Insurance - what do you pay?

[voodoopenguin]

Buzz wrote:
not sure how they calculate on your side of the pond, but hereabouts they zots you by where you live...

Absolutely, as I said in my opener, "Age and area will obviously vary the premiums".

While I'm at it though, do you have an annual car tax of some sort? We have the Road Fund Licence which is now a variable mostly depending on how fuel efficient the car is.

Paul

[Black]

About $800/yr on my residence
About $2500/yr on 3-unit rental building.
High deductibles on both (?$2000? $5000) since I don't intend to claim anything that's not "big."

[Buzz]

By the tone of your post, it didn't sound as if age/area thing is as vastly disparate as it is here.
We've got a 20 year old sedan and a 10 year old minivan for about $2000/yr w/ no tickets or accidents for thirty years. States vary, but many have add'l license fees and taxes, and gas taxes to support the highway system. Some stuff you just can't avoid, but if we moved to the sticks, the car insurance could go down 70-80%. We have to pay the premium on the premium to live in the nice part of LA County. Go next door to Riverside or Kern Counties, they may pay us to take the insurance...


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[Lemon Drop]

voodoopenguin wrote:


While I'm at it though, do you have an annual car tax of some sort? We have the Road Fund Licence which is now a variable mostly depending on how fuel efficient the car is.

Paul

That varies hugely from state to state. Here in Washington it's only $35 or so plus county or city-level transportation taxes to re-register your car. I think I paid $135 per car last year. Not based on the value of the car or any factor except how much the car weighs.

Other states have annual property taxes based on value that can be significantly higher.

[space-time]

2001 Civic (~15k miles/year) + 1997 Civic (~6l miles/year) with $300k in liability and $300k in medical expenses, with $500 deductible, about $1800/year (was $1500 last year but they increased the rates in NJ).

I am about to call other compenies to shop around

[Rick-o]

Full coverage on all vehicles with Progressive, with 2 drivers in household = $2140. per year

1985 Pontiac Trans-Am
1987 Chevy 4x4 Pickup
2002 GMC Sierra Pickup
2003 GMC Sonoma Pickup

Not sure about the house, as it's with a different company. It's about to come due, so I may add that to my Progressive account.

[graylocks]

Lemon Drop wrote:
We can drop him on a monthly basis and re-add him as needed, but it requires that he remember that he's not an insured driver while at school.

REALLY! i'm going to ask GEICO about that as adding my 18 year old son took my $1200 a year two car policy to $2292. home owner's is about $400 a year through Farm Bureau.

[davester]

We live in the very expensive San Francisco bay area and pay about $2,500 for three cars and three drivers, then about $2600/year for homeowners insurance on a modest home in a modest but nice area. I think part of the difference (other than the hyperinflated costs of living here in SF area) is that homes in much of the US are constructed of wood, and the rate of loss of those homes to fire is much greater than in England, leading to much higher insurance costs.

As to the dirt cheap price of fuel here, that is primarily due to far lower fuel tax rates. Whereas english fuel taxes are designed to increase efficiency and pay for things like highway maintenance and pollution reduction, those things are generally paid out of other tax sources in the US, and most consumers here demand low prices and could give a damn about efficiency.

[Robert M]

Hi everyone,

The numbers are interesting but they really can't be used for comparison, not even in general. For example, I could say my '09 Mazda CX-7 costs $1200 a year to insure and you could say you have the same vehicle and it only costs you $700 a year to insure but it wouldn't be a good comparison without looking at the specific.

Now, if you threw in some of the numbers, i.e. I have 500/500 liability, collision ($500 deductible), comprehensive, uninsured, underinsured, OBEL, etc and you just have liability alone, the reason for the difference becomes obvious.

Throw in other factors that affect your insurance costs (age, sex, marital status, accidents, moving violations, kids, etc and all bets are off. Even full coverage doesn't mean it's an good comparison because you can have full coverage but not at the same levels and it could make a significant difference in the cost.

I can't even compare numbers from where I live on Long Island to those of someone who lives in the city limits because even that makes a noticeable difference in the costs. My wife and I saved a significant chunk of cash when she moved in with me. We're talking less than ten miles away from within New York City limits to Long Island.

It's astounding how something as simple as that can make a difference in the cost of insurance.

Robert

[mattkime]

i rent and don't own a car. no insurance for me.