What's new
By:

Who do you have for car insurance?

Who are you insured with now?

  • Total voters
    18
USAA customer service has been really good. Not sure if they are the cheapest.
 
Have had Allstate since I was 16. Parents use the same 'broker' for years as well.

Have my 3 cars (Hopefully 2 if I can sell the one - Anyone intersted in a 06 F150 Crew Cab - 63k miles?) and house insurance through them.
 
I got Liberty Mutual - package my car and homeowner's insurance.

I had Geico but they tried to rip me off with ridiculously higher rates when I moved from Texas to NJ
 
State Farm for 20+ years. Every few years we go for one of the "save 15%" pitches from one group or another and all we really ever get is a few dollars less per month for less coverage. Duh! I can do that with State Farm.

All in all we have been very happy with them, other than they have some agents who are gung-ho to drop you over anything and everything. Had the same policy with the same agent for almost 10 years, not even a ticket, let alone an accident, in all that time. My wife accidentally backs into someone in a parking lot. Less than $1000 damage, and they dropped us like a hot potato. Went to a different State Farm agent who reinstated our policy and gave us a break for the inconvenience. Other than that they have been pretty good to work with.
 
I've had Bear River for years now. Package car and home owner's with them. Never made a claim on either one so I don't know how their service is.
 
I've been with American National for 6 years and they've been good to me (no accidents or tickets.) I get life and renter's through them, if you go three years without a claim they give you money back. The past two years I've gotten a check for $220. I'm a pretty big fan of that.

I used to drive a 99 Olds Cutlass. Everytime I checked rates against other companies my 300/500 policy was less expensive than there 100/300. I just got a new car and American National's rates aren't quite as low as other companies. I emailed my agent about it and he gave me reasons to stay and told me that if I do leave I should avoid the following companies:

https://www.justice.org/docs/TenWorstInsuranceCompanies.pdf
(I don't know anything about justice.org Maybe its bad advice...)

I stayed with American National, because if I go claim free I get $200 back every year from here on out.
 
candrew said:
I got Liberty Mutual - package my car and homeowner's insurance.

I had Geico but they tried to rip me off with ridiculously higher rates when I moved from Texas to NJ
Click to expand...

Really? How much do you pay if you don't mind me asking? I had LM years ago and their rates were ridiculous so I switched til I had Geico which was running me about $1,150/year (not bad for a lease) but then recently left them as I packaged my car with homeowner's insurance.
 
I have Bear River only because their rates are far superior to just about any company out there. I get a two percent discount each year I don't make a claim/have a ticket, and since I drive like a grandma now, I've been getting that discount like clockwork for almost 10 years. I package home and auto also, which nets me another 15% discount. Their service is so-so (from what I hear from my clients who make claims), but as long as you're not an idiot, they're great to work with. I have no beef, yo.

After reading all of your posts above, I can say that sometimes it's worth paying a little more to get a company/agent you like, but all of you guys that are with captive agencies like Allstate, AmFam, Farmers, State Farm -- man, I would shop around. Find an independent broker (cough, me), and have them quote you through the top 40 companies in the state. I can almost guarantee that they will find a better rate for you. Love your current agent, then stay. Love money more than your agent, then call an independent broker. Same coverage, less price. Of all the captive agencies out there, AmFam and State Farm are the best in my opinion. Their rates are decent and they actually have good customer service because their agents are put through the ringer before they're hired. That is, they don't hire bums that will flake out and be gone in 6 months. The worst captive agencies are Farmers and Allstate, simply because they are typically double the cost of just about everyone else. I have yet to get a Farmers quote that I couldn't blow out of the water, and I can beat Allstate 80% of the time.
 
TroutBum said:
I have Bear River only because their rates are far superior to just about any company out there. I get a two percent discount each year I don't make a claim/have a ticket, and since I drive like a grandma now, I've been getting that discount like clockwork for almost 10 years. I package home and auto also, which nets me another 15% discount. Their service is so-so (from what I hear from my clients who make claims), but as long as you're not an idiot, they're great to work with. I have no beef, yo.

