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takeahike
You sure ask a lot of dumb questions
Premium Member
join:2005-01-07
Catacombs

takeahike

Premium Member

Car Insurance Rates vary by month?

This article seems ridiculous to me. Every renewal for years is consistent and on-line quotes are the same for any specific company regardless of time of year. If this were the case each renewal would vary widely depending on what the company is "charging" that month. Just makes no sense at all. See: »www.insurancequotes.com/ ··· iability

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

said by »www.insurancequotes.com/auto/car-insurance-rate-variability :

A recent yearlong study, commissioned by insuranceQuotes.com

As the person funding and setting the parameters, I could easily commission a study that finds purple monkeys are the best pets to own.

Bogus studies are nothing new. Telcos, politicians, pretty much everyone uses them.

takeahike
You sure ask a lot of dumb questions
Premium Member
join:2005-01-07
Catacombs

takeahike

Premium Member

So you agree that any given company keeps rates steady from month-to-month, i.e., until some sort of broad based rate changes are put into effect? If so, what's the point of publishing this crap anyway?

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

Yes, the suggestion that you would get a different rate based solely on which month you got the quote is completely bogus.
said by takeahike:

If so, what's the point of publishing this crap anyway?

To make their insurance quote gathering service look attractive.

FutureMon
Dude Whats mine say?

join:2000-10-05
Marina, CA

FutureMon

Many times you'll find that the insurance provider that provides the lowest rate on these websites, is actually responsible for the website. These sites are put out all the time to look like 3rd party reviews or "news stories" that point you to a particular product - but disguise their pointing by talking about other products as well.

And the practice is not limited to car insurance. Weight loss products and Electronic Cigarettes are two more brands that come to mind...

- FM

takeahike
You sure ask a lot of dumb questions
Premium Member
join:2005-01-07
Catacombs

takeahike to Camelot One

Premium Member

to Camelot One
Just a way of getting more traffic to their site without having to pay directly for advertising--or to invest less to attract hits. They got me to look at them, didn't they? Seems that their theme is subtly geared to get you to go back on a regular, i.e., monthly, basis.
scross
join:2002-09-13
USA

1 edit

scross to takeahike

Member

to takeahike
I recently had to rework all of my automobile policies repeatedly because we purchased an additional vehicle and then added a newly licensed driver shortly after that. The whole process stretched out over a period of maybe three months, and the numbers changed with every iteration - some in very expected ways, others in very unexpected ways. This even after sitting down with an agent for a couple of hours at one point and going over every policy line by line, and with her giving me printouts of what the new numbers would be - which were a bit different from what the actual billed numbers were when the policy changes went into effect a few weeks later. And even before this my wife and I had both noticed that the numbers on our existing policies might change a bit from renewal to renewal - maybe going a bit up, maybe going a bit down - even though we hadn't changed anything on our policies. And when I was a young man, I once ran into a situation where my numbers went up dramatically at renewal time because there just so happened to be a temporary spike in auto thefts in my area at the time (a police crackdown put a stop to this pretty quickly). So I have no real reason to doubt a statement saying that the numbers might routinely change from month to month.

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to takeahike

Premium Member

to takeahike
I dunno. Gas prices change week to week, as does heating oil/natural gas.
Maybe there are times of the year where accidents/weather damage is more likely to occur, thus those signing up during those times have a higher rate. Kind of like people wanting until summer to "lock in" their heating fuel costs for the next winter. Typically heating fuel is cheaper during the summer time, hence why people "lock it" during that time.

I'm sure they [insurance companies] have a lot of data collected over the years that can help them determine when the most property/vehicle damage is most likely to occur. And going by that they can charge the appropriate rate.
alroc79
join:2014-02-06
Houston, TX

alroc79 to takeahike

Member

to takeahike
Never encountered such as this so definitely just a way to get traffic by looking at the link.
pauldenton
join:2003-12-20
London

pauldenton to scross

Member

to scross
hmm - the article makes clear that how you will experience this depends on the State you live in, and it's regulation of the Insurance market
quote:
"The data shows that it's cheaper to buy insurance in December in most states, and this is almost certainly because a lot of rate increases and new rating plans take effect in January, when the year -- as well as many companies' fiscal years -- begins," ....... some prices rise automatically with inflation under certain rating plans, and that this often happens in January. This is largely verified, he says, by the fact that states with the most lax rate regulation of auto insurance -- Vermont and Montana, for instance -- have their lowest rates in December.

Lehrer goes on to explain that in states with minimal rate regulation insurers can change their rates. In states with stricter rate regulation, insurers need to go through lengthy filing and approval processes to get rates changed.

So, in states with intense regulation, Lehrer says insurers will often try to get increases for the New Year. In states without intense regulation there's nothing particularly unique about January since rate changes can be made whenever the insurer wants.
so it's not surprising that it is very visible to scross, in Tennessee, but not experienced at all by takeahike in California {which certainly used to have by far the toughest regulation of the Auto insurance market in the US..... idk if other States may have caught up}

the R Street Institute heavily quoted in the article spun off from the Heartland Institute in 2012
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_ ··· nstitute