measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You want me to come up with WHAT?!? Mel (that would be me) had a rude awakening about the joys of car insurance yesterday as she called to correct a mistake on her potential insurance provider. Erich, JT, and Tan witnessed my near anurysm (sp?) via email. The backstory on this is as follows: Mom gave me the car, but as of now, it's still in her name, with Pennsylvania plates, and is insured in Pennsylvania. Not exactly what you want to be doing long-term, since its current main garaging area is in Massachusetts. We're going to get the title and the plates and such changed over to my name and put Mass. on the car, but the first step is getting insurance, because I won't be able to transfer the title or registration without that. And since Mom could still own the car, the insurance really is the most important thing to change first, anyway. So, fast forward to January... I started insurance shopping. I decided to keep things pretty basic and go middle of the road on everything for now, taking a larger deductible if I needed to in order to keep costs low ($1,000 as opposed to the generic $500). I get one quote that sounds high to Erich at around $1,350 per year, as opposed to his slightly less than $1,000 per year. So I keep looking around, discovering that Geico and Progressive don't cover Massachusetts at all, so they're not even in the picture here. Finally find one, where I hear (key word... this is important later) $990 per year. Sounds good-- it's in the ballpark of Erich's-- and through the same company, even. I'll take it. So they prepare a sample statement for me to review, and I get it late Thursday at work via Fed-Ex. (with big red "THIS IS NOT AN ACTUAL INSURANCE POLICY-- THIS IS FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY") stamped across the top. I review the information to make sure it's correct-- and notice that the Jeep's VIN number is typed incorrectly on the form. Not good. Probably a typo, but definitely an important typo. I'd planned to call them on Friday, but then the whole office closing happened. I locked the review policy up in my personel file drawer here at the office, and made myself a note to call them Monday. So I call them. And everything, and I mean EVERYTHING goes to hell with this policy. First off, I didn't hear them correctly. It wasn't $990, it was $1,990. And that wasn't going to be my ingoing rate, because apparently Massachusetts has this stupid little rule that if you're not a 6-year continuously licensed driver in Massachusetts, the first time you apply for car insurance, you're automatically put at a Step 15 rate until they "review your past licensing history," which they say could take 4-6 weeks, but in reality, probably takes at least three months. The Step 15 thing definitely annoys me, because I was not informed of this while shopping for insurance. And I do take pride in having a clean record. I mean really-- SIX HITS against my license, just for changing the crummy thing over so I can have some horrific floosy-chick-from-the-docks picture staring back at me in my wallet for the next five years? And that for a whopping $75.00 conversion fee? Haven't I been punished enough? *sigh* Anyway... turns out that $1,990 rate was for Step 9, once they "reviewed" my case. My ingoing rate on the car (with the $1,000 deductible) was.... $2,990!Per year! If I'd taken the $500 deductible, it would have been $3,400 per year! What the hell?!? I fought off the urges to gasp violently and make rather tortured moaning sounds into the phone as she's calmly telling me this. Not sure how anyone could calmly tell another person that they are supposed to be paying around three grand per year to insure a car. Dear Goddess. O-kay then. I tell her that I wasn't aware of that rate, and would definitely have to reconsider that, because I'd had offers for significantly less, and mentioned that the Step 9/15 thing hadn't been discussed when I first applied for insurance. (non-diplomatic translation = FUCK THAT SHIT!) As quickly, but politely, as I could, I got off that call. I wheezed through an email to Erich, Tan, and JT, and then tried to step away from it for a moment by venting to Ellen (who conveniently sits two cubicles over). After taking a deep breath, I call the national 1-800 for the insurer that my mother has the car under, who I realized in my notes, that I'd forgotten to call. I find a local agent in Randolph, discuss it with him, give him car details... and he gives me a much more respectable rate... with a $500 deductible, of $1,381 per year at the Step 9 rate. $243 down, then 8 payments of $130 and change. I can do this. Much better. Also turns out that while yes, it's true that Mass does that Step 15 thing, my Montana licence is already linked to the account and has been processed with it. For the first couple months, I would be a Step 15-class insured driver, since it's my first time having my own car, but because I've had my license for 13 years, and a clean record, that would be put back to class 9 by May, and any money would be pro-rated towards that. Fine. I can handle that. He did recommend I do a few more calls around just to check the ballpark figures, but he'd save the quote in the computer. I thanked him and let him know that I'd make a decision one way or the other by Friday (since that was when I get paid and could make a payment anyway), recovered a bit through an email to Erich, Tan, and JT, and then blew off the stress by cleaning OUT the cubicle. And I mean nearly everything. I have an empty desk, with the exception of a solitary foot-deep pile of stuff that I need to work through today. I have a couple more calls to get to today on the insurance rates. Until then, I'm just going to whimper quietly about how wonderful fate is that someone mistyped my car's VIN on the sample insurance policy. Gah. 10:41 a.m. - 11 February 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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