The great insurance switch.

We've talked for years about how we were terribly dissatisfied with how our current insurance handled our hailing of 7 years ago.  We had to fight tooth and nail to have the house re-roofed, but they were fine to continue to hand out checks to fix my 9 year old car-- $4300 in total for that alone.  (I should add that it was the same RAV that was totaled 6 months later.)  We were suspect to think that we would be able to save money.  We had that thought, but then the thought of slogging through insurance garbage didn't appeal to me.  We had insurance.  It did cover our damages-- with arguments-- but it worked.

When we bought Barbie (the Yaris) in December (the 20th, K's birthday and why not buy a new car RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS?), I called the insurance company right before we left.  While I was told the car would be covered and it wouldn't be an issue, we would be the people buying a car 45 minutes away from home that would be hit, squashed or something awful happen and the insurance would say-- sorry!

I phoned and to switch from the 1997 Toyota Tercel to the 2013 Toyota Yaris, it increased our premium by $65 per month.

Per. month.

I told the lady that I found that to be extremely dissatisfying as we had been customers for so long, had no record of accidents or tickets and always made timely payments.  I told her that I would need to check around.  I didn't mean it as an idol threat.  It was what it was.  I was done.

A few years prior to that, I called to see why the insurance rate on our cars went up and at the time, they told me that both cars were considered to be old.  "My RAV is only 3 years old."  She babbled something on about age and replacement and where I agreed with the Tercel, old and no longer made, I couldn't get why the RAV, a vehicle that is seen on the road all the time.

She continued on talking about insurance and extreme amount of claims and so forth.

"So, because there are people out there who don't pay their insurance and those who commit insurance fraud, I am being punished for their actions."

"Pretty much."

So back to the insurance at hand.  My cousin was talking about her insurance.  She gave me the contact information and we started talking back and forth.  Hurricane Sandy reports were coming through with big bad stuff about insurance and so forth.  I had seen some things about insurance company "b" and told them I needed to ask them about it.

Then I dropped the ball.  That was January.

Seeing that bills are going up and finances are staying stagnant, I decided to go back to the insurance company and work with them.  They were able to answer my questions about Hurricane Sandy claims, which is exactly what I thought was the issue.  We've been working back and forth and in the end, on car insurance alone, they are saving us $73.00/month for the same exact coverage.

$73.00!

Our homeowners policy is less as well and I added a water back-up policy.

Our fine, fine city decided to ignore EPA mandates starting far back in the 1970's in regard to sewer and water upgrades.  They had the money then to handle such things.  They kept putting it off and putting it off.  Now, they have 30 years to get upgrades handled (though I'm told that the city wants it done in 18) with $900 million in costs and no federal or state money to handle it.  Our water and sewer bill is estimated to go from $80/month to over $200 or more a month.  I'm looking at needing to cough up at least $120 more per month and I'm trying to squeeze a bit in order to find it.

Never mind that the savings account wants fed, college fund and general bills.

Trimming a bit here and a bit there.  In this case, I was able to trim a lot.  Hooray!