Car Insurance, who do you have?

Grum.Man

Grum.Man

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Grum.Man
So I was behind several cars exiting off the freeway the other night when several of us ran over a 90% complete truck tire. It did $2,578.00 worth of damage to my practically brand new car. So I call my insurance today who I have been with for 6 years with no claims to get the process started. Long story short my insurance will go up 350.00 every 6 months plus I have a 500.00 deductible when it comes time to renew. Needless to say this really ****es me off! So now I am insurance shopping. Most online quotes I get are in the same ballpark, I am with State Farm now. The Progressive quote is much lower than the others but I have heard some horror stories on Progressive. Who does everyone else have and do you like them?
 
I've got Geico now (and we've had Geico off and on for a few years). Competitive quotes, especially on my Corvette, and premiums have been pretty stable. Progressive, as I understand it, uses especially low rates to lure you in, but those initial low rates include some "new customer" discounts that quickly go aware and result in higher premiums. I was with Farmers previously, but got tired of the constantly increasing premiums (for no reason).
 
I had State Farm forever, probably close to 50 years, but finally wised up and shopped around. I now have a policy thru Costco, forget the actual insurance company name. State Farm is a rip off on their rates. You're paying for the agents lake house. I shop around every year now. Easy to do on the Internet.
 
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My rates have always been the lowest with State Farm but at this point there are other companies that are close enough to dump SF after this joke.
 
USAA but have never submitted a claim. Had Farmers for a lot of years - had a year from hell where we totaled a van and camping trailer, smoke and water damage in the house, new roof from a hail storm with no rate increase (then). Somewhere around 1999/2000 the rates started up for no apparent reason and we switched to USAA around 2005.
 
Used to have Liberty Mutual but changed to State Farm for lower premiums. Now their rates are getting higher each year, so it might be time to shop around...again.
 
State Farm for my private cars. A few years ago I had a brand new Tahoe rental car burn in my driveway. My fault. Being an insured driver with them State Farm handled it including the lost revenue claims from the rental company. Didn’t cost me one nickel. Happy happy. They just did me right on a hail damaged roof claim, too.

I rented that Tahoe with an AMEX card. AMEX lost a 25 year customer over how they denied coverage for that loss.
 
Grum.Man said:
So I was behind several cars exiting off the freeway the other night when several of us ran over a 90% complete truck tire. It did $2,578.00 worth of damage to my practically brand new car. So I call my insurance today who I have been with for 6 years with no claims to get the process started. Long story short my insurance will go up 350.00 every 6 months plus I have a 500.00 deductible when it comes time to renew. Needless to say this really ****es me off! So now I am insurance shopping. Most online quotes I get are in the same ballpark, I am with State Farm now. The Progressive quote is much lower than the others but I have heard some horror stories on Progressive. Who does everyone else have and do you like them?
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We’ve been with Pemco since we were in college (longer ago than I’d like to admit, haha...). I’ve had two uninsured drivers hit my vehicle, and I drug my rocker pant on a high curb/planter, all within the last 10 years. Rates haven’t gone up a bit.

They are a little more expensive than what we could get from others, but they don’t gouge you on the back end and their claims processing has been first rate.
 
I used to have State Farm on 4 cars, two houses and my umbrella policy (and for a couple of decades with 0 claims) but they started jacking me around when I moved to the west coast and doubled my rates plus all kinds of hassles. So I went with a friend's small agency for all of my insurance needs and it resulted in over $8k in savings for better coverage. And that includes a Hagerty agreed value policy on my classic Porsche that was very much underinsured under State Farm’s one size fits all policy.
After being a loyal, excellent customer of SF for decades and getting no loyalty in return, I’m glad to be done with them and highly recommend shopping around. If possible, finding a small agency like mine which really treats me well.
 
I will add that if you are young and own a sportbike (CBR, GSX-R etc), State Farm used to be the way to go. They only went off of bike size. A sportbike wasn’t looked at any differently than a cruiser.
Meanwhile, others wanted 5k+/yr to insure me in my 30’s, with a clean record, on my CBR954. Not sure if that’s still the case.
 
Was with Farmers for 4-5 years for 2 vehicles and my home. Rates kept climbing, no accidents or tickets for a decade or more. Switched to Liberty Mutual, and got better a better deal about 3 years ago. Wife filed a claim on her house for hail damage, then a year later filed one on my house for the same (the two houses are within 15 miles of each other). Rates have stayed about the same for home owner's, but the car insurance is where I'm mad at them. They've pushed the rates up $10/month despite no accidents/tickets and owning the same 2007/2008 vehicles we've had the whole time. Unfortunately, I think you have to play stupid games with the insurance companies by switching companies every 4-5 years just to get your rates back in check.
 
I have my house with state farm as well. They put a new roof on 4 years ago at no cost to me, was really impressed but this is ridiculous.
 
Pretty mad at all insurers right now.
There is zero reward for being loyal!
They offer all the premium-pricing benefits to new customers.
Everything is geared to getting the new customer.
Once you are in, the prices are jacked up steadily.
So, I shop Everything, Every Year.
And I buy a ton of insurance so that is a bunch of work for me but typically saves me several thousand a year.
Right now I am shopping biz insurance. Exact same coverage from 2 companies equally good at claims response is a $3500 difference, yay a bonus for me.

I think they rely on people not wanting to go to the effort to shop every year. Lazy? Pay high rates.
 
