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Old 01-21-2015, 01:47 PM   #21
wdc330i
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SARAFIL View Post
Ok, so I'll admit I'm surprised to hear you guys put service that high on the list vs price. Kind of refreshing... Seems like everyone is about $$ these days.

USAA generally has a great reputation but requires military connection to join. Chubb is top-notch for high value homeowners insurance (they are #1 in service and product offering if you have a high value home or other valuables) but they don't have a strong auto product and it's not really a priority for them. Besides that, there are good and bad carriers and it really depends on where you are and what you need.

Happy to share my thoughts on any other specific companies if you are wondering
Yes. We used to have Chubb for homeowners' insurance, but their auto insurance was always crazy high (through a third party, I think.) So we stuck with USAA for auto. We just recently dumped Chubb for homeowners' too, because of a big bump in premiums.
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Old 01-21-2015, 02:46 PM   #22
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I think Progressive has gotten a bad rap in general, but I've had to make exactly two claims with them - one for a rock into the windshield of the Mazda and another just a few weeks ago for some road debris that got thrown from a pickup into the Mazda, destroying the bumper.

They handled everything extremely well. The car was fixed quickly and the paint quality, installation, etc is top notch. They even fixed some other plastic shields under the car that were damaged but not from the road debris (I didn't ask for them to be fixed, either). When I pointed out that the whole front of the car had stone guard film on it, they told me to go get it done, get a receipt, and they'd cut me a check after the fact. They did exactly that. They followed up a week later with a call to make sure everything was right and we were happy.

So, a pretty minor claim, but it was still about $1200 in damage when you include the stoneguard re-do. And the films have improved a ton in five years, so the front of the car looks a lot better now.
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Old 01-21-2015, 03:04 PM   #23
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Here's my insurance carrier history:

1) State Farm -- from '97-'99. Had an auto and renters policy when I was in CA
2) Electric Insurance -- an Auto policy on the '01 325Ci for a few months when I was in AZ in '01
3) Progressive -- I moved to GA in Sept '01 and went with Progressive since they were 1/2 the cost of Electric. Both auto and home
4) Electric Insurance -- Moved back to AZ in '04 and moved the policy back to Electric since it was less expensive than Progressive. Auto and Home

I've only had claims with Electric -- a few glass repairs, a windshield replacement (we have full glass coverage, and being in the desert means rocks on roads...), a couple on the Porsche (one was covered by the other guy's insurance, but Electric handled everything, the other was when I backed into a tree...), and one on the Tesla. They've been fantastic to work with.
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Old 01-21-2015, 03:25 PM   #24
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I've been with State Farm for decades across multiple states. Claims have always gone smoothly, even a few big ones. Very happy with my agent and the policy. A little more expensive, but worth it, I think, in the big picture.

Had Chubb homeowners for our last house (State Farm wouldn't insure us because of an underground oil tank). Was also pricey, but crazy good when we had storm claims due to trees coming down on our fences and roof. Fast, no hassle at all, paid our claims with no pushback whatsoever... they didn't even send an adjuster. A few iPhone pics was all they needed. Made me think it would have been really easy for unscrupulous people to defraud them. But of course that would never happen here in New Jersey.
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Old 01-21-2015, 04:06 PM   #25
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Your experience with a $1000 or $2000 physical damage claim should be pretty easy with just about any company. It gets trickier when you have valuable car with significant damage or worse yet when there is a big claim for bodily injury -- that is where you start to see the difference. Progressive is very aggressive in fighting bodily injury cases in court while many other companies are more liberal in settlements. That's part of the reason why Progressive had lower rates, they fight more claims and pay out less on average. Of course that's a broad generalization and all claims are different.
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Old 01-21-2015, 04:09 PM   #26
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Chubb has great property claims service. They even go above and beyond before claims- for example in the past few years there have been wildfires in Colorado in some high end communities and Chubb hired private crews to go out to their insured homes and clear brush & debris and take other preventative actions to help reduce the risk of fire.
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Old 01-21-2015, 04:47 PM   #27
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Like most things in life, service matters to a point when it comes to cost, but after that point...

If Geico quoted me $100 for six months where I was currently paying $400 for a company I've had good experience with and trust to take care of me better than Geico if something happens, I'm probably not going to think much about switching for $300 even if that means paying 4x as much. If the difference was $1,000 vs $4,000 for six months, I'm not sure I'd say the same.
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Old 01-21-2015, 05:52 PM   #28
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Just to add my $0.02, we have USAA and are pretty happy. We've had a few relatively minor car claims and one home owners claim and never had any trouble getting reasonable settlements. None of the settlements impacted our rates much (if at all), either. Adding a 16yr old driver to the policy.... now that effected our rate, Holy Moly.
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Old 01-22-2015, 09:20 AM   #29
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Clyde you're doing too much of the work yourself spending all that time quoting and trying to determine the differences in coverage.

I would suggest you make a couple of calls and find yourself an independent agent who has been established for many years.

A good independent agent should be able to rate your cars with multiple carriers and they should come back to you with multiple quotes and explain the differences.

Some companies might have the best rate but they might also be hard to deal with at claim time which is what I think is the most important part of insurance. Having the power of an agent behind you can make a difference
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Old 01-23-2015, 02:31 PM   #30
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I have USAA for home & auto. For over 23 years no one has been able to beat the premiums on either policy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh (PA) View Post
Adding a 16yr old driver to the policy.... now that effected our rate, Holy Moly.
This is why my son is already a USAA member. At 16 he will have has own auto policy so mine is not affected.
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