Working in a bank has many benefits. Not only do I collect a paycheck every two weeks, but I also get benefits and the ability to network with our clients. So when one of the insurance agents came into the bank one day and asked me about my homeowners and car insurance, I was open to discussing it with him because he did business with us. He seems trustworthy, and I like him.  I gave him our drivers license numbers, the make and model of our cars, and he went back to the office to get me a quote.  The next day, he gave me a call.

For six months, our 2005 Ford Freestyle is $240.35, and our 2002 Ford Mustang is $287.24.  Total that is going to cost us $527.59.  We were paying $727.39, so of course I was ecstatic!  Of course I’d like to save $200 for six months!  I made sure that the coverage was the same limits (it’s actually better!), plus the deductible was the same.  The quote he gave us included a $500 deductible versus the $1000 we had before, so it was even better!

We told him we’d go ahead with it, and that he could go ahead and do our homeowners too.  He gave us a quote, and it was $40 less a year, so we went with it.  I feel better knowing the agent and that if we ever need anything, he is local and we can get a hold of him pretty easily.  Score!

Today in the mail I got a check back for $270 because we had paid for six months ahead of time with our old car insurance company.  I’m going to take that check and send it straight to the car loan. We won’t need it to go back in the car insurance account at ING because the money we had in there was enough to pay for the six months in full!

All in all, I am very pleased that we are saving so much money.  It feels good that something worked out so well!  I am almost kicking myself that I didn’t look into it sooner.  That feels like money we’ve been throwing away.

Have you gotten a quote on your insurance lately?

The other day my car insurance came due and I decided to call to see if I would get a discount for paying in full for six months versus paying monthly. We’ve always had our auto insurance automatically deducted from our checking account, and I recently noticed that they’ve been charging us a $2 fee to do so. I thought that was stupid, considering we could pull the six months of car insurance out of savings if we needed to and then just pay it in full.

When I talked with the customer service representative, I was informed that my new premium for six months would be $846.82. We had been paying $744 for six months. Our insurance went up over $100 for no reason! I was so mad. I asked her why that had happened, because we have had no tickets, accidents, etc. (Knock on wood) She said something about the state we live in and blah blah blah and I told her that I would hate to have to switch insurance companies because I really liked them, but I’d obviously have to shop around. She then started asking me a series of questions to see if she could get our premium lowered.

We got a discount for multiple car (which makes no sense, because we’ve always had multiple cars with them), homeowners (we’ve owned for over two years), and some other things I can’t remember. She got it down to $727.39, which is actually less than we were paying before! I am so happy. I didn’t even have to shop around.  I’m still thinking about doing it because we’ve got excellent credit, but I don’t want a bunch of inquiries on my credit report.

I’m going to be transferring $133 a month to a special savings account so that next time it’s due I can just transfer it from there into my checking account and pay it.   I think that’s a good plan, and I feel much better knowing that I am not getting ripped off.  I’m happy.  It works for me!