Auto Insurance, Bah humbug!

[fred cook]

About 2 weeks ago, I was driving along minding my own business and suddenly had a very large buzzard fly up in front of my F150 and hit the grill with a resounding thump! The strike broke out about 1/4 of the grill with the buzzard just flying off to look for another meal! After about 10 days of going back and forth with my insurance (State Farm) I finally got them to (almost) pay for the local cost of a used (not new) grill assembly. After all the dust (and feathers) settled, I found a grill on Ebay that I bought for $392. A new grill from Ford would have been about $!000! Anyway, SFs first offer was to send me a check for $325! I called them back, haggled over the phone for a while and finally got SF to send me another $40! So I wound up paying the extra $27 out of my pocket. This was not the way a long term (30+ yrs) customer should be treated. Anyway, the new grill arrived on Wednesday and I installed it that afternoon. Easy enough job, 2 small bolts and 6 small nuts were all that had to be removed to take out the broken grill. Total time for the R&R job was about 30 minutes. So now, I am thinking hard about moving my insurance to another company and would like to hear what/who you guys are using.

[Sooner or later]

What was your deductible?

[SiberianDVM]

Been with GEICO for 40 years. No complaints.

[Evans, Marv]

I had SF for 30 years covering my cars, home, & rentals. Moved to a new location and asked my agent about a policy. He told me they didn't insure in the area I was moving to because of higher fire risk. At the time I thought, "After 30 years they cut me off like I was somebody who just walked in the door." Insurance companies suck big time.

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

What was your deductible?

In this case, zero.

[rfuerst911sc]

I have been driving for 47 years and have only had State Farm or Allstate for insurance . Had SF first and eventually dropped them because of an agents attitude . Have Allstate now been with them for over 10 years . So far no issues but also no claims .

But I am going to " shop around " in the coming weeks because I think I am paying too much . Comparison shopping will tell me if I am right or not . But we now live in a small rural town and I want to deal with a local agent . I think many companies not just insurers reach a point where they are so large they lose the customer service that got them there .

[Chocaholic]

Why on Earth would you file a claim for $300? Much less, pay premiums to cover a $0 deductible? Don’t mean to criticize but you’ve just authorized a healthy premium increase far above the $300 they sent you.

Word of advice...maintain the highest possible deductibles/lowest possible premiums and only file claims for significant value.

[greglepore]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Why on Earth would you file a claim for $300? Much less, pay premiums to cover a $0 deductible? Don’t mean to criticize but you’ve just authorized a healthy premium increase far above the $300 they sent you.

Word of advice...maintain the highest possible deductibles/lowest possible premiums and only file claims for significant value.

There is no deductible for comprehensive claims-animal strikes are comp.

The op simply ran into a bad adjuster. LKQ parts or used parts are the norm these days but niggling like that gets me to escalate to a supervisor level immediately. I've been with sf for 40+ years and that does carry weight in these situations.

[Sooner or later]

There can be a deductible for comprehensive insurance. You can choose the amount.

I generally doesn't hurt the rate you pay if you file a claim since it is a non driving act.

[p911dad]

Fred, this is exactly why we left SF after 34 years, same crappy treatment. We went with Amica and have had a good experience. A neighbor lady recently clunked into my wife's car at a stop sign and left it undriveable (this all happened one street over from our house). She called the police and Amica, the insurance adjuster was there before the police showed up (took the Charlotte cops 2 hours!). The adjuster basically settled it on the spot. We had a tow to a Amica participating body shop 1 hour later and the car repaired and back in a week. They subrogated the claim with Allstate and we didn't spend a cent. That's Amica in action. SF would have di**ed around with it forever.

[berettafan]

My truck was attacked by a deranged deer and I was told by state farm the claim does not affect my rates as Greg points out.

[Noah930]

The couple times I have ever had to file a claim with my car insurance (AAA), it has always been painless. AAA may not be the rock bottom cheapest, but it's been hassle-free in my limited experience. Which is why I don't mind paying a little bit more.

[Chocaholic]

Originally Posted by greglepore

There is no deductible for comprehensive claims-animal strikes are comp.

The op simply ran into a bad adjuster. LKQ parts or used parts are the norm these days but niggling like that gets me to escalate to a supervisor level immediately. I've been with sf for 40+ years and that does carry weight in these situations.

