Insurance Rant

[plumb4u2]

so when my wife and I got married we went with Erie insurance for our autos (13yrs)

Neither my wife or I have ever had speeding tickets or any accidents, so I have never had a claim
they currently insure all our vehicles (3) except my 911 (Hagerty)

Well couple weeks ago my wife decided to shop insurance and found that Allstate (who insures our home) was about $500 cheaper so we are in the process of switching

Now to the point

About a month ago my wife and I were removing the hard top for our Jeep to put soft top back on for upcoming summer and SHE, I mean we dropped it and shattered rear glass and cracked the fiberglass

I kinda forgot about it and then thought if we are gonna switch insurance I should file claim with Erie sense we are dropping them any way

So I filed claim and I must say they handled it great, sent us a check in 3 days for total replacement of top $2500

I get home today to find a letter in the mail from Erie that they are raising my insurance 11% due to the claim, about $150 a year, Letter says that I am no longer a "superior" client

I'm sorry but I have spent many thousands with them in 13yrs, and one $2500 claim raises my insurance?

I CAN'T wait to make the phone call April 1st to tell them they no longer have my business

Rant over

[Zeke]

The longer you go w/o a claim, the more likely you are to have one. They got the best out of you and now you're a liability. Good luck with Allstate as they are one of the worst out there when it comes to claims. Ask me how I know. I've never had a policy with AS but I intend to be their worst enemy.

[ben parrish]

Hmmm...you dropped the top...you filed a claim..you had the rates raised...you are mad?
What did you claim the damage was caused by? True, seems silly that the rates were raised because of a claim but still....you dropped the top.

[on2wheels52]

Originally Posted by Zeke

The longer you go w/o a claim, the more likely you are to have one.

So is the converse true? ie, once you have a claim, the less likely you are going to have another one?
Jim

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

Hmmm...you dropped the top...you filed a claim..you had the rates raised...you are mad?
What did you claim the damage was caused by? True, seems silly that the rates were raised because of a claim but still....you dropped the top.

what do you mean "what did I claim the damage was caused by"?

I told them my wife and I dropped the top what else would I say?

I'm not mad it is what it is, I just find it funny that after all these years of being a customer and one little claim gets your rates raised

I have no experience with any claims ever on my cars or my home

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by on2wheels52

So is the converse true? ie, once you have a claim, the less likely you are going to have another one?
Jim

I agree his comment makes no sense to me

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

Hmmm...you dropped the top...you filed a claim..you had the rates raised...you are mad?
What did you claim the damage was caused by? True, seems silly that the rates were raised because of a claim but still....you dropped the top.

and yes mr Parrish I dropped the top so what's you point?

you have never had an accident?

Isn't this the reason we pay all this money for insurance?

[jwgn777]

I had Allstate for 20 years and didn't cost them a dime. I told them to lower my cost and like there commercial says(silence) did not want to discuss it. So I went to the Hartford Ins. Allstate $2,700 a year for my 3 vehicles Hartford $1,300 a year a big savings. I know they will raise it however it might take awhile to get to $2700 Allstate also has a habit of dropping people they don't desire. Here's the joke. only 4 weeks after the switch they are sending my letters to come back to Allstate. I don't feel like paying for there expensive advertising.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

We pay insurance to cover us.

When we have a claim, the insurance company pays out.

Then the insurance company raises your rate to make back the money they just gave you.

We then pay insurance to cover us.


I understand rates going up for multiple infractions/violations/accidents, that makes sense. A one time accident of dropping the top and having your rate raised, that's just theft.

[gshase]

Allstate took 3 weeks to get an adjuster to my house after a car drove through it, A lot of fire trucks and police cars showed up. Allstate was called that same day and every time i called I had to start the whole process again 4 times. RUN AWAY

[jwgn777]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

We pay insurance to cover us.

When we have a claim, the insurance company pays out.

Then the insurance company raises your rate to make back the money they just gave you.

We then pay insurance to cover us.


I understand rates going up for multiple infractions/violations/accidents, that makes sense. A one time accident of dropping the top and having your rate raised, that's just theft.

Most Insurance company's have accident forgiveness for good drivers. Don't know if they really enforce it.

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by jwgn777

I had Allstate for 20 years and didn't cost them a dime. I told them to lower my cost and like there commercial says(silence) did not want to discuss it. So I went to the Hartford Ins. Allstate $2,700 a year for my 3 vehicles Hartford $1,300 a year a big savings. I know they will raise it however it might take awhile to get to $2700 Allstate also has a habit of dropping people they don't desire. Here's the joke. only 4 weeks after the switch they are sending my letters to come back to Allstate. I don't feel like paying for there expensive advertising.

policy I just signed with Allstate for my 3 vehicles $1150 a year

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

We pay insurance to cover us.

When we have a claim, the insurance company pays out.

Then the insurance company raises your rate to make back the money they just gave you.

We then pay insurance to cover us.


