Updating My Address From Fallbrook to Murrieta Just Made my Car Insurance Rates Skyrocket...!?

When I started writing this post I couldn’t help but cringe as I was trying to write an appropriately catchy title that didn’t read like one of those “This One Weird Trick” ads you see everywhere for car insurance.

So, before I get started I want to be clear- I don’t have any affiliate connections to any of these companies and this is certainly not a sponsored ad.

It’s just my experience with something that happened to me recently, and the information I learned in the process that I really feel could help my readers. With that said, here’s what happened…

A few days ago, I woke up to a notification from my bank that my car insurance company had taken $311 out of my account.

My first thought was basically: Wait...what?

My regular car insurance payment had already jumped from $133 a month to $229 after I updated my address from Fallbrook to Murrieta. The additional charge was apparently connected to the address change as well.

To be fair, I knew my rate might change when I updated my address.

Insurance companies consider things like the risk of theft, accidents and vehicle damage where you live. So I wasn't expecting my Fallbrook rate to necessarily stay the same after moving to Murrieta.

But I also wasn't expecting was an increase of nearly $100 a month.

That left me wondering whether $229 a month was simply what people around Murrieta were paying for car insurance now? Or whether I was paying way too much?

So I asked.

I posted on Nextdoor to see what other local residents were paying and which insurance companies they were using.

And my friends and neighbors responded with so much useful information- it was so helpful! Prior to posting my question I started to wonder if:

I see ads all the time promising incredibly cheap car insurance, so I started wondering if maybe my expectations were just completely outdated.

Are people actually getting these cheap rates?

Or are those advertisements based on bare-bones policies that look very different once you add the coverage you actually want?

When I called Kemper (that’s who I had been insured with) that morning, I mentioned that I'd recently received something in the mail from Progressive offering me a rate of less than $80 a month to switch.

The agent reminded me that my current policy included comprehensive coverage.

And my first thought was: Is comprehensive really that big of a deal?

For me, giving it up wasn't something I particularly wanted to do.

A few years ago, someone stole the catalytic converter off my old car. At the time, I was insured through GEICO and thankfully had comprehensive coverage.

After going through that experience, I was very glad I'd chosen to carry it.

Ironically, the claim itself was why I eventually left GEICO.

It was trying to get someone on the phone to make the claim.

I don't know whether my experience was typical, but I was on hold for more than five and a half hours.

I'm not exaggerating.

After listening to elevator music for that long, I was genuinely shocked when an actual human voice finally came through the phone.

So I wasn't necessarily looking for the absolute cheapest insurance I could possibly find. I wanted to keep the coverage that had already proven valuable to me while figuring out whether paying $229 every month was really necessary.

After reading through the responses to my Nextdoor post, I went online and put together a list of insurance companies and their phone numbers.

Then I looked for additional companies I hadn't thought of that were considered solid insurers.

And then I just started calling.

And calling.

And calling.

I spent a good part of a day- and then some- getting quotes.

The prices were all over the place.

Here are just a few of the quotes I received:

There were plenty more.

Some were companies I'd mostly seen advertised on buses, billboards and television. One company even explained to me that they were considered more of a "high-risk" insurer and frequently worked with drivers who had trouble getting insurance elsewhere because of things like DUIs.

At that point, though, I had already learned something important:

$229 a month definitely wasn't my only option.

Several reputable companies were quoting me around $135 to $145 a month for the coverage I was looking for.

I figured I'd simply choose one of those companies and be done with it.

Then I asked Google if I qualified for USAA because my dad served in the military.

Honestly, I almost didn't call USAA at all.

I had always assumed I wasn't eligible.

I've never served in the military, and I don't have a spouse who served.

My dad, however, was a Vietnam veteran, and both of my grandfathers served during World War II.

But none of that had ever made me think I could join USAA.

Like a lot of people, I assumed that unless you personally served, had a military spouse, or had a parent who had already been a USAA member, it simply wasn't an option.

That's when I learned about something I had never heard of before.

USAA called it the California Ancestry Exemption.

Because I live in California and my father served in the military, I was able to use his military service to establish my eligibility.

And here's the part I think is especially important:

My dad did not have to be an active USAA member when he passed away. They already had his information on file from years ago, so the application process was seamless.

But I was told that if your qualifying family member was never a USAA member, you can provide their military service records along with a written affidavit establishing that you are related to that person and still qualify.

In my case, I used my dad's service as a Vietnam veteran.

I had no idea this was even an option.

And then they gave me the quote.

USAA was able to insure me for $132 a month with no upfront premium.

Before updating my address, I had been paying $133 a month.

After changing my address to Murrieta, Kemper raised my payment to $229 a month plus a $311 premium.

After all those phone calls, all those quotes and all that research, my new USAA rate came in at:

$132 a month.

That's actually $1 less than I was paying before I ever changed my address.

And nearly $100 less every month than the new rate I had been given by Kemper.

There was another part of this whole experience that surprised me.

I had assumed that because Kemper had already charged me, any money I'd paid would simply be lost if I switched insurance companies.

That wasn't the case.

When I canceled the old policy, I learned that I could receive money back for the portion of my premium that covered time after the policy was canceled.

That made switching even easier than I had expected.

I'm definitely not an insurance agent, and I can't tell anyone which company will be cheapest for them.

Insurance rates depend on all kinds of things- your vehicle, driving history, coverage, deductibles and plenty of other factors.

And I also can't say that everyone with a veteran somewhere in their family will automatically qualify for USAA.

But if you live in California and have a parent, grandparent or other qualifying family member who served in the military, I would absolutely recommend calling USAA and specifically asking about the California Ancestry Exemption.

Especially if you've always assumed, like I did, that you weren't eligible because you thought your family member never belonged to USAA.

Ask what documentation they would need to determine whether you qualify.

I never would have known to ask about it if I hadn't started digging.

And even if USAA isn't an option for you, the biggest thing I learned from this whole experience is pretty simple:

Shop around.

Don't automatically assume that the renewal price your insurance company gives you is simply what car insurance costs now.

Ask questions.

Get quotes.

And if it feels off intuitively, more often than not, your gut instinct is right.