Re: Paying too much for Hartford Insurance?
Noreen Seebacher
4/9/2012 7:37:39 PM
Seriously, car insurance takes some finesse. I've had State Farm, Progressive, Chubb, (that I can recall) before switching to Geico. (I sound like a commercial)
Depending on the make, model and age of the car, you can sometimes be better off putting the vehicle in the name of the teen driver -- and getting the kid his own policy completely. That was a good strategy when I forced my oldest to drive a 93 conversion van for her first full year of driving (the car was worth very little, so it didn't cost that much to insure and in NYS at the time, it worked out better with a separate policy.)
Later, I tried Chubb because I have a historic home and needed Chubb's overpriced home insurance (which I have since replaced with Ace) and added on the cars for an alleged discount. Chubb offers one advantage: You can base the insurance on an agreed value, so if your car is totalled, you will get that agreed amount. But I thought the customer service was mediocre at best when I had an accident.
Geico has actually been really good: cost effective and good customer service through multiple accidents. Just remember you have the right to go to the auto body shop of your choice (no matter what insurance company you have) and you can push for OEM parts (as opposed to aftermarket parts that just meet OEM standards).
So my bottom line: Shop your policy once a year to see if another company offers better rates, Give Geico a try --and since you are in Ohio, also price Erie, which operates in 11 states and the District of Columbia -- and be aggressive in 1) fighting tickets and 2) shifting liability to the other driver(s) when you have accidents.
I can give you lots of tips about those last two!!
Re: Paying too much for Hartford Insurance?
Noreen Seebacher
4/9/2012 7:18:55 PM
Yes, I have experience in insurance...and even more experience in teen tickets and accidents!
Uhm, why is the property casualty side doing so well?
I just wrote a check for our car-insurance and I notice that it has more than doubled since we moved to Hartford. Significantly more than doubled.
I know there are any number of reasons for this, some legitimate -
- Added a 16 year old driver
- Added a vehicle for a 16 year old driver
- Multiple fender benders by teens (various ages)
- Traffic tickets by parents
- Not to be outdone - multiple traffic tickets by teens (various excuses)
I'll do some comparison shopping, but I was just wondering - is the property casualty side doing so well because of the checks I keep writing?
Noreen, maybe you can shed some light on this as I think you have some experience in this area. Insurance, I mean.
PC
Paulson says the whole thing has gotten too complex for Wall Street analysts to understand
It's a 100+ year old company with two parts. One doing well and one not so well. They've had these same two parts for ages. Competitors have these same two parts because there is some opportuntity for cross-selling.
No, this isn't "too complex" for analysts to understand.
PC
Paulson definitely hasn't been impressive recently. In fact he hasn't done much of anything -- and he had a terrible 2011. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds, but is this even a big enough deal to staunch the bleeding in Paulson's funds?
What's the crisis?
Broadway
4/9/2012 3:28:22 PM
Does the Hartford have some real flaw on it's books, or is this just a crisis created by their lead investor---simply to make the insurer's operations easier to understand for the Street?
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