I have recently switched to Esurance for auto and motorcycle insurance and was wondering if anyone had any good or bad experience with them. I shop insurance every 2 years and Esurance was by far the least expensive this time around. 6 months Auto: Nationwide ---- $935 Allstate -------- $881 (current insurance carrier for auto / motorcycle / home) GEICO --------- $508 Progressive --- $497 Esurance ------ $369 Policy Details: $250K / 500K / 100K liability Comp and collision with $1000 deductibles 2003 Jetta TDI wagon 2005 Toyota Pruis My record: 31 years old, one at fault accident 30 months ago Wife's record: 31 years old, 2 not-at-fault accidents in the last 3 years Note: it seems that all the insurance companies except Esurance are counting my wife's accidents against us. They were both low speed incidents where she was stopped at a light and got rear-ended. I didn't include these but when the companies ran our driving records they came back with higher rates due to her accidents. They clearly said not-at-fault but still charged $100 to $300 more. When did insurance companies start counting not-at-fault accidents against drivers?
I've never heard of Esurance. My company (State Farm) does not count not-at-fault accidents against me. My pet peeve about insurance is that some companies pay claims with no problem, while others do everything they can to wriggle out. Therefore shopping by price can get you a cheap but worthless policy. For this reason, ads for cheaper rates do not get my attention, except to annoy me.
I've found it is important to shop around at least every two years to get the best rate. The reason (I believe) is that the current insurance company doesn't reduce their rates to match the decreasing value of a car. In two years the KBB value of my cars has dropped $8,000 but Allstate only reduced their rate $12 dollars! However competing companies quote $250 to $500 less for the same coverage. I don't even quote State Farm anymore. For 10 years in 4 states I've quoted them and every time they have been at least 100% more than the average of the other quotes. Sometimes it is just ridiculous ($2500 a year for motorcycle insurance when the rest want $500)
Never got a quote from Esurance, but got a quote from State Farm last year because my home insurance is with them. The agent quoted me somewhere around $790 for the Prius. I momentarily got excited; that was a couple of hundred less than what I paid to AAA. Then she told me that was a 6 month premium (AAA was 1 year). Doh! AAA dropped the premium on the Prius from $1036 last year to $982 for this coming year. ($500 deductable collision, $100 comprehensive, 100k/300k liability)
You are very smart in terms of shopping your auto insurance every 2 years. However, I believe the reason to be a bit different. I think that in order to get your business, ALL the insurance companies will low-ball their quote for the 1st year or two. They assume that most will generally NOT shop their insurance around, and they are right in that assumption. After a couple of years, the all begin to pump up the price. The only way to win this game is to change insurance companies every couple of years. ... Brad
I use Esurance, and found their rates to be pretty low for the Prius! Their online capabilities rival any other insurance provider's, too. It's pretty easy to set up automatic payments billed to your credit card every six months, etc. You just have to remember to login and print your insurance cards every time. They send emails, but I didn't pay attention before and have been caught by the fuzz with out-of-date printouts (even though I was covered).
I was very impressed with Esurance.com. The website is very well laid out and easy to use. I've also found it easy to review and manage my account using the online profile. That is for auto insurance. Their motorcycle and homeowner's insurance isn't online yet. You have to call the 800 number, talk to an agent, and then wait for them to mail your policy. While this is normal for the industry it seemed archaic after buying my auto policy online and printing my insurance cards in 15 minutes.
