best homeowner and car insurer.

We've been with Erie Insurance Co. for 30+ years. Usually their rates are competitive and we've been happy with a couple of claims experiences. I know they do not write in all states, mostly the eastern part of the country.
 
USAA for 33 years. Two claims for a sump pump failure and flooded basement were resolved quickly. A lightening strike frying a lot of electronics took a letter to the CEO to finally resolve. Two car accidents with others at fault were handled well and settled quickly, including one totaled vehicle. My homeowners policy took a jump for some unknown reason this year. We may raise our deductible to offset it.
 
I've been with USAA for 20+ years, including banking service. Very good customer service. But then again, I have yet to file a claim. I think most insurance companies are good until you file a claim. That's when you learn what the company is really like.
 
I had AAA for years until they decided they didn't want to insure us anymore. We tried adding a landlords policy on our granny flat once we get tenants. (They'd covered it as an accessory building for 7 years when MIL and FIL lived in it.) They didn't want to do the landlord policy and had us go outside AAA to a specialty insurance company... they quoted us - we agreed and went back to AAA (since we'd still be under them for our homeowner, cars, and umbrella)... that's when they said they'd cancel our umbrella because we live too close to a canyon (higher fire risk in So. Cal.).... The house hasn't moved and the canyon hasn't moved - and they'd been covering us for 15 years....

We knew the canyon was an issue... Amica had turned us down when we first bought the house. Turns out we are limited to 1 company if we want all our policies together... Farmers. We really like our agent, but have made no claims, so no idea if how they will respond if we need to make a claim.

AAA was easy to deal with on car claims. I had Amica when I lived back east and they were very good to work with when someone tripped on the sidewalk in front of my house.
 
I have been with one insurer for many years. The cost to insure 4 cars was $3,800.00 annually and my renewal is coming up. Progressive just quoted me $1,350.00 for six months. They claim that they do not write 1 year policies.

I am concerned that this is a teaser rate and it will change in 6 months. Does anyone have experience with Progressive quoting a very low rate and then drastically increasing the rate upon the 6 month renewal? Other companies have quoted me close to the $3,800 I am paying and a few more. We have 4 drivers and maximum coverage but with limited tort option. Just retired in January and it is nice that I now have the time to compare rates and think about such things.

Thank you.
 
I've been with USAA for over 48 years for auto, home and life. During that time there have been very few issues and the annual and senior bonuses are very nice.
 
Fedup said:
I have AAA and I think they are decent including customer service. But I have never claimed any thing on the house. For car insurance, they paid me almost the same price that I paid for my new Honda, 2 years early.
I think perhaps they are not for profit, membership only type of club.
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+1. We've had AAA for both car and home for the last 5-6 years or so, and I have been very satisfied. We did have one claim (auto accident) and it was settled fairly quickly and reasonably. They did not raise our rates after that, either. Stepdaughter has had nothing but problems with Progressive. As someone else said, you do need to shop around every so often, just to see if the rates you are being charged are still in line. But I wouldn't necessarily go with the company with the cheapest rates, either; that is mostly why stepdaughter went with Progressive, and it was a mistake.
 
Been with Amica for about 6 years. Switched our 2 homes and 2 cars to them, added a liability policy - and saved a total of $800/year over my previous insurer.

I've never had a claim, but I do a happy dance every year when I get my new rates and they haven't gone up significantly like they did with all my previous insurers. :dance:
 
USAA for Auto and AFI (Armed Forces Insurance) for Homeowners, Personal Property and Umbrella. Both have been great to work with on claims and have good rates. Websites and phone service are good. You need a military connection to use these companies, though they have broadened their criteria through the years to be more inclusive.
 
USAA for 49 years, except for a few years here and there while out of the USA.

During that time, four car claims, no home claims. All the claims were resolved quickly and very fairly IMHO. Also great rates as far as I can tell.

Last one was interesting. Someone in the next lane wasn't paying attention and tried to occupy the space I was in. He was most apologetic at the scene and admitted it was entirely his fault.

His insurance company was kind of flaky and tried to deny any fault so I decided to just use my own comprehensive and pay the $1,000 deductible. USAA went to bat for me and took it through two rounds of arbitration. Finally got it resolved about 8 months later and sent me a check for the $1,000. Can't beat service like that.
 
Walt34 said:
We've been with Erie Insurance Co. for 30+ years. Usually their rates are competitive and we've been happy with a couple of claims experiences. I know they do not write in all states, mostly the eastern part of the country.
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I don't have Erie, but I had a truck hit me and hence I had a claim with them.

Best experience ever. I was very impressed by the Erie service.

It got me thinking if I ever switch from Amica, Erie would be my first choice to check out.
 
USAA for homeowner's, car and umbrella. Have been with them for 23 years. Had to file a homeowner's claim 11 years ago for storm damage and they were wonderful. If you or your spouse are prior military I would highly recommend.
 
phil1ben said:
I am concerned that this is a teaser rate and it will change in 6 months. Does anyone have experience with Progressive quoting a very low rate and then drastically increasing the rate upon the 6 month renewal? Other companies have quoted me close to the $3,800 I am paying and a few more. We have 4 drivers and maximum coverage but with limited tort option. Just retired in January and it is nice that I now have the time to compare rates and think about such things.
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I've been with Progressive for over 10 years and very pleased with their service. Yes they only do 6 month policies but by experience has been very minimal increases if any and sometimes decreases. My previous vehicle was a Honda CRV that I had for ~9 years, the cost of my policy for year 9 was less than what it was for year 1. Bought a new vehicle last year and the policy cost went up ~$30. Have only had a couple claims with them, not counting windshield repairs, and they were handled quickly.
 
