Anyone use Geico for auto insurance?
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| Wed, 06-14-2006 - 10:24am |
Dh was in an accident in December that was deemed his fault. It was a minor accident, but the lady sued and the insurance company ended up settling for $7500. As a result, for this coming six-month period (and for three years following), our insurance rates have gone up by 50%. Although I understand the rates going up, I feel that's rather excessive. This accident is the ONLY accident dh and I have had between us in ten years. That's a pretty clean record, if you ask me. So a 50% increase just seems overboard.
So, anyway, we started calling around. And it turns out that Geico, even with the accident on the record, will give us basically the same insurance for less than our insurance was BEFORE the accident. It's just over half our current rate, saving us $700 a year.
But I'm scared to switch--we've been with USAA for fifteen years, and we have tons of other products with them (life insurance, homeowner's insurance, checking & savings accounts, etc. etc. etc.). They offer fabulous service and outstanding products. I know the rate we currently have with them is standard for our record--I called around and other places offered similar rates.
So it's just Geico. How can Geico offer so much lower rates? Is this a red flag? Will I pay for it some other way--in crummy service, poor response, long waits for claims calls? Anyone have experience and can enlighten me?
Thanks so much,
Heather

Honestly I just switched to Geico about 6 months ago from being on my father's insurance.
Hi Heather. I'm shopping around for insurance myself (to add a teen driver). You can get lower rates if you move all insurance (auto, home, etc.). It's called Umbrella Coverage with Geico. Of course you can keep all policies with USAA and only change the auto to Geico, but you will get an even better discount if they get all your business.
We moved all out policies from USAA to AAA for their umbrella coverage. I too love USAA but AAA was quite a bit cheaper at that time. I still have membership with USAA and utilize their services for other things (always use their travel insurance for extended vacations abroad). Rest assured if you stop USAA insurance you can continue using their other services.
If you do change to Geico or any other company and experience a major problem, your state's insurance commissioner can and will get involved and straighten it out. Not long after we changed from USAA insurance to AAA, AAA had a clerical error on an insurance policy for a piece of land. I discovered the error when the policy came for renewal -- the documents had a different address. AAA would not correct the address and instead told me the only way they could correct the address was if I took out a whole new policy, even though it was an error. I asked if it would be more expensive and AAA said, "Oh my yes. It won't be as cheap as before." After I hung up from talking with AAA, I went online to my state's insurance commissioner (California) and within days I had a letter informing me what the state's insurance commissioner was doing and in a few more days a letter advising me the state's insurance commissioner got the problem straightened out and no change in rate. A few days later AAA sent me a letter saying they looked into the matter and realized they made an error and thanked me for being a good customer.
So don't fear you might be vulnerable to a new company. You really are "in the driver's seat." Ok.... sorry for the pun.
Hope this helps.
Carolyn
I happened to have a conversation this morning about USAA with my BF. He said he would not leave USAA even if they are a little more. They will never threaten to drop you from their insurance plan as other insurance agencies do. Though on the whole you both have great driving records, an accident with the other party suing may have meant a company such as Geico dropping you. Just be weary of other insurance agencies though I have Farmers and they've been pretty good.
Hi Heather - I'm writing with zero Geico insurance direct knowledge, but I did hear a Clark Howard commercial on the radio this morning, so I thought I would pass along what I heard.
All my best,
Danni
Oh, boy. This is exactly the sort of thing I need to hear. I need to be reminded that insurers can do more damage than just being a pain about claims. I need to be reminded why I continue to work with a company that has been outstanding on every front, totally customer-centric, for 15 years.
Okay, so it's an extra $700 a year to stay with USAA. Maybe it's worth it?
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I do love USAA, even if they are gouging us for this stupid mess-up (darn lady suing!! Argh!!).
I guess I just have to find a little extra money to spend on insurance and repairs--it's only a $40 a month difference, so maybe I can find that somewhere. Ugh. Sigh.
Thanks,
Heather
I don't use geico, but have used state farm for years, and love them. They didn't make a hassle when i had to get towed two years ago. they also didn't give us a hassle when we got in an accident (other guy's fault, and even went so far to refund us the deductible and pay for new carseats before the other insurance company paid them.) Our rates have only gotten lower and lower. we have our 2 cars insured through them, renters, and two life insurance policies, and I know I am getting a good deal.
HTH,
Heather
Okay, so I called USAA again and made some changes to our policy that will save us a touch of money (bringing it almost to the level it was before dh's accident, though still not as low as Geico). I feel much better about this now.
I did call State Farm, as we used them years ago and had good experience. Their rates were higher than USAA, and of course they don't offer the dividends at the end of the year that further reduce our cost.
We are debating raising our deductibles even further (currently $500, would raise to $1000) to save a little more money. Given that we don't have accidents very often (once in ten years, lol), this seems to make sense to me, now that we have an emergency fund of more than $1000. But need to discuss it with dh first.
Anyway, the changes we made were to our uninsured motorist medical payments (lowered to the state minimum--the difference is picked up by medical insurance anyway, so this was a no-brainer), and some add-on medical insurance (not sure why it was added on in the beginning, since our medical covers that too), as well as updating some info on our vehicles and removing the comp/collision from dh's vehicle (it's a '74, and worth more than they would pay on it because it's so old). This combined lowered our rate by almost $200/6 months, so I feel pretty good about it. Thanks ever so much to the person who said they lowered their rates with their company, as that is what inspired me to call and get this done.
So, we're staying with USAA. Our coverage is slightly different, but our rates are back to a more manageable (though still higher than before) rate.
Thanks all for the feedback,
Heather
Hi Heather,
I am in the insurance field and though I no longer handle personal insurance I can tell you that Geico will give you better rates but the minute you have that first accident and claim with them, they will non renew your policy.
lvhunnie2005