Rate creep frustration!

[kgtest]

Anyone have a similar "story" (not including ACA screw jobs)?

Same thing happened to me. Fought comcast and won, no winning with insurance co, unless you take less coverage in my situation. DW pays more for her 2013 camry than my 2014 4x4 half-ton. We do put more miles on the camry, but in terms of replacement cost its devalued with all those miles and the replacement parts are cheaper so it confuses me. SF simply charges more for PD on our camry makes no damn sense.

Netflix went up to 13.99 - 4k ;0
CostCo Went up $5 to $60. DW cancelled and I got the first time military deal
My tmobile cell taxes went up a few bucks
Energy pre kwh is up for my energy co, taxes are up on my sewer
Trash is level, for now.

Property Taxes went up a few % on both properties
Home Insurance went up...

thankfully I found propane exchange for $10/20lb tank recently to help offset...it's a small win. Plus I see my AMZN card is offering 4% gas + my 10c coupon...that's like $1.50/camry tank lol at LEAST $40/yr savings hahha. take that inflation! Plus, the vehicle's registration goes down almost as fast as the depreciation, so there's that small not so much of a win. Shoudn't complain 50% of mileage is an expense that is deductible. Oh wait, I just did.

 

[misanman]

Rate increases are a fact of life and I generally don't expend any energy worrying about them.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

it does not seem to be uniform across all states/carriers, as i was pleasantly surprised at the very small increases in my home/auto/umbrella (all with same co) this year i did shop around a bit but found it the same or higher, which was no surprise since I did have 2 tickets back in 2014 (while driving a cat to her cancer treatments and passing through some speed traps in unfamiliar territory)plus a home claim in 2016. What was surprising with all that is the fact that my existing policies did not go up more than 2%

 

[Scrapr]

I Switched...

Let me guess...GEICO

Even a Caveman...

 

[aja8888]

On the property taxes was it a tax rate increase or an increase in the assessed value? Given the increase in property prices nationwide it is likley the value of the house went up. Since you are in Tx look forward to the first of you turning 65 when at least your school taxes and possibly county and city tax are frozen in amount unless you do an addition to the house. In addition turning 65 provides a 10k reduction in the property value used for school tax purposes.

On our M.U.D. (municipal water district) tax, it was an increase in base charge to cover improvements and a usage rate increase. The school and other taxes are not here yet, but everyone I know is expecting a rate increase due to costs associated with township and county growth. Right now that is a rumor.

Our MUD district enforced water restrictions on us last year due to the lack of rain forcing more residential irrigation. According to the MUD, we all did our part and cut back and conserved water. This Spring, all residents got a letter from them saying they were raising our usage rates due to NOT COLLECTING ENOUGH REVENUE. What!! They made us cut back.....what did they expect??

 

[compounder]

I experienced similar frustrations with insurance. Calculated that most of my policies, auto and home went up 7% this year. 45% since 2013 for auto. No accidents/points/ or claims.

Inquired with useless agent. Same BS - across the board rate increases due to blah blah blah nationwide.

Shopped around. New quotes were sky high from 2 others. One just never replied with the quote after i provided all the info. Seems that they knew they would not beat my existing.

Super frustrating. Not really any alternatives and getting quotes/switching is such a time consuming, life sucking experience. This is not lost on insurers. Nothing one can really do about it imho. I do try to shuffle when feasible but this year nothing was. Last time I moved all policies was in 2013 and saved a ton.

 

[jazz4cash]

Our water and sewer rates are going up about 10% for third year in a row and they're going to change the formula since these rates are still not bringing the revenue the budgeted for. I need to look into getting a submeter before they revoke the option. Electricity kWh rate goes down every year thanks to the supplier choice program that nobody uses. I just got an offer to lock in at 4 pct less than I'm paying now plus $100 giftcard. Distribution rates go up anyway. What I don't get on the auto coverage is the favorable claims history doesn't seem to help much I know people that have totaled multiple cars. DUIs, fires, stolen etc etc. How can they afford coverage? I know the rest of us pay/ rant over.

