One of the offers through MyPoints.com recently was NetQuote. It came via an email offer. I clicked on it, and noticed I could get a 1000 point bonus if I signed up for a quote, and none of the offers could beat my current insurance.

In 2005, being the only driver on my 9 year old vehicle, the cost was $401 for six months. At that time we had 21st Century Auto Insurance.

In 2006, when it came time to cover our teenage son, they planned to raise the cost to $1000. So I shopped around to the typical companies, and found that Geico could beat them, and we paid $896 for the next six months.

When it came time to renew six months later, they lowered the cost to $836.

It won’t be time to renew until April, and I was one month late getting started on saving 1/6th towards that next payment, so we’ve been putting away $167/month to catch up. Just the other day another $167 was moved over into savings. We have saved a total of $615.00 toward the next six month installment.

So back to the MyPoints NetQuote email. I thought I’d give it a shot, since Geico seemed to be the best deal around for us, considering our son is still a teenager. I figured it would be an easy 1000 points. A word of warning… don’t give out your real phone number.

I got back a few quotes that were higher than Geico, but I got back several that were lower. Much lower, in fact.

I picked one to pursue (not the lowest one, actually), and emailed the agent. We compared apples to apples – I actually sent her a screenshot of my current policy details to aid her in that comparison.

In the meantime, I got a letter in the mail from Geico which sealed their fate once and for all. They wanted proof that our son is a “Good Student” or they were planning to raise our rates. That proof consists of showing his scores from standardized testing. Well, we homeschool and he’s not taking standardized tests, so they planned to raise our policy cost to $952.50. That’s an increase of $116.

The agent I’d contacted emailed me again this morning, with a friendly reminder tone, asking if I’d gotten the last email that confirmed the quote included the fact that our 18 year old is one of the drivers of our vehicles.

First, I put in a call to Geico. They told me there is no fee for early cancellation of the policy, and unfortunately there was nothing that could be done to retain the cost of our policy without some type of proof that our son was a “Good Student”. The agent was very concerned about our going to a different company and began telling me how Geico is doing so well in business that they could afford to pay claims on EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER and still be in business the next day, and he was worried this other company couldn’t make the same claim.

Well, I tell you personally I don’t think that is a huge concern. I can’t imagine any company would need to pay claims on every single customer. Massive accidents, or maybe the rapture might occur?

Next, I put in a call to the competitor agent. She took the rest of the information needed, like our driver’s license numbers, SSNs, and asked me when I wanted to start the policy. I suggested the 28th, since Geico will owe us 2 months (why I didn’t just say today or tomorrow, I don’t know). Anyway, she said there was an additional discount if you pay 7 days in advance, and our policy came to $614 total.

Remember I mentioned how much money is in savings for the next 6 month installment?

$615. So I have the money in the bank to pay for the insurance, yippee!! In addition, when I cancel on the 28th, Geico will owe us for two months, and the refund amount on that policy will come to $278. That can go directly toward credit card debt!

Oh, one of the best parts is now I’ll start saving 1/6th of the next installment again, but that amount will now be $102, as opposed to $167. Now I have $65 more each month to put toward credit card debt!

If you think you’re getting the best rates, you might try shopping around a few weeks before your policy ends and see if you could do better. And don’t forget to try NetQuote through MyPoints. If you don’t already belong to MyPoints, I would be happy to refer you. It’s a great points earning opportunity. Just reply to this post, or you can use my contact form.