About Insurance Rates

[Vettepartz]

I just saw a writeup on the TV news about car manufacturers selling info from different car computers to insurance companies. This included hard acceleration, top speeds, and hard braking. Well, after 2 years of slight changes in my insurance premiums, I took my car to the local drag strip where I ran in the 9's at around 150mph followed by some pretty hard braking. In the month that followed, I noticed that my insurance went up by 5%, and then another 21% in the next month. I have never had a claim with this car.

I called my insurance company (USAA) to ask about the sudden increase. They would not confirm nor deny that it had anything to do with the info stored in my car computer. They told me that the increase was due to an increase in the number of claims in my area, even though I did not have any on myself.

I am wondering if this is completely legal, and if others may have seen the same situation.

 

[DerbyDave]

I believe sharing information that identifies you or your car is against Tesla Privacy guarantees. Check it for yourself. If you have doubts, contact Tesla as the Privacy Notice indicates.

https://www.tesla.com/legal/privacy#how-we-may-use-your-information

 

[Leftlane22]

USAA changes your rates monthly? I have only seen changes from my insurer annually when renewal comes.

 

[sorka]

USAA changes your rates monthly? I have only seen changes from my insurer annually when renewal comes.

I have USAA and although they bill every 6 months, they only change the policy rate at most once a year. There's no such thing as monthly billing with USAA.

 

[Vettepartz]

I have looked at the last 6 months of my billing from USAA, and there are 4 different amounts that I was charged during that time. My billing amount is automatically deducted EACH MONTH, and I can understand some small 'adjustments', but these are large differences.

 

[rjenson54]

There is little data privacy these days regardless of the fine print. I bet they have your driving metrics. "You will drive slow and like it."

 

[JPlaid]

My geico policy just renewed and went up by $500/6mo. I haven't been to the track and my wife drives the car (23 MSP) in chill mode 99% of the time.

 

[WilliamG]

My geico policy just renewed and went up by $500/6mo. I haven't been to the track and my wife drives the car (23 MSP) in chill mode 99% of the time.

All the insurance companies are putting up their rates. They will just tell you that Teslas are more expensive to repair blah blah. Mine has doubled year on year.

 

[maximizese]

I don't have a monitoring device from my insurance, nor does our Tesla get driven erratically (can't say the same with our Fiat 500e) and our insurance for both home and auto went up about 21% year over year. Our umbrella stayed relatively the same. My assumption is that most people's insurance premiums went up (if they weren't dropped) and you're just correlating a marker in your memory with the increase...which is analogous to why folks think their smart devices are spying on them when an advertisement pops up after they mention something related.

There's a CNBC article on YouTube about the increase in insurance rates. Basically comes down to the increase in the price of cars, increase technology, decrease in resilience, increase in bodily injury, increase in accidents/distracted driving, shortage in auto repair labor and parts availability, etc. It did not talk about auto thefts nor uninsured drivers. It's not hard to understand that insurance companies were operating under a projection before inflation hit hard and now they have a gap to fill...BTW, have you seen insurance stock charts?

 

[CaptUAL]

USAA changes your rates monthly? I have only seen changes from my insurer annually when renewal comes.

I agree. Have had USAA for 30 years. ( House, Airplane, Motorcycle and three cars.). Very straight forward to deal with. Currently have 2023 MSP, and am paying $94.00 per month w/ full coverage. Price has been the same since first MSP in 2021. No previous moving violations or accidents or claims in 50 years.

 

[aerodyne]

I agree. Have had USAA for 30 years. ( House, Airplane, Motorcycle and three cars.). Very straight forward to deal with. Currently have 2023 MSP, and am paying $94.00 per month w/ full coverage. Price has been the same since first MSP in 2021. No previous moving violations or accidents or claims in 50 years.

I'm going to switch my auto to USAA for the cars Tesla wont cover.

When Farmers increased my house insurance nearly 3 fold last fall USAA came though.

 

[Leftlane22]

I found USAA to be about 4x what I pay at Progressive - not sure why because I have zero accidents or tickets. I was shocked when I got the quote - I thought they were going to be super competitive but not even close. And I’m in their hometown!

 

[WilliamG]

I found USAA to be about 4x what I pay at Progressive - not sure why because I have zero accidents or tickets. I was shocked when I got the quote - I thought they were going to be super competitive but not even close. And I’m in their hometown!

Just got a quote from USAA and it's twice the price of Progressive for me. And Progressive keeps going up, so... who even knows what my next billing period will be. Sigh.

 

[DrJ]

I have USAA and although they bill every 6 months, they only change the policy rate at most once a year. There's no such thing as monthly billing with USAA.

Not true. Rates change every 6 months

 

[sorka]

Not true. Rates change every 6 months

Not mine.

 

[cbdream99]

Many factors can affect each individual rate, though we tend to think I did nothing wrong and my rates should stay the same ...

For the past few years, major car insurance companies are actually losing money, so an increase across the board is expected. Accidents, repair costs, brands are already available for any demographic, Tesla in general is higher including total rate than the others, it is not unheard of EV owners running over some debris, damaged/scratched the undershield and the battery has to be replaced ... some insurance companies simply won't underwrite Tesla policy have their reasons.

There are other telemetry apps available from different insurance companies and not just Tesla, while individual data may not be shared but as a collective, general statistics may very well be shared to data broker, I am pretty sure those apps are not better than Tesla's and likely worse. Also, with more incentives, there are more Tesla on the road so the stats may be skewed.. I have asked for quote for a Lucid, pretty sure the repair cost will be very high but the quote is actually lower than my 7 years old MS.

 

[aerodyne]

But Elon says these are the safest cars on the road?

Payouts for liability, bodily injury are a large part of the premium.

I could argue Tesla should have equal or lower rates than other cars.

 

[cbdream99]

But Elon says these are the safest cars on the road?

Payouts for liability, bodily injury are a large part of the premium.

I could argue Tesla should have equal or lower rates than other cars.

Safest usually referred to how well it protects the drivers and passengers inside the vehicle ...

 

[aerodyne]

Safest usually referred to how well it protects the drivers and passengers inside the vehicle ...

Agreed. And what is the largest part of the premium?

Liability and bodily injury in my case.

 

[cbdream99]

Agreed. And what is the largest part of the premium?

Liability and bodily injury in my case.

That's typical the expensive part of all the policy that I have insured with before. In these days, vehicles are getting more and more expensive not to mention any bodily injury can result in lawsuit, some companies recommend increase the coverage from the minimal and possibly have an umbrella policy ...