You probably remember that I had couple of accidents last year.
The first one was right before my wedding, in October, I was making a left turn on an one-lane street just as a big SUV behind me decided to over-take me from the left. I ended up with a big repair bill. The driver actually lied when she told her insurance company what happened, and because this was a secluded road and the police refused to come (because if no one is injured in an accident, the Hayward CHP will not show up), the arbitration process couldn’t determine fault. I’m still steaming from it. The second accident happened right after Christmas in 2004, on my way home from work one day, someone rear-ended my car. This time, the Castro Valley CHP came, and it was determined on the spot that the other driver was at fault, and the responsible party’s insurer paid my repair bill.
Anyway, my current auto insurance company, Kemper Direct, got acquired by another company, and they bumped up my rate more than 35%. I was also totally disappointed in the way they handled my accidents and claims, I felt that they didn’t care much for their customers, and the whole claim/arbitration process dragged on and on, it was time to look somewhere else. In the meantime, my wife’s insurer, Liberty Mutual, just increased her premium as well.
I was forced to look around for another auto insurance company for both of our cars.
After weeks of searching, I finally found an auto-insurer online that met my needs exactly.
The company is called Wawanesa Insurance, it mainly focuses on good drivers in California and Oregon. It’s been writing auto insurances in California since 1975, they also have an A+ rating with AM Best. There was also a lot of good things people said about the company, you can read these reviews on Epinion.
I heard about it from someone on Fatwallet, and did some research, and asked for a quote. When I got my application in my mail, I was stunned, their quote is 40% less than what I’m paying for right now. Someone from Wawanesa then called me to clarify some issues with my two accidents, and I got them resolved. I then mentioned that my wife has her own car, and wanted to know if they can add my wife to my policy as well as the car under her name.
The lady on the phone told me yes, and get this, the quote for both cars, with both my wife and me covered, the total is 20% less than what I’m paying my car right now. We saved over 60% on auto-insurance by going with Wawanesa. I strongly suggest you check them out. BTW, they have no referral program, so I’m just telling sharing this with you so you can enjoy the same savings.
Here are the pros and cons from the view of a new Wawanesa customer.
Pros
1. Cheap
2. Good reputation
3. Being selective thus can maintain low premium.
Cons
1. In the US, only available in California, Nevada and Oregon.
2. Paper-based application although the online quoting process does pre-fill some fields in the paper application.
3. CSR has no email access, everyone will be by phone.
To me, the pros far out-weighs the cons.
Hopefully you can save some money with Wawanesa as well.