I understand rates going up for multiple infractions/violations/accidents, that makes sense. A one time accident of dropping the top and having your rate raised, that's just theft.

agreed, I would understand if I were in an accident that caused damage to other peoples cars or injured someone, but this was a minor incident in my garage

[jwgn777]

Originally Posted by plumb4u2

policy I just signed with Allstate for my 3 vehicles $1150 a year

Won't last long. Allstate is a big company and insures too many people and with that has too many claims that you will eventually pay for. Had them 20 years. Just ask some hurricane Sandy victims about them. Just imagine you have paid a company for 20 years with out a event and when you need them they use every legal way to get out of paying. Sounds like heath insurance.

[MBAtarga]

I'm sure this is location/state dependent - however - Liberty Mutual replaced Allstate for my auto and home coverage about 3 years ago. I had been with Allstate for about 15 or more years - not a single claim. Auto policies finally got >$4k for annual coverage for 4 autos (911 covered with Haggerty. This also included two teenage drivers - both with good student/drivers ed discounts applied.

I just got sick and tired - asked the agent what options I had and they offered little advice. Upon a friends recommendation - I contacted Liberty Mutual. They quoted me $2800 - and then took another 10% off that due to being an alumni of Ga Tech. I then took that quote back to Allstate. Their answer? "ah, yeah - Liberty Mutual really offers competitive rates - we really can't touch them." I've been very pleased so far.

[Evans, Marv]

I think it's SOP for insurance companies to raise your rate after a claim. I have fire insurance through a large, national company. I had to make a claim a few years ago, and my rate went up around $200 - $300/year. When I asked my agent about that, his explanation was that I got a premium discount for being claim free and lost it when I made the claim. The duration of the increase was 3 years & I went back to the claim free status. I didn't feel too bad since they paid the claim immediately and without question, and the claim was worth something like 5 1/2 years of premiums.

[look 171]

We had All State for years. House, cars and what not. I wrote a check once a year and never ask questions. Not one, and no claims. Wife ask to up our insurance on the house due to our remodel, the agent basically gave her a hard time and not much help. Now she's pissed and I was going to make a phone call to my agent and have a chit chat with him. I come home one day and I was told that AAA was about $1600 cheaper then All State. So, it was good bye to 16 years of wonderful silent relationship. Our agent called me several times to try to save the deal. Now, our AAA agent was a lazy POS as well. How can these people sell things for a living?

[Neilk]

We've had Liberty Mutual for a couple years now. They were about 1k cheaper than State Farm for he house and car. LM has been great. Car got totaled in a hail storm and we needed a roof replaced. They handled everything really well. I would recommend them if you still needed to get insurance.

[tuxdu]

New member here to this wonderful forum and first post, let me offer my .02 explanation as am/have been an Independent Insurance Agent/Agency owner for over 17 years who has represented Erie insurance and am fairly familiar with their claims process/renewal of policies.

The claim you turned into Erie Insurance was most like paid under your Collision coverage, (due to the fact your wife dropped the top). The total payout was over $1000, which becomes a "chargeable at fault" occurance. (note if the total damage was under $1000, the company would not have applied a accident surcharge).

If the claim would have been paid out under the Comprehensive coverage (due to vandalism, or something falling on the top, in other words, out of your immediate control) the increase would not have occurred as it would not have been coded "not at fault".

Insurance carriers look at the 3-5 years of your driving experience, no matter how long you have been insured with said carrier. Some offer 1st time accident forgiveness, some don't.

Switching to Allstate may or may not be a good idea. Have taken many of their customers over the years as the claims experience have not been the greatest speaks volumes in itself. One thing about Erie Claims service is that most people are extremely happy with the quick response and service given, and typically their rates are fairly competitive.

Call your current Erie agent and ask which coverage the claim was paid out under. If it is Collision, will have an impact on your rates for a 3yr period. If it was Comprehensive, not as much of an impact. You might want to get a home quote with the same agent as rates are generally discounted when combining both home and auto policies with the same carrier.

Also you may want to check with Allstate prior to switching to see if when you were quoted that the new agent ran your CLUE report. If Allstate did, you should not have this claim show up and your rate will be good. If the CLUE report was not ran, when Allstate issues your new policy rate will change as the "accident" will show up.

Hope this explantion helps explain why the increase happened with your auto rates.

Dale

[p911dad]

Amica did not raise our homeowners insurance premium after a major hailstorm got nearly every roof in our neighborhood 2 years ago. The roof on this house was 10 years old, and was a total of 42 squares. Had a check in a week. No problem and they didn't try to screw us like State Farm did to our neighbors (same era house, SF claim adjuster said their roof had deferred maintenance as it was 10 years old, and refused their claim. This was after SF's chosen contractor had done the roof inspection (they chalk out a 10' square and chalk circle every hail hit, then add them up. The contractor said the hail wrecked the shingles (and gutter guards) and should be replaced. SF's adjuster said nope. No claim, end of story. Appeal went nowhere).
Upshot is neighbor dropped SF and within a year they get letters from SF wanting them back. No corporate memory, just an address and a number.