Millions of Americans have been shopping around for better auto and home insurance rates as these monthly expenses continue to consume a larger portion of their budgets in an increasingly expensive world.
The challenge is to find the coverage they need without having to sacrifice protection from their policies.
Though inflation appears to be slowing down in a number of important categories, providing welcome ease to the rising strain on families doing everything they can to afford their monthly expenses, home and auto insurance rates are still rising fast. Insurers have pointed to an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters and the spike in repair costs to explain the trend.
The findings from a recent Assurance IQ study conducted last month showed that a wide majority of insured Americans – 63 percent – had experienced a hike to their premiums for home coverage within the prior 12-month period. Slightly more, 67 percent – are now paying more for their auto coverage than they were the year before. About half – 51 percent – said that they were cutting down their spending on non-essential purchases in order to be able to afford their premiums. Another 45 percent said that they weren’t saving as much money because of these coverage bills.
These rising insurance rates were causing Americans to be “extremely” or “very concerned”.
More than half of the study participants said that they were either “extremely concerned” or “very concerned” about their capacity to keep up with future increases to their premiums. In fact, about 13 percent of the respondents to the survey said that the cost of their homeowners’ policies was making them start to think about changing the state in which they lived.
Experts in insurance rates are recommending that consumers take a few steps to help to ensure they find the coverage they need at the best available price. The first step along that road includes shopping around and finding out what other insurers are charging for similar coverage. Often, a meaningful improvement can be found. Another option includes bundling home and auto coverage as many insurers will offer incentives to purchase more than one product from them.
