Personal lines
Auto insurance
Pennsylvania asks drivers to make two decisions most drivers do not remember making. Both are on your policy right now, both change what you collect after a crash, and both are worth ten minutes before renewal.
Limited tort is a discount you are paid to accept
Pennsylvania lets you choose between limited tort and full tort. Limited tort costs less every month and, in exchange, gives up most of your right to recover for pain and suffering after an injury somebody else caused. Full tort keeps that right and costs more. Neither is the right answer for everyone. What is not defensible is holding limited tort without knowing it, which is common, because the election was signed once at the start and has quietly renewed ever since.
The second one is stacking, and it is worth real money
If you insure more than one vehicle, Pennsylvania lets your uninsured and underinsured motorist limits stack across them. A household with three cars and stacked cover has considerably more protection than the same household with the limits unstacked. Carriers must get a signed waiver from you to remove it, and those waivers do get signed. Underinsured motorist cover is the one that pays when the driver who hit you carries the state minimum and your injuries do not. Full Circle will read what you currently hold and tell you which way both of these are set.
Full Circle Insurance, Wexford, PA. Appointed with Progressive, Travelers, Encompass, Donegal and four more. Call (724) 935-8000.
Why the same driver gets eight different prices
Carriers do not weight the same facts the same way. One will forgive a lapse in cover and punish a young driver, another does the reverse. One rates a commute hard, another barely notices it. Add a teenager to the policy and the spread between the cheapest and the dearest carrier can widen dramatically, for the same household, on the same day.
Nobody can tell you in advance which carrier wins your particular combination. That is why the agency runs it rather than predicts it, and why a shop with one company cannot do this at all.