I know a loaded question w/lots of options. I'm just curious as to what members like about their insurance co. & why. Thanks! Only name the good ones.

I'm shopping for new/better insurance than my current carrier because local rep is a moron (IE: sits on my hand carried 6 mos check for two weeks while home office is sending me past due notes) When adding or deleting a vehicle from my policy it's an ADVENTURE not an experience.

 

USAA is customer focused. O'course you have to have a military connection to be eligible.

 

I've had State Farm for 25+ years. Always good service -- but I also have a great agent who has a wonderful staff.

 

Stinks you're having an issue, but you're basing it on one agent who isn't giving you the service you want. May not (probably not) be a reflection on the actual insurance company.

There really is no anwer to your question. Shop around for price. Talk to agents to get a feel of who will give you the service you're looking for. I've been with State Farm for 20 years, but that doesn't mean they're the best for everyone.

 

I've been with AAA since I bought my first car 27 years ago. I don't know how their prices compare, but the service has been excellent. I've totaled 2 cars (not my faults), had the same car stolen twice (and totaled as a result the second time), and had a car broken into and a laptop stolen. They waived my deductable on the stolen laptop and my rates never went up after any of the claims.

 

Google auto insurance company ratings. For example, JD Power shows WAWANESA and USAA at the top of the heap in customer ratings. Also very good are State Farm, Geico, ACSC (Auto Club of So. Cal.), and The Hartford.

 

+1

Also on State Farm they can go **** themselves. My parents have had them for 20+ years and I had them for over 10. Well when I was in Afghanistan last year I missed a payment and they did not even give me a chance to repay it and they dropped me like a bad habit and did not even have the decency to let me know until I went to rent a truck a month after getting back. Also I was pulled over twice and got lucky I didn't receive a ticket.

 

Funny, I've worked for State Farm for 10+ years, 4 of those as an Underwriting Manager, Porthos. So I know for a fact, there you would get several notices in the mail before you were canceled for non-payment.

Of course, insuring over 20% of the cars on American roads, there are bound to be one or two unhappy customers.

But our track record speaks for itself. We are also in the top 3 in the country for claim service. USAA is usually first and I can vouch for them as a first class operation but give they are closed to the general public, I would expect their customers to have a high opinion of them.

From my vast experience in handling claims with our competitors, other companies I would give high marks to for claim handling: Nationwide and The Hartford.

Companies I would not give high marks to: Geico, Geico, and Geico.

All the others fall in the middle somewhere, IMO.

 

I have had a different experience with Nationwide and Geico. I have had Geico for at least 15 years, probably more like 20, and have always had a positive experience when I needed them.

I was recently in a car accident with a Nationwide policyholder who was at fault and Nationwide was going to fix my car for $14,000 while Geico felt it should be totaled! Nationwide even went so far as to send me a check for the $14,000 saying that the incident was closed. I sent the check back and decided to go through my insurance, Geico.

I do think it has A LOT to do with the office that you deal with. I would not recommend the Nationwide office in Columbia, MD to anyone. They never returned calls or e-mails, even when I went through the Nationwide 800 number to try to get a warm body. The only time I got a response was when I called Geico and we called Nationwide together.

 

Change Agents! Should be able to have minimal involvent with any agent, use insurance company web site to change/add cars and BillPay or such to handle the money. If you been with the company a while that is worth something as opposed to being a newbe with a different carrier. If it's a good company, ditch the dork and stick with the company.

 

I understand you have a different opinion.

While you've had a couple of experiences, I deal with other insurance companies every day, multiple times a day, and have been doing so for 7 years.

Take my opinion as you will.

My poor opinion of Geico is based on several factors. First and foremost, the method many of their reps take to investigating a claim: "Hello, State Farm, what's you liability decions on this claim?". LOL, I love doing their work for them. Second, I've seen them deny liability on claims where their driver is clearly at fault and for some of the strangest reasons. Third, it's pretty tough to get a call back from a lot of their claim reps. Again, take it FWIW.

 

Porthos,
No disrespect whatsoever, but I completely agree with CR&PW&JB. There is no way at all you didn't get any notices. Insurance companies are required to send them. If they don't, we would get slapped with some very heft fines by the Department of Insurance (and trust me, they're always to take money from insurance companies).



Personal experience from one claim shouldn't cast a bad shadow on an entire company. So if one person comes here and says their MINI was a piece of crap, should we say that all MINIs are crap?

meindc,
From what you describe, sounds like Nationwide did exactly what they were supposed to do. Perhaps your car was a "boderline" total, i.e. it's close to a total loss, but not quite there. Nationwide wrote their estimate. They're then obligated to send that money to you. Had you gone through them and the car was torn down to expose hidden damage, perhaps the car would have then been declared a total. You are Geico's customer, so it's possible they didn't think the car was totalled, but as a customer service measure they totalled it anyway. I do that pretty much every day, on both sides of the coin. Total cars that don't need to be, and don't total cars that theoretically could be. Depends on what my customer wants/needs and what I'm able to do within the guidelines of the state.

I'd agree that being in the industry, and being an arbitrator for insurance cases, I haven't seen the best stuff from GEICO. But I can't say that makes everyone there bad.

 

Klayfish,

My main issue with Nationwide was the lack of communication and that they did not answer their phone or return voice-mails or e-mails. Again I blame that particular office as there wasn't even a way to get a warm body on the phone.

After I sent the check back, they did agree that it was a total loss for $30,000 but by that time I had had enough of them.

 

If you're in a state they serve, Erie seems pretty good. I've been with them for the last 4 years. Until this year, they've been the cheapest I've found for myself. Even so, I'm sticking with them. Never had an auto claim, but have had a home owner's claim with them. It went very smooth. And its nice they have 12 month policies, where most are only 6 months.