After reading all of your posts above, I can say that sometimes it's worth paying a little more to get a company/agent you like, but all of you guys that are with captive agencies like Allstate, AmFam, Farmers, State Farm -- man, I would shop around. Find an independent broker (cough, me), and have them quote you through the top 40 companies in the state. I can almost guarantee that they will find a better rate for you. Love your current agent, then stay. Love money more than your agent, then call an independent broker. Same coverage, less price. Of all the captive agencies out there, AmFam and State Farm are the best in my opinion. Their rates are decent and they actually have good customer service because their agents are put through the ringer before they're hired. That is, they don't hire bums that will flake out and be gone in 6 months. The worst captive agencies are Farmers and Allstate, simply because they are typically double the cost of just about everyone else. I have yet to get a Farmers quote that I couldn't blow out of the water, and I can beat Allstate 80% of the time.
Click to expand...

I had an independent broker and Amfam beat his best rates by 10%. Unless I went with a lower rated company which I did not want to do. We changed to them because when one of their clients hit us they were great to work with. When they also beat the rates we could and were getting it was a no brainer to us.
 
Like Trout, I too am an insurance man. I work for Allstate. Yes, we are more expensive but I will say this, they pay out claims without a hassle. I don't really have anything bad to say about any other companies out there. Some people I have dealt with from other companies are idiots but it doesn't mean that entire company is like that. And yes, I have dealt with people like that from Allstate. Some times you just talk to people that don't care. Allstate is revamping all of their rates later this month. Huge changes. Should be interesting to see if the price drops. I always tell people with insurance, it's great to get a good deal and save money but some times that can come back to bite people when they don't have enough coverage and they have an accident. Insurance is always a what if scenario.
 
I did a quote on Geico and at first it was a little cheaper until I realized they had removed about half of the coverages I had with State Farm. Matching it coverage for coverage State Farm was actually quite a bit cheaper.
 
Chad Feldheimer said:
I did a quote on Geico and at first it was a little cheaper until I realized they had removed about half of the coverages I had with State Farm. Matching it coverage for coverage State Farm was actually quite a bit cheaper.
Click to expand...

From others that I have talked to, Geico is notorious for doing that.
 
Chad Feldheimer said:
I did a quote on Geico and at first it was a little cheaper until I realized they had removed about half of the coverages I had with State Farm. Matching it coverage for coverage State Farm was actually quite a bit cheaper.
Click to expand...

I found this to be the case with almost any other coverage I checked into. Matching coverage exactly State Farm is always within a few dollars or substantially cheaper than anything else I have looked into.
 
Chad Feldheimer said:
I did a quote on Geico and at first it was a little cheaper until I realized they had removed about half of the coverages I had with State Farm. Matching it coverage for coverage State Farm was actually quite a bit cheaper.
Click to expand...

LogGrad98 said:
I found this to be the case with almost any other coverage I checked into. Matching coverage exactly State Farm is always within a few dollars or substantially cheaper than anything else I have looked into.
Click to expand...
When we switched from Farmer's to Bear River, we made sure and get quotes for the same coverage. Bear River was a little more than half the cost of Farmer's.
 
kwb said:
Like Trout, I too am an insurance man. I work for Allstate. Yes, we are more expensive but I will say this, they pay out claims without a hassle. I don't really have anything bad to say about any other companies out there. Some people I have dealt with from other companies are idiots but it doesn't mean that entire company is like that. And yes, I have dealt with people like that from Allstate. Some times you just talk to people that don't care. Allstate is revamping all of their rates later this month. Huge changes. Should be interesting to see if the price drops. I always tell people with insurance, it's great to get a good deal and save money but some times that can come back to bite people when they don't have enough coverage and they have an accident. Insurance is always a what if scenario.
Click to expand...

Now I feel bad. It really is true, sometimes you get what you pay for. I did a quote for someone on this site who was with Allstate, and I could beat the rate, but it wasn't enough for them to leave their agent. I actually am a big fan of that kind of loyalty. I've worked with KWB in the past, (not actually at the same place, we tried to help the same person) and he's top shelf. While I don't really like Allstate, it's agents like him that give them their huge customer base.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top