Comments on: Auto Insurance Tip: Monthly Sucks

By: Jim Phelps

Jim Phelps — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:01:22 +0000

I’m an independent agent, and MOST companies will charge some type of service charge for paying monthly or quarterly. Progressive actually gives a big discount for paying your policy in full every 6 months. It can really save some money if you can afford to do so.

Also, being on monthly payments that are not EFT increase the risk of missing a payment and having your coverage lapse. Not a good thing to happen.

By: shela

shela — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:45:07 +0000

I go through Grange and they do the same thing, they use automatic draft from my checking account. They send me a schedule of payments and withdrawal dates, and I enter them into Quicken. It doesn’t cost me an extra cent.

I have one checking account just for irregular expenses, and I check ahead a month or two to make sure there is enough to cover the insurance and then some! Takes only two minutes to balance the checkbook using Quicken, so it doesn’t require that much time.

This has simplified my life a lot.

By: dabrfe

dabrfe — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:12:23 +0000

Monthly doesn’t always suck. USAA permits pseudo-monthly payments (it is actually called extended pay plan and is something like 5 payments/6 months). Instead of paying all 6 months up front, payment is spread over the 6 month term of the policy at no additional fee. (There used to be a fee if you did not use automatic draft, but I think they have gotten rid of that fee as well.) Let’s me get a few extra dollars in float each year and makes the budget easier to track.