Hey there, I'm trying to shop my insurance policy a little bit and my local agents only seem to be able to quote me one company, General Casualty out of WI. I've been with them for 10+ years, but as of late they've subbed out their billing to a third party and its been a real PITA on occasion. Being as I've been with them for this long part of me just wants to compare rates, the work I do is primarily contracted municipal road maintenance, I'm a sole proprietor with no employees so I'm not carrying comp and I haven't had a claim in 10 years. That being said, who is everyone actually covered through?
Last year 4 different companies carried all our insurance through 1 broker after the last 2 years in this market if you have something that works and is affordable I wouldn't change
I'm in Canada so the actual company won't apply but I would absolutely shop around. I've been with the same broker over 10 year and they've gotten very lazy they won't even shop prices around unless I ask and just shrug their shoulders when I ask why rates went up so much. This year my vehicle premiums doubled without an explanation so I shopped around myself and found rates about 10% lower then what I was paying last year so more then cut my premiums in half and it's better coverage then I currently have. Waiting to hear on the liablity premiums but i'm sure it's better, 3 years in a row it keeps going up by like 15%.
That's my experience as well. Only way to get them to be competitive is shop them around. My previous brokerage was being lazy and unresponsive. I shopped the policies around and like you, got more coverage, for less money, even after I added another 2 vehicles to the fleet.
Im using Federated at the present, but I let them know I shop around about every four years.
I am with Farm bureau here not certain will be available there, as with the others best option shop around and check on ratings as to users responses.
I would definitely shop around. I don't insure equipment, but my home and auto kept going up without explanation. Finally I got fed up and started shopping around and eventually cut my rates in half. I tried to get them to match but they didn't care if I stayed or left. Even after 10 years of paying on time and no claims. The beauty of it was my renewal was coming up and also I needed a new roof and siding. So I hit them with a 25k claim and when that was settled I dropped them like bad habit. With my premium being paid already and the new lower rate I got a check for 5k. The thing I learned from this is you have to shop around to keep them competitive. Chances are you are paying half as much more than you should.