Progressive Insurance Just Bought Me Dinner • 08.18.09
I just saved $35 that I was about to put on my credit card with a five-minute phone call to Progressive auto insurance. I even changed a poopy diaper while I was doing it, which makes it the first time I have earned money while doing that since my high school babysitting days.
The reason I called Progressive was to ask them why, since my old car becomes cheaper to replace every single day, my auto insurance premium doesn’t go down every time I renew. Think about it — if I bought a new, more expensive car, the premium would certainly go up. I bought my car for $12,000, and it say right on Progressive’s site that it’s now worth $5,000. Why on earth do I have to pay the same premium for a $5,000 car as I paid for a $12,000 car?
Well, the Progressive agent I spoke to politely declined to give me a discount just for driving a clunker. (One that doesn’t qualify for the program, I might add.) But she did come up with several other discounts that will save me $35 on the six-month payment I’m about to make. I’ll be saving $70 a year — while not a gigantic savings, it’s the equivalent of a nice dinner out and I’m not gonna turn that down.
The discounts were:
* $21 for having a bachelor’s degree. See, I always knew going to journalism school would pay off! This is a new discount they hadn’t offered before, and the agent didn’t know if it was unique to Progressive or if other companies are doing it to. Worth asking about.
* $2 homeowner’s discount. We were renters when we started the policy, and we never thought to update our status with them when we move.
* $12 for paperless statements, which I prefer aynway.
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