Ask Lemmy

Let me chime in as I've previously worked in insurance for several years. I was licensed in a few States across all major lines (fire/property=home, casualty =auto, life, and health)

The point of a "MUTUAL" auto insurance company is its "owned by its shareholders/policyholders, and therefore controlled by policyholders. Any "profits" are paid back in the form of dividends. Aka overpayment in a sense. If they do a rate hike, it'll probably result in more dividends the following year. Think of it like an escrow account. You base premiums on anticipated costs of business, claims, staff, legal, errors and omissions, etc. You might go above and beyond by a small percentage to make sure you're covered for anything unexpected.

I'll give you an example: COVID hit in 2020, and with less drivers on the road with petiole working remotely, we saw rate drops of 15% or more. On the flip side, 2022-2024 especially, with the struggle and shortage of auto parts, labor shortages, rise in vehicle thefts with Hyundai/KIA, etc, costs of policies went up by quite a bit to cover components doubling or tripling, labor prices for repair shops going up, and rental car companies raising rates, plus customers staying in rental cars for longer terms as shops were backed up. As these mutual companies ran deficits for the unforeseen costs, prices went up 1-2x a year to cover losses. Anytime a MUTUAL company makes too much, it repairs policyholders the profits as a dividend.

Now, state farm specifically has 2 auto insurance ends. State farm mutual automobile insurance and then there's state farm fire (home/dwelling) and casualty (auto).

For any auto insurance company, be it state farm, GEICO, farmers, Allstate, etc, the Mutual companies are the better rate, better discount company if you qualify with low/no claims, no tickets, no gaps in policy coverages, etc. It's a preferred tier meaning low risk. It's the ones that are typically advertised to save you a bunch of money.

For the standard (non mutual) companies, that's including anyone with a few claims, tickets, lapse or gaps in coverages, late payments, etc. Anything higher risk, aka higher premiums.

**It does pay to shop around ** occasionally, as there's no benefit for loyalty. There's no cost to shop around, but as companies always pull up to date info, If you're claims drop off, tickets are the past, have consistent coverage for the past 12 months, you could qualify for a better rate. IF you care about loyalty, then what you do is still shop around at least 3 quotes, and if your quotes are much lower, request your current company "rerate" you. Aka pull current data. They'll see you've shopped and your data is likely more favorable and you could see a drop in premiums. If not, that's a sign to leave. I wouldn't shop more than every 12-18 months as it looks unfavorable to you.