In the grand tradition of taking forever and a day to actually do the money things I know I should be doing (I’m looking at you, investing) I have a story for you today, of the grand saga that has been switching my car insurance.
Ok, that might be overstating it, but oh man. It feels like forever.
And you know what they say about money – it’s really just about feelings, right?
I’ve done the reviewing-my-recurring-purchases thing, and the comparing-my-car-insurance thing, but the one thing I haven’t done is the actually-switching-my-insurance-provider thing.
When I sat down to review my car insurance and get quotes to compare a few months ago, I found out that my rate was… how shall I put this gently… not even close to competitive. So I knew that this year was the year.
The year I switch car insurance providers.
In an effort to avoid cancellation fees, I waited until the fateful day when my insurance renewal documents showed up in the mail. I had hope: maybe my renewal rate would actually drop since I had been a loyal, accident-free customer for a few years!
Maybe this was my year!
It was not my year, friends.
My rate went down all of $2.00 a month, so it was back to rate comparisons for me.
I went back to LowestRates.ca and put in my relevant info to get yet another quote. (I’m not kidding that I’ve done the quote process, and the follow up email process, with them about ten times. When I finally called them to move ahead with buying insurance, it must have been like Ahab and the whale.)
True to every time I’ve ever compared rates, my current car insurance was way higher than even the top five quotes. So I procrastinated for about two weeks, and then – finally – called up LowestRates and committed to making this my year.
The year I get a better car insurance rate.
No one ever accused me of having boring goals, you guys.
The insurance broker who picked up my call – hi Nolan! – was awesome on the phone, and in about 15 minutes he had confirmed the quote, made sure I was getting the best rate for my particular set of skills (aka installing snow tires, which is 100% not a skill I possess, but The Boyfriend sure does) and ran me through a list of the entirely ridiculous but also necessary insurance questions that they need to ask.
My hands-down favourite:
“Will you be using the vehicle to transport explosives on a regular basis?”
“Oh sure Nolan, all the time.”
Please. I wish I was that cool.
We had a good laugh though, because by the time we got to that part of the process we had already joked about the kinds of answers he must get on a daily basis.
I remember my customer service days, and I didn’t even get to ask people probing questions about how they use their cars.
Once the phone call was over, I only had two tasks: take a picture of my snow tires on my car, and take a picture of my car’s VIN.
Snow tires? No problem.
VIN? Well… let me just say that this is probably the hardest and most confusing task I’ve been assigned all year, to my complete horror and dismay.
“Take a photo of text on your car.”
That should not be that hard. However, it was apparently beyond my car-insurance-buying skill set, because for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out.
First, I sent poor Nolan a photo of some other, random numbers and letters that I found on my car. Was that the VIN?
Of course it wasn’t.
This isn’t that kind of story.
He replied (very kindly) that good try, but no. Kind of like one of those Roll Up The Rim cups that tells you to play again, but the prize is insurance.
So I shelved my pride and Google “where to find VIN on Toyota Yaris.” Poor Little Car, this is probably the most attention I’ve paid to her in years.
Google was a totally misleading liar, and told me to look inside the engine to find the VIN. Let me just tell you, this is not where you find a car’s VIN, and you should just trust the insurance broker who keeps telling you (very patiently) that it should be clearly marked on the windshield.
Well, a few more weeks has passed now, triggered by my total embarrassment and avoidance of how bad I am at finding a simple number on my car.
At this point, we’ve arrived at 6AM on Sunday morning, the day that I’m set to fly out to Vegas, and The Boyfriend reminds me that I really need to get that photo of the VIN and send it to Nolan, because my old insurance is renewing in about a week.
I wish I could say that I buckled down, found the VIN and lived happily ever after with newfound knowledge of my car and confidence in my abilities.
Again, this is not that kind of story.
In real life, I turned to The Boyfriend with a look of pure panic and said
“BUT I CAN’T FIND THE VIN!”
He took pity on me, and went to the garage armed with my advice to look in the engine, and came back upstairs a few minutes later, having found the VIN.
Three guesses where he found it.
Oh, that’s right.
It was on the windshield.
Where Nolan told me it would be.
Because of course it was.
To wrap up this tale of “Desirae, learn how to adult already,” at the end of the day I did get new insurance, and I have officially chopped a solid $25 off of my monthly bill. That was partially accounted for by changing providers, and partially accounted for by my comfort in raising my deductible – thanks, emergency fund!
I will say, too, that after getting a new quote with my higher deductible, I sent an email to my previous broker, asking them what the impact of raising my deductible would be on my existing policy.
It worked out to about a $4/month difference. They made the choice pretty easy for me, I have to say.
If you haven’t reviewed your insurance rates lately – for cars, homes, disability, your hair, whatever, I don’t judge – I would strongly suggest it, in line with my “do your own research, always, for everything” personal finance mantra.
You might have a great rate, but then again – like me – you might not. And if you never check, you’ll never know.