 

[W2R]

Some expenses go up faster than inflation, but others don't.

It helps to look at the full year's expenses for everything, to get an idea of the overall effect on spending.

It would be more difficult to retain one's serenity about rate creep, if the stock market was plunging rapidly downwards instead of rising each day. Today the Dow was up again, to 22,997.

 

[FIREd]

Our largest rate increases have been:

Car insurance +13%
Health insurance +5%*
Netflix +10%
Cell phone +6%

Property taxes have not budged in 3 years.

The overall effect on spending is less than 1% (CPI-U is up about 2.1% YOY). I will be giving myself a ~1% raise in 2018 to compensate for these rate increases.

*based on unsubsidized premium.

 

[Amethyst]

My dating days were pre- internet.
Fewer creeps, since I could actually see and talk to them first!

We switched insurance companies this year too.

I'm sure you can start a new thread on that subject if you wish!

 

[nativenewenglander]

We bought our house three years ago. Our initial homeowners policy with the agent here town was $404, that seemed cheap. The next year it went to $540, this past year it was $810. I was dumbfounded, so I called my old agent 130 miles in the southern part of the state, we raised the deductible to $10,000 and the new policy was $420, this renewal it was roughly the same. I did the same with our business policy and was able shave $500 off the policy, they wouldn't reduce the business building value, we run the business in a 19th century carriage barn on the same property as the house, lower than $150,000 even though we could replace it for $90,000. She said we could have a replacement cost appraisal done, but there would be no guarantee the company would accept it.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Re: Car insurance...

I had the exact same issue w/ USAA (in Texas) with increasing premiums. I was told that it wouldn't go up again with the next renewal, but it did. When I called to asked what the deal was, they told me that Texas law would only allow a certain % increase over a renewal period, so it was maxed out the previous renewal and they were "making up the rest" with the latest renewal. I was able to get the same coverage from Amica for 1/2 the price...to this day, I was flabbergasted at the increases.

We have had Amica for several years and although their have been increases, they haven't been nearly as egregious as USAAs were.

Last thought on auto insurance. Look at cars today...they are more complex than many of the commercial airliners that fly you around. A nice pick-up truck can easily cost more than $60,000 and have lots and lots of expensive equipment and sensors on them. As a result, it's difficult and expensive to repair even the smallest accident and the number of cars that are totaled (as a % of overall repairs) is at an all time high. This trend will continue...so expect auto insurance rates to be expensive and will only get more expensive.

 

[gauss]

I suspect that some of the inflation that we see in consumer discretionary goods and services is due to the process of coming out of the recession.

During the recession companies try to keep a hold on prices to keep customers, but when the economy recovers they look to make up the lost ground.

If the average customers are now busy making money perhaps they are less inclined to price shop.

I would especially expect to see this type of behavior when there are recurring monthly billing plans in place.

-gauss

 

[ivinsfan]

Our largest rate increases have been:

Car insurance +13%
Health insurance +5%*
Netflix +10%
Cell phone +6%

Property taxes have not budged in 3 years.

The overall effect on spending is less than 1% (CPI-U is up about 2.1% YOY). I will be giving myself a ~1% raise in 2018 to compensate for these rate increases.

*based on unsubsidized premium.

unfortunately even the smaller increase in the big ticket items is a lot of money, the extra buck a month for Netflix pales in comparison.

 

[ducky911]

Health care been going up double digits for years...now Anthem is pulling out leaving Blue Shield as the only game in town...Hospital and many doctors don't honor Blue Shield.?!!!

California health care broken

 

[bigcmagor]

Homeowners insurance is reaching the point of being of marginal value in my opinion. We cancelled the coverage except for liability on our winter home, choosing to self insure. Instead of paying the rising premiums, we put the money into sea wall reinforcement, impact resistant windows and a hurricane rated garage door. Made it through Irma with minor damage while both neighbors lost sea walls and part of their roofs. Sea walls are generally excluded from coverage anyway, so they will be paying out of pocket for that significant expense, along with a higher deductible on covered losses due to the damage being from a "named" storm.

