The Insurance Scam

All insurance companies do this.

"bait and switch"

They hook you with attractive first year (or six month) rates and then they start cranking up the renewal each year (generally between 10%-30%).

The scam is based on the assumption that customers are either too lazy to change or can't remember last year's rate. 

To sink their teeth into you are far as they can, they try to get you signed-up for auto-renewal at the front-end.

The practice is probably worst with house insurance. I don't really know, because I pay for my home owners each year outside the mortgage escrow account.

Note: And it is not just Insurance that is the scam. Cable, internet, phone. They're all scams predicated on "bait and switch" and lazy consumers. The basic assumption is that if they make it so hard to switch, then they'll keep their annuity stream. And they are right.