And you’ll never have the sheer pleasure of your car making you feel like an idiot because you can’t find a simple freaking number on the windshield I mean it is made of glass this should not be that hard.
Sorry.
Because I’m all about transparency, I feel like I need to point out that this is not a sponsored post, or affiliated with LowestRates in any way. I just genuinely used them to get me through this totally easy but seemingly hard thing, and Nolan was genuinely hilarious and more patient than I reasonably could have expected.
It’s funny how these things slide past our radar for literally months. I call them “life admin tasks”. Some people are good at them, some people aren’t! My sister is terrible with this stuff. I, on the other hand, actually like handling stuff like this!
I’m in this weird limbo right now where my car insurance and my tenant’s insurance, while with the same provider, are on different renewal schedules. I want to switch car insurance providers, but I also want to bundle my tenant’s insurance, but I don’t want to pay the penalty for renewing early…sigh. I should probably just do it and get it over with.
Oooof, the renewal-date struggle is real – and I JUST had a long conversation about cancellation fees and early renewal fees yesterday with a coworker! (You would think people would avoid my desk more, seriously.)
It’s tough, even when you know you’re going to pay it to save money in the long run. It just feels worse, even if it’s a totally logical trade-off.
And “How To Life Admin Like A Boss” would be such a hilarious project that I really wish I had when I started adulting, lol. Ebook potential there for sure!
Congrats! Good job lowering a recurring expense. I don’t own a car anymore but when I did I would compare rates every year to make sure I was getting the best deal. There was one provider who was always the lowest for me as a early 20’s male, but I always compared anyways. We don’t have these early cancellation fees in the US though luckily (not that I know of).
Thank you!
And WHAT? No early cancellation fees?! That is just like… unbelievable to me. A financial industry that doesn’t lock you into things? … I’m lost. But also happy for you! That’s great! Hahaha I’m just jealous. Although I guess I dodged ever being a young 20-something male driver and the ensuing insurance rates, so we can call it even (or even maybe just a straight up win for me, I asked one of our interns what he pays in insurance and I almost cried.)
Unfortunately in BC, I can’t really shop around for insurance, but! I at least got around to getting my car insured so I can get it fixed so that I can practice driving so I can actually get my license (I so feel you on the forever and a day to get things done)
I think once I actually get around to driving regularly though I’ll definitely look into seeing what kind of difference my deductible will make.
It’s an interesting question – and from a pure feelings perspective, I actually really struggled with the “As soon as I do this, and raise my deductible, the fates are going to get me in an accident, I just know it” feeling. Like I was literally just tempting fate by doing it, you know? Honestly I just had to kind of feel that way for a while and do it anyways, and keep living my life – now that it has actually happened I’m kind of past it!
And I mean, talking about it is like tempting fate again, so. Cross your fingers for me?
Your posts always make me laugh, and I always relate to them…
Right now we are cutting down on insurance costs by not having my husband’s car insured at all… It is in our driveway… but it has some issues running that came up right before our honeymoon, and the insurance was due while we were away, so we decided to just let it lapse and deal with it when we got home… but we haven’t dealt with it yet… Probably should… having a dead uninsured car in the driveway isn’t the best thing…
Hahaha awww thank you so much! I’m much less funny in real life so I’m really glad it comes across in writing, and that is just the best compliment – seriously, thank you!
If it makes you feel better, I let my driver’s license expire when I went away for a semester abroad in Australia, with no idea what was going to happen when I got back. Literally just didn’t address it in any way or do any research – it was literally dumb luck that when I came back, it turned out that “being out of the country” was a valid excuse and I had a grace period to renew my license when I got back.
It probably shouldn’t have worked out so well for me, but oh well. Lesson NOT learned, lol.
Congrats on making the change and getting a nice chunk of savings! The only thing I’d suggest, instead of this being the year you get a better insurance rate, make it the year you start getting better insurance rates. Check ’em every time your policy is up for renewal because the criteria they use to determine the rates changes as do the available discounts. There’s even some data saying that insurers raise prices on loyal customers who they don’t believe will shop around. Don’t let them get away with that! Take a few minutes, maybe even an hour, just to check around and make sure you’re still getting the best rate each time.
Gary that is so wise, and you’re totally right – this needs to be a regular thing! Once I got over not knowing how to do everything, lol, it was an easy process and totally worth the extra few hundred dollars a year I’ll save.
Great site, enjoy your writing style and you have some interesting tips.
There is another option out there that might find you a better rate. Kanetix.ca (and Insurancehotline.com). Disclaimer, I work for the company. We display rates from both broker markets and direct writers. Also, make sure you have your home and car insurance with the same provider to get an additional discount.
Took a look at publicmobile after reading your blog and didn’t realize that it was possible to get a cell plan for $25/month. Thanks.
Hey Steve, thanks so much for the other option! You’re right, always good to shop around, and combine policies where possible (I’ve only got a car right now, but dream of the day when I can bundle policies! So far, no luck bundling my pet insurance with my car policy, haha.)