Ah...ok, apparently like when a rock cracks your windshield. We maintain the highest possible deductibles because in many decades, have never filed a claim. Seems the ins companies know the odds are in their favor. Have been with Geico and have no complaints...but the flow of money has only been in one direction, so not very helpful.

[GH85Carrera]

My insurance company charges me $5 per vehicle to cover windshield replacement for rock damage. If it is a reparable chip, they will pay for it and not consider it a claim.

I recently had some (long string of profanity deleted) back into the tailgate of my El Camino when I parked in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if it was deliberate, or just a clueless person since I was not in the car at the time. I did not file a claim, I just took it to a buddy to pound out as much as possible and a little filler, and paint and lots of wet sanding. It looks fine. It was still cheaper than a deductible.

[Rick Lee]

You pretty much have to have glass coverage in AZ. You are guaranteed to need a new windshield every 2-3 years. No deductible on this and it doesn't raise your premiums. But I have had some repairs done when it was a bad chip before it became a bad crack, which costs $85 vs. $300-$500. Mrs. Lee had a new windshield get cracked all the way across about six weeks after it was replaced. Anyway, I've found out that we've had nine glass claims in five years between three cars and no one will take us until we've made it a year without a glass claim. I've been shopping to leave Farmers, but I may have to stay put a while longer.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Ah...ok, apparently like when a rock cracks your windshield. We maintain the highest possible deductibles because in many decades, have never filed a claim. Seems the ins companies know the odds are in their favor. Have been with Geico and have no complaints...but the flow of money has only been in one direction, so not very helpful.

The odds are in their favor or they would be out of business.

We pay a relatively small amount annually to limit a possible large out of pocket due to collision.

States have different requirements. In Okla there is a deductible for auto glass replacement. Just had one done on a work truck that required a 250 out of pocket. In Okla I have a choice of comprehensive deductible amount. Most states are the same.

On my personal vehicles I carry a 1000 deductible. Once it gets old and worthless I may only carry liability.

Generally comprehensive doesn't raise your rate unless you have many claims over a period of time.

[MBAtarga]

Regardless of claim history etc everyone should shop Auto policies (home as well) at least every few years. I gave up on "loyalty" many years ago after being with Allstate. Zero claims, teenage drivers, etc - I kept asking my agent year after year if anything could be revised to lower premiums. They moved cars around and "assigned" them to different drivers in the family to lower costs where they could. Then 1 year I checked with Liberty Mutual as I noticed an ad in the Ga Tech Alumni magazine where they offer 10% discounts. Even WITHOUT the discount, the same coverage policy was about $2400/year less than Allstate. They were about the same as Allstate on the home. I switched over and that was about 12 years ago. I've shopped every few years since for auto and home policies and have not found anyone that can touch the premiums. (YMMV of course.)

[john70t]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

I have been driving for 47 years and have only had State Farm or Allstate for insurance .

I second Choc's comment. Insurance is for big problems. It probably costs more to process the small claims than it does to pay them out but they hold the hard line and are training customers not to make claims by being difficult. Even by losing money that's not a bad thing for the company in the long run. If they were easy and reputation got around, every customer would file claims for every little paint scratch or loose panel under the sun. They would get milked until dry and soon die a death of a thousand cuts.

My understanding is that if it contains 'state' in the name, it's going to difficult to get a thin dime out of them.

I once had Farmers but the deductibles kept going up and up.

Progressive and Geico are a bit um political in their business models.
Progressive has tried to force all customers into installing real time OBD2 GPS tracking dongles. That's a bit scary.
Meanwhile some run ads about no penalties for repeat accidents.
(Insurance and justice should be blind, imho.)


Do a search for AAA rated auto insurance companies.

[stevej37]

It's comparable to the cable tv business. The longer you stay a good paying customer...the higher your bill gets. If you move around...you get the best deals.

[Evans, Marv]

As far as car insurance is concerned, I have had full coverage through Ameriprise (Costco) for 10+ years. I haven't made any claims and have shopped around periodically. The last time I shopped car insurance, almost all were twice the premium I'm paying. I shopped AAA, USAA, Geico, & a couple of other companies. My current premium on two vehicles ('12 Nissan Coupe, '03 F350) is right at $900/yr. When I told the USAA person that, she was amazed their premium was twice that amount. I'm sure it will increase later on, since I'm going to get a new van & a new car for the wife.