 

I dont thnk there is a good insurance company out there. IMHO

 

I had a fantastic experience with State Farm two months ago when my MINI was the victim of a hit and run. They let me choose my own shop, they called me to make sure everything was going smoothly, they took care of getting the rental car set up, and they answered all of my questions. My family has had State Farm for years. Thus, I'm willing to pay more for State Farm because I know that if something goes wrong, they'll be in my corner 100%. A friend of mine's car was stolen a few weeks ago and Geico took their sweet time declaring it a total loss and mailing her a check for the car. It was a nightmare. If you're happy with your insurance company, but not the agent, then I would try another agent before I would leave my insurance company. Good luck with your decision!

 

I have American Family, it was the most reasonable as opposed to the rest
for me-

 

Usaa

+2

 

I've been with Allstate, Progressive, State Farm and Travelers. Far and away the best of the bunch is Travelers - service is impeccable and rates don't go through the roof with claims.

I've been least impressed with State Farm. Their auto rates are only good if you have no claims/incidents on your driving record. As soon as you have a claim, rates skyrocket. More than a claim within a 3 year period and you'll be asked to get insurance elsewhere. I can't tell you how many posts to that effect I've seen on forums - for all types of insurance - cars, homes, motorcycles.

I currently have my home insured with SF for the simple reason that they were cheapest, but none of my 3 cars with SF. Even with the bundled discounts (would save $800 on my homeowners insurance if I insured just 1 car with them) it wouldn't be cost effective.

Example: My SF agent recently quoted me $2K annual premium on a 7 year old MINI. That's nearly twice what I pay Travelers for a 2 year old BMW M5. It was a no brainer to stick with Travelers in this case - their premium was well under half of SF's for the same coverage.

 

I've also had a bad experience with GEICO (another driver with GEICO insurance hit my wife's car -got the runaround). That said, what you describe with SF is standard industry practice. I don't see anything that stands out about SF's service to be honest.

 

Been in auto body biz for 25 years, service side for 10 years prior. To a large extent insurers are all the same with difference being who represents them in the field in a given area. Employees come & go but trends will be fairly consistent. If you want to know what companies treat their customers the best (again, in a given area/region), stop in & talk to 1 or 2 reputable or good looking body shops near you. They will tell you what companies are most likely to fix your car well & actually take the customer's interest into account. If you can't judge body shops, see if you can ask some friends who might be meticulous regarding their cars if they have any reccommendations. You could also try to find high end dealers & see if they use an outside shop or have their own & consider it.

In our area - Amica is probably the best main stream insurer, Travelers right up there too. Chubb & Middleoak (Middlesex Mutual) are the best but tend to be a higher end, higher premium policy for higher income & insurable asset customers. Most others are all about the same, depends largely on adjuster and/or appraiser that handles claim. Arbella, USAA (a nice monthly newsletter, prompt claim handling & nice phone manners do not fix your car, they are among the worst when it comes to repair methods) are bottom of the barrel, Esurance not bad but after Allstate has aquired them it is likely to go down hill, AAA not bad. Ever wonder how much more money GEICO, Progressive, or Allstate could spend on your car using OE parts or more thorough procedures if they weren't spending 100's of millions of dollars on TV & Radio advertisements?

Don't buy into the direct/concierge BS - these are frequently secured by the most concessions & discounts, from there they just have to not get caught cutting corners to make up the gap. Consider whether shop is worried about serving you or their main benefactor. I say this because body shops operate on a VERY narrow margin, like 2-3% net, there is very little wiggle room but frequently many ways to skin a cat. Body shops operate @ appx 50% of the labor rate that service shops do & frequently @ warranty flat rate time allowances which are reduced from consumer time allowances. There is little difference in "per working bay" expenses between the two sides of auto biz, most body shops just don't have the fancy surroundings so ask yourself how much "give" there can be before shortcuts are taken. A lot of things can be buried & hidden out of the sight of unsuspecting consumers.

There are good shops, many average shops & plenty of worse, just like insurers & it isn't necessarilly easy to know the difference until it is too late.

It's a jungle out there & the last thing you need when faced with needing a body shop is to get screwed by either side, or worse, both!

 

Farmer's Insurance has always treated me real well, I've always had great agents.

Not that I've changed agents, they just get old and die, then someone else takes over the office.

Dave

 

I have Geico and just got my car back (2013 MCSa)... A little adventure with a sunken drainage grate. Put a hole in my tranny pan! Geico was great to deal with... responsive and knowledgeable. After you report your claim they assign a inspector to handle everything from the inspection to rental and liaison with the repair shop. Couldn't have been smoother. Spoke with my inspector today... (from Massachusetts) he's heading down to NJ to help out with the aftermath from Sandy. Also have to give a thumbs up to Herb Chambers Mini of Boston. Their service department was great!

 

Porthos just seems to have **** luck w/ customer service. First WMW, who everyone claims to have great customer service, to State Farm, which seems to be a fan favorite.

When it comes down to it, it's not the company as much as it is the agents' willingness to help someone out. Grouping each agent into a "terrible insurance company" as a whole is ignorant and is similar to what we try and avoid when talking about race and color.

For what it's worth, I've had both State Farm and USAA. State Farm was a breeze to deal with. I had my ZX6R insured by them when I was 18. Was hit and totaled and they finalized debts and paid in a week or two.

USAA is who I'm currently insured with. I have a Fusion and the R56. Fortunately, I haven't had to contact them for any issues, but I do my banking with them and they've made PCS/Deployments/Remote Assignments seemless.

 

If you really want to know what people think about auto insurers and want a more reliable source than a couple dozen people on a message board:

http://www.jdpower.com/consumer-rati...ance/index.htm