I have Geico. I got run into by another Geico customer last year, they did a very good job of getting my car fixed under my insurance, since she was underinsured. As a claimant against her insurance, they've been terrible, I've all but given up trying to get a portion of my losses back.
 
A lot depends on the State. My State Farm car insurance would double if I moved from Ohio to Florida.

House and car have been with State Farm forever with no real hikes other than as the House value increased and other inflation effects. Any claims have been promptly settled with no hassle. I can use my choice of repair shops. I’ve checked others but there’s no real difference in rates for me.

OTOH, it’s a lot like cable. Low teaser rates and in the end, it’s all the same. So if you don’t mind switching every year, you can save some.

Cheers
 
Is there a better way to shop around than visiting every companies website and repeating the same information over and over again?
 
Used to be Geico but switched to USAA in the last year. Cheaper with more coverage. Never filed a claim with either one and never been in an accident.
 
Insurance companies are one of the biggest rackets out there.
 
X3 Skier said:
Get an independent agent who handles several lines.

Cheers
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This! I use a broker and they switch us every couple of years. Last carrier we were with was Encompass (Allstate's independent broker line), they started raising their rates so the broker switched us to Travelers. The broker handles the shopping and switching.
 
Had home, car and umbrella with State Farm. Were with them for over 40 years. Everything was going up, up, up. Went in search earlier this year and ended up going to Farmers. It has saved me over $75 a month at this point.
 
I've been with Amica for 40 years and never been disappointed. When we had the big catastrophe they came through for us. It became very important that they had someone at our house within an hour beginning the clean up and doing what I can call "psychological trauma management". They, and their approved contractor, were experts at helping people in shock at finding your home destroyed, deal with the immediate aftermath. And they covered everything without blinking, did not argue the value of our damaged items that we claimed, decided on the repair cost with the contractor in our presence, no arguing that, paid all our hotel and apartment rent, moving all our stuff, storing it, everything to the last penny. Even the water bill because the City wouldn't reimburse us (even though we think the City contributed to the cause by spiking pressures too high). All we paid was the $2500 deductible.

Of course that was homeowners but our cars are insured with them too. Fortunately (knock on wood) we've only had minor auto claims. Same deal there, easy claims process.
 
USAA was double the next lowest bidder on my vehicles last year, back with Liberty Mutual now - I guess they like my driving; we let them put snitch devices on the vehicles last time.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Pretty mad at all insurers right now.
There is zero reward for being loyal!
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Never, never, EVER use "insurance" and "loyalty" in the same sentence. It'll just make you crazy. It's a business, a big, spread-out business. When they take your check, you are their friend. When you make a claim, you are the enemy. Insurance agents and salespeople are evaluated/paid based on sales; claims adjusters are evaluated/paid based on claims [not] paid.
 
I’m with Erie. They have been very good to deal with. I carry a high deductible but my rates haven’t gone up with claims that one was my fault one wasn’t. I’m sure I could get insurance cheaper through a different carrier but the medical coverage is good and there are no hassles.
 
State Farm for the past 18 years. Did a comparison with USAA last month and their quote was higher than I pay now with SF. I still need to do some more shopping around.
 
I've been with State Farm for 40 years.

They suck.

Their rates suck a little less than rates from other companies I've quoted. I'm covering two cars, a pickup truck, an SUV, a motorcycle, and a house.

I'm in the center of the state, but my rates are subsidizing the idiots who choose to live on the beach and play dodgeball with hurricanes.
 
I've been with Horace Mann for years and years. Rates went up this year, so I called. Everyone's rates went up - rates are based on state AND area. Obviously too many accidents in the 10-20 miles around me. I've had 1 accident - questionable if it was my fault or not (guy 2 cars ahead slammed on the brakes, car in front of me slammed on the brakes, I slammed on the brakes but not fast enough). Claims adjuster there in no time. I had the option of totaling the car or just replacing it. At the time, didn't have enough to get a new car, so they repaired it and covered the cost of the rental.

House is with Travelers, never had a claim.
 
Half Fast said:
I'm in the center of the state, but my rates are subsidizing the idiots who choose to live on the beach and play dodgeball with hurricanes.
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Whoa! But on the Frontier thread you're harping about one's right to choose! :eek:
 
ColoPilot said:
This! I use a broker and they switch us every couple of years. Last carrier we were with was Encompass (Allstate's independent broker line), they started raising their rates so the broker switched us to Travelers. The broker handles the shopping and switching.
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Wow, small world. Same here.
We switched to Encompass a few years ago since they are a "discriminating" company. Their rates increased recently, though, so we too went with Travelers. Another "discriminating" company.
 
This is why lots of insurance is a scam, they arnt covering the repair, they are just letting you finance it through your now jacked up premiums, plus they’ll report the damage and when your sell your car it’ll have a accident on the carfax and be worth potentially thousands less. It would be cheaper to just have the bare legal minimum insurance (which is a scam in itself) and fix the car yourself.
 
USAA here too. Not necessarily a fan.
 
Stewartb said:
I rented that Tahoe with an AMEX card. AMEX lost a 25 year customer over how they denied coverage for that loss.
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AmEx is very clear that their insurance is secondary to any other policies.

Amica and USAA are consistently top-rated. And no issues with USAA on insurance (though I have a beef with some of the non-USAA products that they resell). My experience has been good with both Amica and USAA on insurance.
 
I shop around often. I have Geico and am happy. When I shop I have found Progressive ( I have my Harley with them) and USAA can't match my current premium with Geico
 
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