How is esurance so inexpensive? Is it a scam?

I found that my final quote was much higher than the initial quote and also that after the first year, my insurance went up even though I hadn’t had an accident. It kept going up every year. I think they are counting on you being too lazy to get new insurance. I am with Farmers now and it never goes up.

Thanks for the answer. That was my feeling but I wasn’t sure. Good to hear from someone who actually tried Esurance. My premium with Progressive has gone down over the past couple years (as my past violations get even further in the past), NOT up.

I have Progressive and my rates go down every year. Esurance just gives you quotes from a lot of different agencies. Don’t go for the no name insurance.

esurance quoted me 60% less than what Progressive was charging me (and continually raising their premiums) even though I was then over 27 and had a perfect record.

Been with esurance for a couple of years and my premiums have fluctuated up and down maybe $2 a month. Still paying loads less than Progressive and pretty much every other major carrier under the sun.

I think their prices are low because seems like much of their system is online/automated which would cut down overhead. It’s also ran by Allstate.

About Progressive: My car was hit by someone with Progressive insurance. As I took my car around to repair shops, they all groaned when I told them the insured had Progressive. Progressive offered me the least they could get away with, which was nowhere near what it would cost to repair the damage nor replace the car. I sent Progressive about a hundred examples of cars like mine and what they cost, and they basically said LOL and eventually offered me only a wee bit more than their initial scummy offer.

Wow. I’ve always had great experiences with Progressive. I had an accident and I had a check in my hand in a week. My rates are almost $70 less than when we first signed up.

Maybe it’s because I live in CA. insurance laws here are strict.

That might be (CA being better). It might also partly be because you are their customer, and/or because they couldn’t use the trick they used on me to reduce their payment to you. I called our local (Washington State) insurance commissioner – the person who is supposed to be your contact to advocate, and they basically advised me that there was little I could really do, because they can always find a used car salesman somewhere to testify that they would sell my car for whatever Progressive wanted to offer me, and (in PC language) that the insurance industry had bought laws in their favor. The body shops I talked to however all said that Progressive in particular was much worse than other insurance companies as far as being willing to pay much for body repairs.

@Zaku i had a similar situation in Delaware. After six weeks of runaround I fired off a letter to the state dept. of insurance. Within 10 days I had a check for the full replacement value of our bumper. So it must depend on how old your car is (ours was new), your state and who answers the phone.

@snowberry That’s good. Interesting. I guess so.