I Just Saved a Bunch of Money By Switching to Geico
 

Previous insurance bill for my 1998 M3 and the wife's 2008 Toyota Corrola was $177 per month. Now I pay $145 a month for the M3, Toyota and the Cayenne. Ridiculous, I wish I switched a long time ago.

I don't understand how they can be cheaper than eveyone else when they have to spend a fortune on advertising. I am fortunate enough to be able to use USAA, I am sure they are the best.

I have used Geico for several years now. They've been good so far, but I don't like the fact that windshields are covered under the comprehensive policy. I wish I could keep a lower windshield deductible.

Part of the reason they are cheaper is that they don't have a network of agents collecting a sales commission.

I don't know much about insurance - but you get the feeling the major companies were propping up the money losing stuff (like Florida coastal homes..) with Midwestern auto policies.

The brilliance of the little gecko is to break off the profitable part - and underwrite that only..

So if you hit me how big of a ***** is it going to be to get my money? I got hit by someone insured with some little no agent company. The adjuster dicked me around and would not pay for what it would take to fix the car. Sent some guy that I am pretty sure sold tvs 2 days ago to look at the car. He missed lots of small things. I'll pay more for my Farm bureau knowing that they take care of me and others when the SHTF

Years ago Geico was caught funding research into radar and laser speed timing systems so that law enforcement could write more tickets and that Geico could charge more money.

Just wait until you need to collect from Geico. I got hit by one of their insured one day; thank God I am under a larger, more reputable company. My agent went to bat for me against Geico, after covering the damage under my policy first. In other words, he went after Geico after he paid to have my car fixed under my collision policy, even though it was clearly the other guy's fault (he even got a ticket as a result of the collision). He wound up threatening to sue the insured after he could get nothing out of Geico.

I'll continue with a more traditional, local agent based company just to protect myself against those who have Geico and similar policies. Being insured doesn't mean squat if the insurance company won't pay.

I just ran a quote using their online system. More than twice what I pay at State Farm. Guess it really must vary between states.

Everyone that I spoke to before pulling trigger said they've had no problems getting a claim paid. Geico is hardly a little company. They're the third biggest auto insurance company in the country.

That would be reason enough for me to boycott, and pay a small premium elsewhere!

I would use USSA, but they are douches when it comes to my '66 Mustang.

I have American National, and they have a cash back policy. After going two years without any claims, and for every year after that, you get 25% of your premium back. Which for me, adds up to a lot of $$.

The turbo may be fun to drive, but damn, it isn't cheap to insure.

Everyone that is a geico customer. Talk to someone like Higgins...


Geico takes care of their own. Oh and most people don't drive cars that they wan't fixed absolutely right and 95% or more of the population can't spot a bad fix.

just one of the reasons i will never go with geico.

although i do like the gekko.

Someone hit my 911 while it was parked on the street last winter, and took off without leaving a note. The body shop bill was something north of $5k, IIRC. I took the car to the shop I wanted and Geico footed the bill, minus my deductible. No fuss at all.

Jeff, I am a little surprised by your conclusion. I don't expect any insurance company to freely hand out money, and I would be very dissapointed in any agent that had trouble getting the other party/agency to pay up. The last thing I want is to be represented by a local yokel insurance agent who is afraid of going after a big name insurance company.

I wasn't clear enough on how the whole process went down. I initially did not involve my own agent, attempting to get my car fixed through Geico. I got nowhere. Weeks went by as I tried to get so much as an adjuster to go out to the body shop I was using. It was not on their "prefered" list - it was a far better shop than that (WA law allows the car owner to choose the shop, not the insurance company). Their adjuster simply could not find time to go. The body shop submitted their estimate to Geico, seeking the authorization to begin repairs. They wouldn't give it, saying their own adjuster had to look at the car first. But they would not send one... Impasse.

So I called my agent, who called the body shop and had them send him the estimate, and he authorized repairs that same day. He went out of his way to help me by getting repairs started before he even attempted to contact Geico. He had dealt with them on many, many occasions in the past. He did not want one of his clients waiting for Geico.

I get the impression that Geico does fairly well in handling claims on their customers' vehicles. They want to get those fixed quickly (if not all that well) to keep their customers happy. Where they make up for that is in how they treat the other guys, guys like me, who their customers hit. They want their customers happy so they stick around; the rest of us they can care less about. Their transactions with us are invisible to their customers. And they want to keep them that way.

That was my agent's "ace up his sleeve". By threatening to sue the Geico customer to cover the damage, he stood to fairly piss off that customer. Geico would have some 'splainin' to do. That was the only thing that got them to move on my claim. I couldn't have done it - or known to have tried it - without my agent.

I just switched to 21 Century and I'm down to about $100 per month for both my Jeep Cherokee and BMW X5. I dropped the collision on the Jeep, but still have it on the BMW.

USAA stopped writing new bike policies a while ago, but put me in some affiliate deal they have with Progressive. I thought it was expensive at $450 a year, so I called Geico. They said $1900 a year! Insane.

BTW, I had a friend who worked at Geico and was fired for being caught on their security camera, pulling into her office garage and not wearing a seatbelt.

I think USAA stopped giving back money for accident-free driving.

That's odd... when my car was at Eurotech, Mark spoke well of the Geico adjuster and said that he was easy to work with. I suppose Geico has a number of adjusters in the area, though.

I have Geico.

