Car Insurance (Anyone Try the Gecko?)

BraveSirRobbin

BraveSirRobbin

Moderator
This is about as far off topic as one gets on this site, but I value opinions of knowledgeable members here more than any other forum so here goes.

My car insurance is up for renewal and the three drivers in my family have excellent driving records, yet my insurance company keeps increasing the price every year. I found in the 20+ years of living here in Las Vegas that you have to switch insurance companies every three to five years as they just gradually increase your rates over time. They will give you a good rate at first, then just constantly increase it.

I have had State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and Allstate, all with the same results. Well I'm about to change again and decided to call Geico. I would save a considerable amount of money, but of course wondered about their service and thought I would ask member's experiences with this or possibly other insurance companies out there that I should look into (my local agent is worthless, another Las Vegas "feature" that I have grown accustom with :p ).

Thanks and regards,

BSR
 
I switched about a year and a half ago from Allstate to Progressive. I have not had a good opportunity to use them yet but it was a good experience pre-sales and signing up. I don't think I would hesitate in recommending them based on my limited experience so far. Geico was alot more $ than Progressive at the time. Sometimes different companies cab have wildly different rates for the same exact coverage and location as well as several other things factor into it.
 
Had Progressive for the truck & boat, Geico for motorcycle, Liberty Mutual for house - Wife just came off 21st century... we just moved it all to Allstate. They were the most personable of the big ones and had the best rates overall.

21st was excellent - went through 2 claims with them, and have only good things to say - but they're picky about perfect records.

Progressive was great until I filed a claim - they nickel & dimed me through the whole process and dragged their feet for a month on a vehicle-disabling break-in. Only after raising hell with management did they resolve things satisfactorily (and my dealership said this wasn't uncommon for them).

No real dealings with Geico other than the fact that their motorcycle coverage was better and cheaper than anyone else... but other than sending them money in exchange for a pretty piece of paper, that's been about it. Their online services aren't as good as progressive or 21st.
 
I know you have had State Farm. I have had the same agent and company for over 20 years since I was a teen ager. They've insured mulitple properties, residential and commercial, auto, ranch, EVERYTHING (accept what they dont offer) The great thing about them they NEVER question ANYTHING, EVER. They just PAY. After water damage a couple years ago, the adjuster came out, took notes, pulled out a laptop and wrote a check on the spot. Also allowed for additional money if the quote was off.

Previous to that another state farmer lost a tire and it hit my truck, again State Farm had a check ready in three days and even paid $650 for tool box that got a scratch on it from a diesel tank nozzle that broke off in my truck and hit the tool box during the accident.

Is State Farm the cheapest? Usually around here it is but I couldnt tell you if my policy is the cheapest, and I dont care. They are worth it. I have ZERO interest in shopping to save $60. Service has its value and State Farm certainly has it. Always consider the value of service when shopping for anything, of course. Just like the CI biz, that value has to sold if its not earned.

Bummer you have had to change so much. There is value in knowing your agent personally. Find one you like and see if it can build from there. I cant imagine having to deal with this crap every few years. Life is difficult enough without having to mess with insurance. Its great to call your agent, ask questions, the SAME person EVERY time and get answers. Its even better when if they cant cover you they give you a number to someone that can. (state farm does not have our Builders Risk policy as they dont offer it but they put me in touch with someone from Extraco that does offer it and they have been good so far, no claims though but I trust my agent).

Shopping online sucks, IMO for something that should be more personal. Nothing worse than dealing with "big box" type companies for things like insurance. My suggestion is find someone local thru family friends etc. Reputation is more important than price.

Also, many of the unknowns and smaller companies WONT pay for REAL parts on auto claims. They refuse to do OEM and only will pay for chinese or other junk. Ask them if they pay for ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT and not knock off parts, if that matters to you.
 
I had them about 15 or 20 years ago.

I had just received my 5 year good discount rating when I got into an accident. They dropped us. A year or two later, one of the TV news magazines did a piece on them for doing the same thing to a lot of people.

Maybe they are better now, I'll never use them again. I chuckle every time I throw one of their spam snail mails away :p .

Brian
 
Progressive for car with good web / sales feedback, but thankfully no claim experience.

Didn't shop much, but their price was way cheaper than my prior (which I can't remember off the top).
 
State Farm, 20+ years. No problems.


BTW, the Gekko is a Limey and so drives on the wrong side of the road, therefore probably knows a lot about auto accidents. :p
 
If you're military or children of military folks that are USAA members, I would recommend USAA.

They are the only auto insurance company I know of that takes stock of their financial situation at the end of the year and sends rebate checks to their customers if proceeds exceed claims.

They will penalize you if you rack up claims and/or points, but that doesn't seem unfair to me, just a risk based calculation.
 
Another happy State-Farm'er. I went off the reservation a few times in the past 25 years, but always came back. Now that I have homeowners, car, wedding ring, life insurance through them, i get a nice discount to boot. Not that it matters much, the service is pretty good even though I turned over from one agent to another due to retirement.
 
If you are looking to save money, I would second part of IVB's comment above. That is, whichever company you choose, if you have several policies through that company (e.g., auto + home) you will save more money. I had GEICO previously, but their prices were higher once the multipolicy discount was consider. Back when I had GEICO (probably 10 years ago), they were partnering with Traveler's Insurance for home insurance. I am now using Ameriprise (formerly a part of American Express), and I get a Costco discount with them as well. Both companies have been fine to deal with, although I have never really had any claims (other than needing to get a car towed). You should also think about things like increasing the size of your deductible, and make sure that you get all of the relevant discounts you can for each policy (e.g., home alarm discount).

Dave
 
Owning a repair shop and having dealt with most of these companies, I could/would NOT recommend Progressive for any type of coverage. They spend waaay too much time cut throating the labor times and hunting down USED parts to repair your car.
I will no longer perform any type of repair if it is a Progressive covered repair.
 
Gemini said:
Owning a repair shop and having dealt with most of these companies, I could/would NOT recommend Progressive for any type of coverage. They spend waaay too much time cut throating the labor times and hunting down USED parts to repair you car.
I will no longer perform any type of repair if it is a Progressive covered repair.
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Although I do not use them any more due to rising costs I had no problems with Progressive, 2 clams all NEW parts some delays waiting for the new parts as they were backordered which was not their fault
 
I have Geico also but have not had to file a claim. I was with State Farm for several years. When I got married I added my wife onto my policy at State Farm. It turns out that they actually setup a second policy for her so there was no discount at all. I was paying nearly $2000 every 6 months. I thought this was normal for someone under 25 years old so I never thought twice about it. One day I just decided to jump online to geico.com and check out what my rate would be if I switched. It was so much lower at $112 per month ($672 /6mo) that I had to investigate. That is when I found out that I had two policies instead of one. Of course State Farm refused to reimburse me the thousands of extra dollars I had paid for their error since there was really no way to prove they screwed me. I am paying $112 per month for full coverage on both an 08 Toyota Tundra and 03 Hyundai Elantra.

I say go for it.
 
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