How's Geico been with claims?

 

Haven't had any yet. My wife had a claim before we were married (I became integrated into her policy) and had no problem, though.

 

I just checked with AAA and they were BY FAR the most expensive for me!!! Are you guys who are using them getting competitive rates? They were over $600/year more expensive than progressive and about $1100 more per year than Mercury!!!

 

As I have so recently found out, rates don't mean a thing if you can't get any action with a claim.

AAA, while more expensive, jumped right into my claim running, everything went damned fast, waived my deductable (in this case), and have been very attentive.

Many of the less expensive insurers I read about fight the claim every step of the way, delay it, drag it out, deny it; in which case all the cheaper premiums paid out amount to a waste of money.

 

I am in Miami. My insurance would have been about 150 a month. I asked my parents to go on the title so we can register the car in the name in Marion County Florida...dropped to $35 per month thru Allstate and $30 with the dealer installed lojack. Guess when you are 60, live in a small horse town, insurance is dirt cheap.

 

Gromit is dead-on target with his post.

The second article in this link provides proof of his assertions:

http://www.dmaclaims.com/claims-newsletters.shtml

Of course, if your an insurance professional, like me, you'll find all three of those articles to be interesting.

 

Hey Chili, wasn't there some program like 60 Minutes recently, that exposed Allstate and Farmers for using some kind of insurance consultancy that advised them to drag the claims out so the insured get less?

 

I agree completely, although AAA was still $1000 more per year than State Farm, who I've been with since I was 16. I was just surprised at the jump between the two companies for identical coverage!

 

I didn't see that program but I did hear about it from a co-worker. I believe those were the two companies brought into question for their claim handling.

Another advantage of dragging out a claim... the longer a company hangs onto it's money, the more it gains in interest on its investments, of course. With large companies, the interest on investments is often the largest sourse of income, even more so than the premiums gathered on all policies... and that's a huge bucket of bucks.

I say this honestly: at State Farm, we try to resolve claims as quickly as possible. Not only because we realize the importance in maintaining our current policyholders, but also the potential to persuade the claimants to switch over to us when realizing how much better our claims handling is in comparison to their current company.

 

LITTLE TIMMY we have found here at South bay that Mercury has the cheapest insurance and we actually have an agent that we reccomend... he tends to be quite competitive and we have found he is generally considerably cheaper than AAA.... if you want to get a quote from him we can call and get you one... just pm me and we can get a quote for you!

 

My experience bears this out. I was involved in a collision a few years back; though it was on a weekend, State Farm was quick in setting me up with a body shop for repairs. The estimate came to somewhere around $5,000; I don't remember if my deductible ended up being waived (if I remember correctly, the other party was determined to be at fault). Regardless, the whole process was hassle-free, the body shop did a very nice job, and I was a very happy customer.

I also had my car stolen for a period of a month or so three years ago. Again, State Farm set me up with a rental car until my car was recovered and paid for the towing and impound fees (it was found next to a fire hydrant) as well as for damages found to the body.

 

O goodness Eric, watch out for all the deer!!!

~ Derek

 

Yup, in the Los Angeles area, Mercury is the cheapest if you don't have any accident. I have tried very year to find another insurance that can beat Mercury and none came up yet. I even tried calling the AIS (they have commercial on every radio stations) and they told me they use Mercury also and cannot give me a better rate.

Claim was okay with Mercury, but AAA got excellant service on claim if that's what you are after. Someone in a Mercedes with AAA hit my car, and they were really good on getting my car fixed and getting me a rental. They must have spent like over $2k to fix my bumpers and my car is only worth about $3k.

 

I think a lot of people play "Insurance-roulette." By law the must have it, and it can be expensive for good insurance. But they go cheap and pray everynight they never have to make a claim.