Hagerty or American Collectors

[jcwade]

I have had American Collectors for the last few years.
Good full coverage with a 7500-mile limit, for a great price.

This year the premium went up over $500, about a 40% increase.
An AC rep told me that all premiums went up quite a bit this year and probably more so since I live in SoCal.
I asked about lowering the coverage a bit and got the quote down by $300.

I also got a quote from Hagerty, with about the same coverage as AC.
Their quote is less than last year's premium at American Collectors before the raise.

Any thoughts on Hagerty vs American Collectors as far as service or premium raises.
If they are the same, I'll go with the least expensive option.

[Paul T]

I have no experience with either of those, but I've been using J.C. Taylor for many years...might be worth getting a competing quote from them.

[Alan A]

Hagerty was awful on the [one] claim I had with them. Simply awful.

American Collectors I haven't had to claim so can't say, but I'd pay my regular insurer before I used Hagerty again.

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by Alan A

Hagerty was awful on the [one] claim I had with them. Simply awful.

American Collectors I haven't had to claim so can't say, but I'd pay my regular insurer before I used Hagerty again.

If you care to, can you explain? I’ve been with Hagerty 18 years. I’ve paid them far more in premiums than I paid for the car. Never had a claim except 1 windshield replacement with no issues. I have an agreed to value $65k policy. I’m hoping if I ever have a claim that they handle it in a satisfactory way. If you don’t wanna discuss here, that’s cool

[Alan A]

I’d had them for years. Across multiple old cars before this. No claims and I assumed they were decent based on everyone saying same.

Had an accident in my garage, doing something dumb - my car has a remote start on my phone and I hit it by accident while installing a new power steering reservoir to fix a cavitation issue.

It was in gear. Lurched forward and hit a stool. Broke the grille, bent the front valance, banged up a headlight mount and a couple of other minor pieces. Ended up being about a $6k oopsie.

The problem was the broken grille. They are like hens teeth and not cheap should you manage to find one.

The settlement offer was a joke - less than the cost of a beat up grille and less than 1% of the agreed value - and they were zero help in finding a replacement (which is part of their pitch). They refused to negotiate and broke off communication. IANAL and it wasn’t worth paying one for something that small.

Then to add insult to injury they dropped me at the renewal because - get this - my wife [who wasn’t even on the policy] was in an accident the same year in her daily. She was rear ended…

F. Hagerty. I’ll use my regular insurer before I give them a penny.

[ramonesfreak]

That sucks. Sorry to hear that

[juanbenae]

I switched to Grundy from Hagerty and realized a significant decrease in my premium for the same classic car insurance conditions.

Used them later for what they called a "paddock policy" for my car when it became a dedicated race car. Insured it while in transit, stored at my home in the garage for fire or theft, and in the paddock of course.

[Noah930]

I found Grundy's quote to be almost half what Hagerty offerd.

[Otter74]

I am on American Collectors and can't speak to how they handle claims since I haven't had any. When I got quotes originally, AC was about half the cost of Hagerty for the same coverage, and the beta I read indicated they handled claims well. Last year my cost nearly doubled - I was told it was because Illinois now allowed insurance companies to set rates based on zip code rather than treating all parts of the state the same (and I live in Chicago). It's still a better insurance deal than having them on my standard State Farm policies.

[faverymi]

The dream of coverage by insurance carriers.....

I hope I never have the need to use them

No problem when you have to pay your premiums

Problem when they have to open their pockets

I guess that's why they are called insurance companies and not insurance charities

Scary.....

[brp914]

I have AAA for my classics, house, and regular cars/bikes. Very reasonable.

I survived a James Dean type crash. Lady swerved left in front of me. I swerved out of her way to give her the left turn she shouldn't have tried to make. Instead, she drove straight into me. She admitted her fault. AAA was quick to offer agreed value settelment. Problem was, I had installed $15k parts and put in countless hours work, but never updated my policy. I had to haggle with the other party's insurance. I realize insurance co's aren't charities, but they low-balled me with 1/3 less than I had paid only a year earlier, plus they would only give a pittance for the wrecked car which they would keep! I told them I'd buy all beautifully restored '65 GTs they can find for their offer price. Weird they never found any! They got bombarded with my receipts and comparables listings. They finally relented, but not before a rogue tow co scammed AAA and a shop tried to scam me for the wreck.

Moral: agreed value, and keep it current.