Auto insurance is going crazy high, and you want to shop around, right? Well, you should. But who should you be shopping with? I got new information for you.
Premiums have gone up crazy amounts over the last several years, and there are a lot of factors. I’ve covered this in the past about how much the cost of used cars inflated, how much the cost of parts is, shortage of body shop mechanics. All these things are factors.
Now, tariffs on vehicles are pushing up the cost of repairs. And insurers were not making money on their investments.
Why Premiums Are Rising
The way insurance works is they try to at least break even on insuring your home or your car and then make money on the investments from the premiums.
Well, what’s happened in recent years, a lot of big insurers have actually lost billions of dollars on just the policies themselves. They’ve been scrambling to raise premiums to keep themselves solvent.
Fascinating Report from Body Shops
But the thing that I find the most interesting is something that came on my radar screen two years ago. It’s an annual report card on insurers done by body shops, which I find fascinating because you got all these ads that the auto insurers, the big ones, run on TV and some on social media.
Still, TV has been very popular as an outlet for insurers. They’re all trying to be cute in them, and humanize a very dull product. Flow from Progressive and Jake from State Farm, and then the goofy guy from Liberty Mutual, and then the Allstate Mayhem guy.
Sometimes, if you’re watching a bad show or bad movie, the ads more interesting and entertaining than what you’re watching, potentially.
I only see ads when I watch football. There’s no football right now except the NFL, which I’ve not found that exciting. Back to focus. Oh, sorry. I immediately… Immediately football. You saw that my mind goes off into chaos, doesn’t it?
Crashnetwork Report Card
Crashnetwork.com does this list once a year where the body shop people warn each other and alert each other which insurers are behaving and which aren’t. They get a grade from A plus to F.
Now, they put out an honor roll each year, which they include all the companies from A plus down to a solid B. What’s fascinating on this list, there’s almost not an insurer on here that is a name that people routinely might recognize.
Krista’s Insurer, Ameka Mutual, came in 13 on the list with a B plus.
Auto owners, which is an insurer in some parts of the country people are familiar with, came in 14th.
As to other brand names, not a single big brand name makes the list. They’re all smaller, not marketing-based insurers, but smaller, boutiquey, generally, service-based insurers.
Top Ranked Insurers
Number one, North Carolina Farm Bureau, the only insurer in America that gets an A plus from body shops, meaning that they’re cooperative with the body shop. They want to do what’s right for the customer.
- North Carolina Farm Bureau
- Chubb rich people’s insurer
- Acuity Insurance
- Michigan Farm Bureau, Alpha Mutual, Erie Insurance
Then the B pluses include:
Pure Insurance, Grinnell Mutual, AIG Private Client, Mutual of Enumclaw, Farm Bureau Property Casually, Wisconsin Mutual, and Ameka Mutual.
What This Means for You
The first well-known, recognized brand name of a regular insurer, Ameka Mutual, is the only one in the top 13. You see the full list of all no-name insurers that actually do a good job for their customer. They’re not spending a zillion dollars on cute advertising. They’re just insuring people.
If you want to go to our link easy, or you just go to crashnetwork.com.
Big Mistake People Make
What do people do when they’re shopping? Most people are with these big insurers, and when they get a big premium increase from one, the only places they go for quotes are the other big insurers.
Big mistake. Big mistake for your wallet.
Pro Tip When Buying a Car
While I’m at it, when you’re shopping for a car with how expensive auto insurance has gotten, shop insurance before you buy a brand that you’re unfamiliar with because there’s enormous gaps now in the cost of insuring different brands and models. You might have in your funnel three or four different models. If you see what they quote out for auto insurance, you may decide that the third one is a better choice than one, two, or four because the insurance cost could be so very different.