exact amount that we pay for the five of us, although I'm sure my husband knows it, but it's in the thousands.

Yes.

What happened is that the insurance company that covered the other car involved (one that is different from ours) had to make a determination about whether they would pay for our daughter's damage. This is because the actual owners of the car had allowed this uninsured, unlicensed, probably illegal to use it. The owners live in an entirely different area from ours, so the insurance company considered the car to have been "improperly housed".

Secondly, although their agent couldn't say much that would infringe upon privacy laws, it seems that they'd had difficulties with these customers in the past.

So, after much discussion within that agency, they decided that they would NOT honor the policy holder's policy. Therefore, they would not pay for our damage.

At this point, they wrote a letter to our insurance company (State Farm), notifying them that their customer was now classified as an "uninsured".

State Farm then paid for the damage to the car, and theoretically we're supposed to get our deductible refunded (that reminds me -- I'm going to have to find out if that ever happened). If State Farm wants to go after the now-uninsured people, that's their right, but who knows? It may be too expensive to bother with. Therefore, it gets passed on to us...

I really ought to double check on all of this, but my husband recently said that our daughter's rates had gone up, so I can't think what else would have caused this. They SHOUDN'T have though!