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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone's insurance go down? If not, it's just an excuse by insurance companies to make more money.

Do average prices to fix cars go down? Have people generally been driving cheaper or more expensive cars over time? Why would we expect insurance to go down on things more expensive to insure?

Taking a quick peek, while insurance rates have been going up for while most insurance companies' margins are pretty similar to their historical margins.

Building on top of this, many states limit how much increases can be, which makes it difficult for insurers to respond to quickly changes market forces like we saw in COVID.

Labor + Parts became so much more expensive but coverage costs were unable to be increased.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/07/1236504265/auto-insurance-cos...

Sounds like the car insurance companies should have taken out policies for sudden events beyond their control.

Other types of insurance companies do so; For example, State Farm might take out a policy to backstop their cash reserves where the terms are if they exceed over $100million in claims in a 2 week period of time.

This doesn't really have anything to do with the question. It's not about the gradual increase of rates over time generally, it's about relative rates due to behavior tracking.

If reckless driving can increase insurance premiums relative to others while ideal driving has no effect on your relative premium, it's just a naked money grab. All downside means drivers should be against it.

> Does anyone's insurance go down?

This was the question. A huge chunk of a lot of people's insurance isn't the insurance to fix your car, it is to fix the other guy's car. If the average cost to fix the other guy's car keeps going up, your insurance will end up going up given a fixed risk level.

My Tesla insurance has gone down ~$30/mo showing that I've been a 'careful' driver or whatever. Perhaps they were overcharging when I first signed up, but I'm not complaining too much.

That said, the anxiety of always being watched when I'm driving and knowing that I'm directly impacting my wallet has made me consider just eating the extra $100 my old insurance provider wanted just to have the peace of mind that I can drive without feeling like taking that turn too fast just cost me $5

When I moved close enough to work that I didn't drive there anymore and reported that to my car insurance company, my premium was cut in half. So yes, it does happen.

But I wasn't driving a car that was spying on me for that. It was just a recalculation based on my self-reporting.

Mine does! The last two renewal cycles my insurance bill has dropped by ~3%.

It's not much but it's something. I suspect it has to do with my car getting older and my comprehensive being worth less.

Yes, my Geico insurance has gone up and down over the last few years in SF to end at $120/mo.

I imagine that in the worst case, drivers can form an insurance co-op.

AAA is technically a co-op. Cheapest option all around when I lived in Cali.

> Does anyone's insurance go down?

Doesn’t your insurance go down over time? Mine does, and I expect it to continue so long as I avoid tickets or damage.

Mine has gone up $200 in the last year. No tickets, no accidents, we both have clean driving records.

The insurance company says that costs have gone up in the area generally.

My behavior is apparently superseded by how much my insurance company is paying out for other people.

> costs have gone up in the area generally

This is valid. Local inflation varies.

> how much my insurance company is paying out for other people

Might be time to explore other insurers with stricter requirements for who they’ll accept.

This has a VERY simple fix - get a new insurance company. Most companies slowly raise rates on customers who don't shop around. I'd actually recommend most people get at least one insurance quote at least every other year.

Every time my rates go up by a non-trivial amount I get some quotes from other companies and I'm always able to lower my cost for comparable insurance by at least 20%. I'm paying less for car insurance than I was 10 years ago and I've raised my coverage significantly.

It's really that easy if you don't have any tickets or claims.

This is my problem with this, it's all whip and no carrot.

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