Apples to apples

We try to review our car insurance coverage yearly but you know how that goes. It had been probably 2 years so we sat down with our agent one cool December morning. I noticed he had a nicer desk than I remember…..

We went over each vehicle (we have three cars – that’s another story for another day) and the difference pieces of the coverage like bodily injury, collision, comprehensive – both amounts of coverage and deductibles. Then he joyfully pointed out the discounts having all vehicles plus home owners plus liability umbrella. We changed a few things – both up and down. Bottom line (I am a bottom line kind of gal) we saved very little.

A week or so later, I got a solicitation in the mail for a free car insurance quote and called the local agent. She was going to save us so much $. It took quite a few minutes for her to put into her computer the models and age of our vehicles. Then the usage type and estimate annual miles. She needed a lot of information about us – our ages, employment, etc. Bam! She had wonderfully reduced numbers over our regular guy.

I am celebrating inside. Saving $ is so much fun! I told her to send me what she had created and I’d call her. She really wanted a commitment and to schedule time to meet. She was again totally convinced she could help us lower our home owners insurance costs. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

Her written quote arrived a few days later. I proudly showed Bob the bottom lines on those next to our latest policy for each car. Proud, I was proud.

However, he was smiling proudly too and for different reasons. He pointed out that her quotes were for lower values for bodily injury and had a huge deductible amount under collision, etc.

I had not considered fully that I was not comparing apples to apples. It’s a life lesson worth sharing.

'til later