This bothers me a bit every time I hear it. It seems that every auto insurance company has been trumpeting a relatively useless statistic. “Drivers who switched to _____ saved an average of…” and then they give some large-sounding number.
You want to save hundreds of dollars, right? Of course you do. Who doesn’t?
The claim is somewhat silly, though, isn’t it? I mean, the implication is that everyone who switches would save lots of money. The reality is that switching insurance carriers is a bit of a hassle, so you’re probably not going to switch to save $20 a year, and if your insurance isn’t very high to begin with, you’re probably not even going to be shopping around.
In some ways, it reminds me of the saying “You always find something in the last place you look for it.” Well nooooo kidding. If you keep looking for it after that, you’re a moron. The number of people who would switch insurance carriers to one that would charge them more is negligible at best, so of course the people who switch are going to be saving money, and probably a non-trivial amount of it, to boot.
Don’t get me wrong, I guess it’s a clever marketing strategy, because unless you actually think critically about it, it sounds pretty neat, but I still roll my eyes when I notice it.
Tags: Commercials, Insurance
I’m so glad you posted this. This has been bothering me for weeks now.
They should be required to say how much more they would cost for the customers who didn’t switch
I seem to remember us having this conversation once before.
A few years ago I got one of those “15 minutes can save you…” letters from Geico so I figured I would give them a call and see how much insurance with them would be (I had/have Progressive and have been pleased with all of my dealings with them over the years). The same coverage would have actually cost me something like $30 a month more, and the woman I was talking to was all ready to start my policy as soon as she gave me the quote and I was like “no, no, no, DON’T WANT” and she was just dumbfounded that I a) had cheaper insurance, b) had cheaper insurance with a large provider (rather than some company that operates out of a ghetto strip mall and typically only supplies the cheapest and most basic liability coverage to drivers in states that require liability insurance), and c) didn’t want to switch to Geico anyway even though it was more expensive. She even got a supervisor/manager on the line, not to see if they could make me a better offer or give me another pitch as to why I should switch (better service, faster claims, etc.) and get my business, but to essentially berate me for not being willing to switch. It was simultaneously the most amusing and frustrating experience I’ve ever had and I would have simply hung up if not for the fact that I was legitimately afraid they would start the policy and start sending me bills. So instead I stayed on the phone with these jokers for at least half an hour repeating “I DO NOT WANT to switch my policy” over and over again until finally the supervisor person said what essentially boiled down to “you’re clearly too stupid to understand that you should be with Geico and we don’t even want your business now” and hung up. Anyway, yay Progressive.