I assume all insurance companies are bastards, whether it be health, home, auto, whatever. I'm prepared for battle whenever a sizable claim is submitted.

Might as well go with the one with lower rates. If Geico screwed all their customers to a greater extent than the rest of the insurance industry, they would not be in business.

No recent experience with Geico but back in the day when they were primarily servicing Fed employees and Military their rates and service were stellar.

Progressive ?
 

I used to be with Geico, because I thought the Ads were great, but when it came to renewal time I checked in with Progressive they were $400 cheaper for the same coverage and if you have any reason to speak to the staff on the phone they are very polite helpful and responsive.
I dislike the 'Flo' ads but when i was with Geico I resented the hell out of giving money to Speck / Gordan & 'Furlined' even more.

Some do that, and the state of Florida certainly wants insurers to do that (Charlie Crist has said so himself, though perhaps not publicly). Many insurers have established Florida-only companies to protect policyholders in other states from exactly that, and that is why some such Florida-only subsidiaries are on the verge of bankruptcy.

It's a catch 22 situation where an insurer can essentially chose to be an enemy of the state of Florida, or risk criminal investigations and other hassles in other states as state regulators don't feel their citizens should be subsidizing Florida home insurance.

one reason is that they are hard to get $$ out of if you need them

they are usually ranked pretty low in claims service -- and that is why you really want insurance, right?

they will also drop you like a hot rock of they discover that you own a radar detector.

another reason i would never use geico.

Do you save by having your auto and home insurance w/ same company? I imagine that option isn't available with Geico.

I have both with State Farm, mainly because the agent is a parent at my kids' school and I'm trying to support our own. I have not price-shopped at all. My bad.

Well, inertia plays a role. I've been w/ State Farm for appx 20 years and never collected a single claim. A few car break-in and parking lot damage incidents, always too low to be worth claiming. They were going to promptly send a very fair check when my pickup was stolen, but then I found the truck so withdrew the claim.

Very true. We've had them for years, one claim (hail) that was taken care of quickly. I pocketed the check, but had my choice of shops, with them volunteering to pay any additional cost resulting from the repair. Rate didn't go up (like it did with my last company). Not to mention all of their customer service is AMERICAN, and I've never had a bad experience with them on the phone. Also never had to wait more than 5 minutes on hold with an operator. All in all, they're probably the easiest of the service providers that we deal with.

Geico offers homeowners ins. I'm having that quoted next.

We just transferred everything, incl homeowner's and RV, to Geico. Saved big over our already-low rates with American Family

Geico, aka "Government Employees Insurance Company" does have agents. We have an office near Birmingham that you can actually walk in where agents actually work.
However, my service over the phone has been so good with them that I don't see the need to go to the agency. When I call them I always get some sweet talking young thing from Macon, Georgia on the phone... although Southern myself, their accent always melts my heart. :-)
When I was rear ended by the 18-wheeler they were great to work with. Helped us in dealing with the A-hole insurance company the trucking company used that tried like hell to jerk us around. All in all, I like the "Lizard."

Fuch Geico and that turd Gecko, the caveman and the googly eyes. Those asshats give the donut eaters free radar guns.

Wow, how things change. My payment over the years has crept up to $182 per month. Different crop of cars now. 2014 Acura MDX, 2010 Acura RDX, 1998 BMW M3 and a 1995 M3 that does not get driven. New quote from Farmers, $127 per month. Needless to say I'm switching. Not only that, my homeowners that I also get through Geico (Travelers) is going from $1250 per year to $750. It pays to look at these things every few years.

21st Century was purchased by Farmers. Had homeowners with Farmers, so was getting a discount.

After 6 years or so, my rates creeped up, even with supposed discounts from Home and Auto.

Switched to AAA for both home and Auto. Combination reduced my payments by $3400 per year, mostly (2/3rds) on the homeowners. Boy was I getting the shaft!!!

Insurance will always creep up.
It has to, according to the CPI and 'invisible inflation' which we are not supposed to talk about.

Milk and pizza and eggs are starting to move.
Bread took a running start a while ago. (I'm gonna strap a few on my head)
Rents and property taxes have doubled at a minimum.

I'm glad GoldmanSackOfPoop and the other Wall Street insider gamblers received their billions from the US Government.
That makes me personally happy.
Ramen is good.

I used to pay nothing for health insurance. I pay $190 a week now.

I'm always pinching pennies and looking for ways to save a buck therefor every few years I shop around insurance...
So far no one has been able to beat USAA, and the service is stellar.
YMMV

My allstate guy got me hooked into this "auto-pay, early-pay, paperless-pay, no-see-em" thing and they just hammer my bank account every 6 months for about 20% more than the last time. Then I call over there and they apologize and I threaten to cancel all 5 of my policies, and they back it down to a few bucks of where it was before. And then they refund the difference about a month later. It's wearing me down.

Any claims with AAA or other info on how well they handle claims?

I have Farmers for 4 cars, a house, and an umbrella policy and the annual total is ridiculous!

I had a little auto incident 2 years and 10 months ago so I thought I'd wait til 3 years is up before I start seriously shopping around.

Thread revival, good to see as I'm thinking about shopping around. This will be my 25th year of paying premiums to State Farm and never collecting a single penny on any claim. In fairness to them, it is because I've never made any claims (one was withdrawn when the believed-stolen car was found). The insurance math hasn't worked too well for me.