 

[JoeWras]

Like others, the one I see the most is our municipal water bill. Over the years, they have tacked on new charges which traditionally were covered by taxes, for example: garbage, hazard waste, sewer improvements, drainage improvements and water pipe improvements. The result has been an 8 to 10% raise the last 10 years.

Then at election time, they can say, "we didn't raise taxes." However, some noise is starting to be made about this, especially by HOA administrators.

Oh, and our first big raise was after a drought too, after we collectively "reduced our consumption too much."

 

[Chuckanut]

Good plan, I finally phoned around and discovered my insurance agent I had used for 10 years was charging me too much, and he was a RELATIVE !!!

A consumer guru reports that insurance companies use sophisticated software to identify customers who generally don't bother to shop their insurance for better rates. These 'lucky' people are selected for the higher rate increases.

I am thinking that the best Christmas gift I can give myself is to shop my total insurance package and see if I can get a better deal. And if the deal is not better then I have the gift of knowing that I am not being taken advantage of.

 

[Exrook]

We had a hurricane recently (Harvey) and my auto policy costs went through the roof?

https://www.wired.com/story/harvey-houston-cars-ruined/

As the Hurricane Harvey storm system dissipates and the water it dropped recedes, Houstonians left without shelter face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. Many people are focused on the staggering figure of 40,000 homes lost, but another number also deserves close scrutiny: The flooding destroyed as many as a million cars in the Houston metro area.

 

[aja8888]

https://www.wired.com/story/harvey-houston-cars-ruined/

Our cars were not lost or even wet. Hurricane area insurance should have that risk built into the insurance company base rates. That's why our BASE rates (in the hurricane counties) are higher than those that don't live in those counties.

 

[PatrickA5]

My auto rates went way up, but then I read that certain parts of our credit score are used to determine rates. Since I play the points/miles game, I rack up quite a few inquiries and new accounts. Even though my FICO is 811, evidently hard inquiries and new credit accounts are two things that the insurance company looks at to raise rates. I guess they figure having too many credit cards in my wallet will distract me and cause an accident. Ugh!

 

[Livefree]

2 years ago I shopped insurance due to rate creep. I saved $1000 on our 3 properties, 2 cars and an umbrella policy. The old company was Arbella and the new is Commerce/Mapfre.

Last week I called to inquire about the price of Cemetery Plots in our home town cemetery. Got a price of $1600 per plot, but the guy said: " You should buy this year because the price will double the first of the year"

I said why is that? He said well all the other towns are going up, so we are too
WHAT?!

 

[JoeWras]

Cars are getting more sophisicated. Small accidents lead to huge repairs.

And the fatality/serious accident rate is going up again. IIHS General Statistics

None of this is good for rates.

 

[GrayHare]

In my experience with insurance rates, when insurer A's rate creeps too high, switch to insurer B. When insurer B creeps too high, switch back to A. After doing this A will not creep higher nearly as fast because insurer A knows you'll switch.

 

[Sunset]

We bought our house three years ago. Our initial homeowners policy with the agent here town was $404, that seemed cheap. The next year it went to $540, this past year it was $810. I was dumbfounded, so I called my old agent 130 miles in the southern part of the state, we raised the deductible to $10,000 and the new policy was $420, this renewal it was roughly the same. I did the same with our business policy and was able shave $500 off the policy, they wouldn't reduce the business building value, we run the business in a 19th century carriage barn on the same property as the house, lower than $150,000 even though we could replace it for $90,000. She said we could have a replacement cost appraisal done, but there would be no guarantee the company would accept it.

I thought my deductible of $1,000 was high, and when we had hail damage of about $11 K, I paid my $1K and got a new roof, siding on 1 side, and other stuff.

But a deductible of $10K ? So, other than being lucky enough to have your house burn down, doesn't this mean you will pay for future claims out of pocket, as very few are ever over $10K ?