Progressive Insurance Price Increase, a mistake

[griegert]

I have had Progressive for years now and been happy on the one claim I made for a windshield a few years ago.


However, last year I noticed my premium went up over $500 when I renewed in 2020. I attributed that to the $3K windshield replacement the year prior or that I purchased a new coach worth twice as much. This year it again increased another $800 so I shopped around but everyone else came in the same or higher.


I just called to see if I could lower my deductibles and found out the increase was because they could not locate a drivers license for my wife. No idea how they lost their information but I updated it...they had her last hyphenated name wrong.


With the updated information I got over $500 rebated for the current year and my renewal dropped almost $1200.


Lesson learned....check each year on renewals. I am not happy I was never contacted by Progressive if they needed the information. However, they owned up to it with a rebate for the entire prior year and the new rate is significantly lower than everyone else I checked. Plus I have the diminishing deductibles... I pay for $1000 deductibles but it was really $750 last year and will be $500 in the renewal.


When all is said and done, I will recommend Progressive to my friends.

[NevadaNick]

Similar experiance, rates almost doubled so i called and told the person on the phone to do what was needed to keep me, 20 min later it went down by $1200

[Toby Dog]

Hyphenated names wreak havoc on data bases. If you marry just keep your name. Odds say it will be that again soon anyway.

[cats_aplenty]

My MH last renewal with Progressive went up 20%. To just pour salt in the wound, after it renewed they sent a letter saying they changed their Full Replacement coverage - essentially giving me less coverage for my money. My first attempt to get an answer they did not reply.

Second attempt thru chat I got the standard reply that rates are based on their losses in FL - oh yeah and in a good year they would lower the rates (try not to laugh). But that year had NOT been a bad year for weather related damage in FL. Perhaps MH folks were have demolition derbies I didn't hear about.

It also seemed strange that if there had been so much damage in FL to warrant a 20% increase, why the car insurance did not also go up like that. Nor that there had not been a major hue and cry on the forums that I saw. Seems like a hefty jump.

Afraid they could offer no other reasons. Found no missing discounts. They are sticking to the 20% increase. And no, I have never had any claims. Time to shop around I guess. Happy for those who got a better deal.

[Warhorse6]

Had progressive twice on two separate coaches. Have never had an rv claim. First year they we’re always very competitive, then the second year got the standard $500-700 hike. Asked why, the first time it was because claims went up in Texas. Second time it was the same excuse only Florida. Think they do this because they assume people may not pay that close of attention and just pay the bill. Third time is the charm so never again. Found a good company thru Good Sam and my rates actually went down this year for the same coverage I had last year.

[tnedator]

Originally Posted by Tedo

Had progressive twice on two separate coaches. Have never had an rv claim. First year they we’re always very competitive, then the second year got the standard $500-700 hike. Asked why, the first time it was because claims went up in Texas. Second time it was the same excuse only Florida. Think they do this because they assume people may not pay that close of attention and just pay the bill. Third time is the charm so never again. Found a good company thru Good Sam and my rates actually went down this year for the same coverage I had last year.

I've read this many times on Progressive. They always seem very competitive when shopping, but then people talk about price increases that are blamed on the state that you live (as opposed to your own claims).

I briefly had progressive and they had the best coverage/price compared to the others I looked at, but don't think I renewed and went a different direction unrelated to any issue/price change with Progressive.

[LETMGROW]

It pays to read over your policy and the renewal. I read my renewal this year and discovered my coach was listed as my primary vehicle to commute back and forth to my work place. I called my agent who looked into this and she discovered my policy was written this way since I bought my coach in 2015. She contacted the underwriter and I was issued a credit (and an apology) for all the years I had been paying for the additional coverage. The person who originally did the application in my agent's office hasn't been employed there since 2016. My CRV and my pick up were listed as they should have been as some days my wife and I would each drive a vehicle to my shop which was 8 miles from home. Now that we are retired we don't pay anything extra for commuting.
Anyone who has retired and doesn't drive back and forth to work on a daily basis should look into this and tell their agent. All my vehicles are classified as "Pleasure". It made a significant difference in the policy premium.

[glwinger]

Originally Posted by cats_aplenty

My MH last renewal with Progressive went up 20%. To just pour salt in the wound, after it renewed they sent a letter saying they changed their Full Replacement coverage - essentially giving me less coverage for my money. My first attempt to get an answer they did not reply.

