Auto Insurance Irony

Yesterday I received my updated EFT withdrawal notification from my auto insurance company. With my new policy my monthly withdrawal amount will actually be going UP by about $2.

This is actually due to billing changes that took place last year after I started to pay, so once my final policy amount was spread across the remaining months...well you get the picture.

I am certainly paying a few hundred dollars less this year in total, and $2 doesn't really impact the budget. It's just...ironic ;)

Last night my buddy Pepper and I compared our policies line by line since I am paying over $400 more than she is. It really came down to two large difference and two small ones. The two small differences were in collision and comprehensive (both $1k deductible) between a 2000 Jetta VR6 and a 2001 Civic sedan.

One big difference - approximately $200 - was that I am covered for $100/300k under optional bodily injury to others and she is covered for much less. She admitted hers should really be higher, and I'm not comfortable lowering my coverage, so there's no room there.

The remaining difference was in our driving records. She is a step 10 which is one incident within the last 6 years. This is two steps below me (step 9 is "perfect") and her credit for that level is $178 more than mine (which is $300).

In comparison, I found an old policy of mine from 2002 - after my first record blemish - when my step was 10. My coverage was very similar to now (well collision was WAY more expensive with a year old car) and my credit due to my near perfect score at the time? $579.00! I cannot tell you how much I wish my monthly bill was $75 instead of $123. Gah.

More irony. I am a very very safe driver. I drove for seventeen years without a ticket and then I got two within a year of each other. I rarely speed and when I do, it's about 5 miles over the limit. My first incident was that I forgot to get my new car inspected a year after I bought it - total duh. But seriously...the car was a year old...a warning would have been nice, I wasn't intentionally putting it off. My next ticket, 9 months later and two blocks away, was due to me speeding. I was going 40. It happens to be a well known (NOW they tell me) speed trap where the limit changes from 35 to 20 suddenly right before a rotary. I absolutely broke the law...no denying....lady luck was laughing her ass off at me that day. Ok, enough "woe is me".

I am just wishing I had access to some competively priced auto insurance. I would hope my 20 out of 22 years of driving without incidents, in addition to driving under 7500 miles a year, would lead to affordable rates.