Recently I got my car insurance bill. I thought it was too high. It's been slowly going up for the last 18 months. I thought it was time to look into a new carrier. I called Progressive since I see their commercials all the time. A very nice lady walked me through the quote process and in the end, their quote was only 3 bucks cheaper then my current carrier.

Today I decided to go see my agent and find out why my insurance had slowly risen. I also had some other insurance questions about my auto and condo insurance. After talking to him for awhile and asking my questions, turns out that the DC area has one of the highest insurance rates in the country. Because of accidents and such, we've had 3 regional increases in the last 18 months. Alright, I accept that. So to help lower my insurance, I increased my deductible. And I went with a monthly payment plan to make it easier to budget for the cost of the insurance. Even after all that, I still think my insurance should be lower. I have NEVER had an accident (knock wood) and I've only had one ticket in my life. That was back in 1985. I have a very clean record. I don't drive very far. I'm always way below the yearly millage average. I guess I'll just have to live with it. I also found out that if I decide later to lease a new Mercedes C320 4matic (which I'm thinking of doing later this year with advice from my friend Ken) my insurance won't go up too much and since I'm now paying monthly, I won't feel it all at once.

After the auto insurance questions, I had a few condo insurance questions. I wasn't sure I had enough coverage. My agent explained everything I had and what they covered. I have all the things I need on my policy. The only thing I had to increase was the amount I had for my contents insurance. Over the last two years I've bought new furniture for every room in my condo and want to be able to replace. So I increased that amount and I was good to go. I also rolled this payment into my monthly auto insurance. Now I have one payment each month for all my insurance.

I get so many things done when I'm off for a week. I also like the peace of mind it gives me to have all my insurance needs up to date.