Second attempt thru chat I got the standard reply that rates are based on their losses in FL - oh yeah and in a good year they would lower the rates (try not to laugh). But that year had NOT been a bad year for weather related damage in FL. Perhaps MH folks were have demolition derbies I didn't hear about.

It also seemed strange that if there had been so much damage in FL to warrant a 20% increase, why the car insurance did not also go up like that. Nor that there had not been a major hue and cry on the forums that I saw. Seems like a hefty jump.

Afraid they could offer no other reasons. Found no missing discounts. They are sticking to the 20% increase. And no, I have never had any claims. Time to shop around I guess. Happy for those who got a better deal.

I had the same problem with Progressive on my motorcycle insurance. Went up 30% in one year. When I called and questioned why, I was told it was because of the number of claims they had paid. I asked if these were motorcycle related and they said it was total claims paid. Auto, motorcycle and homeowners. Plus, they dropped the included insurance for the trailer I pull behind the motorcycle.

The person said they would have someone contact me about my new rate. NEVER happened.

I guess Flo and the rest of the idiots on the commercials demanded more money.

[kkocan72]

Originally Posted by tnedator

I've read this many times on Progressive. They always seem very competitive when shopping, but then people talk about price increases that are blamed on the state that you live (as opposed to your own claims).

I briefly had progressive and they had the best coverage/price compared to the others I looked at, but don't think I renewed and went a different direction unrelated to any issue/price change with Progressive.

I was paying $215/month for my car, my wife's car and then $350 once per year for our RV (a 2002 Winnebago). All good coverages, roadside assistance, low deductibles, rental reimbursement etc...

On a whim a few months ago I shopped around and tried Geico (who I had before progressive). For the same coverage, with a military discount, we now pay $190/month but that also includes the RV.

Before I left Progressive I called them and asked if there was anything we were missing by way of discounts and since I had been with them for 7 years could they do anything. They pretty much said nope, so we switched to Geico.

[Teamfoxy]

I found that a good agent can always do better than using Progressive Direct. When you find a good agent that does right by you, keep them.

[wihakowi]

Timely post since I got my renewal "offer" from Progressive yesterday and the new rates went up by 27%! There was no easily discernable reason why the rate hike so I called Progressive to ask for a "Why?". They said it was a "Rate Revision" and could be caused by changes in the policy; risks or claims OR could be due to "the cost of doing business in your state has gone up and thus, we have to raise your rates". After getting an "Agent" on the phone as opposed to a Customer Service Rep, he confirmed that there was absolutely no change to the policy - no claims, no change in coverage, nothing. He could give me no explanation as to "why?" other than "the cost of doing business in your state has gone up ..." and I ended the conversation bewildered.

Policy is a "Full Timer" policy, as it should be, and under "Garaged In" it lists the zip code for the mailing address. Thinking the listed Zip might be the issue, I mentioned that listing a "garaged in" location was silly, considering we full-time without a fixed location. He checked other locations in the same state (VT) and found that apparently Progressive looks at VT as one "territory" with no rate changes anywhere site specific.

This morning I called the VT State Insurance Commissioner's office (Department of Financial Regulation) and spoke with a live human being (I love VT) who took all my info and said she would definitely look into what filings might be on record regarding Progressive's rates and hikes in order to get me an answer to the why question.
Moments later, she called back and said that she had spoken with the head of the Consumer Services Section, who strongly suggested that I open a formal complaint with them regarding Progressive's rate hike. She wanted to patch me right through to that department but I told her that I wanted to call Progressive one more time to try to get answer as the the "Why?" of the rate hike. I have never had issues with Progressive and didn't want to make waves or create issues.

I called Progressive again and got a CS person who gave me the same canned answer and got testy with me. She patched me through to a supervisor. She had the same story that it was because of "the cost of doing business in your state has gone up ... ". She would not, could not give me any other rationale for the big hike.

I went ahead and filed a formal complaint and the "Rate and Form Analyst" assured me they'd follow up and get a better answer.

Here, all this time, I thought that they worked for me. That I paid them good money to keep them in business and that I was the customer - they were the provider. Guess I was born yesterday!

[waterman480]

The insurance companies also are doing yield management. (Same as the airline and hotel industries - and now the camping industry is catching on,) How much pain can the insurance company inflict without losing more customers than the increased fees bring in.