+1 Geico for car insurance. They provide great customer service and make it so easy to file a claim and get your car repaired.

I would never use Allstate. We had them for years and had to sue them because the DW was hit by a driver using a friends car. He had no license and received 6 citations from the police. Allstate tried fighting us on dental work. My wife had several teeth chipped when the airbag went off and slight nect and back pain. She missed a month of work. It went to arbitration, and we were awarded $13,000. I immediately left them and would never go back. We got cheaper rates and better service with Geico.
 
Interesting thread. I can't remember the last time I had any claims, I guess it was a shower leak that they paid me well more than what it cost me to repair. Think it was Nationwide. No auto claims ever I can recall.

I was happy enough w Geico costs except they kept increasing homeowners every year until it got to $1600 so I shopped around. Local Metlife agent gave us a price for home, two cars, and umbrella of $2400 a year. Have had no claims and in three years maybe $50 increase. Hope to never find out how well claims are paid. Unfortunately not long after signed up the agent left Met and now all we have is the 800 numbers.
 
I have had SF for 40 years and never had a problem with them.
 
+1 for USAA

Been with them for 39 yrs; Auto, Home & Umbrella; three household claims (including a flooded basement) and one auto claim. Great customer service plus, I get a dividend check (profit sharing/refund) ever so often. Can't beat that! :)
 
Happyras said:
I had a brief encounter with State Farm, they settled our claim, but charged it as an at fault moving accident when my camper tipped over due to a failed weld (defective). I dropped them and went back to American Family now for everything personal. I had a bunch of branches crush my jeep during the winter storms, AmFam not only covered it quickly, but everything was done right through their preferred shop, which was highly rated on Yelp. This time it was a comprehensive coverage as it should be. I not only have the lowest rates, we also got great service and follow up.
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Did you have a separate policy for the camper or did you make the claim against your tow vehicle's policy?

Did your camper tip while being towed down the road or while parked?
 
They did not have a separate policy for the camper, but extended liability from the tow vehicle. The coverage used was collision instead of comprehensive. I had "other" extended coverage which also refused to cover the manufactures defect, but covered other items at the time such as slide out damage. The camper was being loaded onto the truck. The weld on one front jack bracket had no penetration and zipped clean, tipping over the camper onto another new truck (not mine). Since it "collided" when falling, they called it a collision so I got to pay the full deductible and suffer the increased rate due to at fault claim. When I asked for them to subrogate the claim to the other carrier who had a 7 year defect warranty or pursue claim with the manufacturer they did nothing. I was thankful they at least covered the other vehicle and my repairs >$15K.
 
AlbaCrush said:
+1 Geico for car insurance. They provide great customer service and make it so easy to file a claim and get your car repaired.

I would never use Allstate. We had them for years and had to sue them because the DW was hit by a driver using a friends car. He had no license and received 6 citations from the police. Allstate tried fighting us on dental work. My wife had several teeth chipped when the airbag went off and slight nect and back pain. She missed a month of work. It went to arbitration, and we were awarded $13,000. I immediately left them and would never go back. We got cheaper rates and better service with Geico.
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I am sure everybody can give a bad account for every insurance... I am not saying that Allstate is good... but...

I had Geico when I was young... still a teen when I started with them... went to university in my early 20s... and we had a bad snow storm down here... lots of snow and ice around... I was in the parking lot of my apt complex and was making a turn where the mini mart was located... snow on my window which restricted my vision a bit... so, making the turn and pow.. hit a lady who had just come around the corner of a fence... she did not see me and I did not see her.... she was knocked to the ground... I gave all my info, but she seemed fine... she went to the doc the next day and got a clean bill of health, only a bruise... Geico only paid the doc bill... however, they cancelled my insurance!!! So 3 or 4 years of paying HIGH fees without any incident and the first one they kick me out...


NOPE, I do not like Geico...
 
jollystomper said:
I've had Geico for auto since college, and for homeowners and liability (homeowners is actually Travelers policy but through Gecio) since we bought our first house, and have not had any issues. We have never had to place a homeowners claim so I do not know how the service is for that area. It has been about 20 years since we last had to file an auto claim but the times we did it went very smoothly. A couple of times when it was the other drivers fault they initiated working with the other insurer to get our deductible covered, we did not have to do anything.

The administrative actions - adding/dropping cars, drivers, updating policy info, etc. - has always gone smoothly. Several times they pointed out discounts we were eligible for that I was not aware of (such as kids away at college and kids maintaining a high GPA).
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Same thing - GEICO and Travelers. I have had a claim on the homeowners (hurricane damage - living in TX gulf coast region) and they were out in 2 days when some of my neighbors were waiting weeks just to have an adjuster look at their damages. They also cut me a check on the spot, and didn't raise my rates the next year either. Great customer service on auto policies too. And they are impossible to beat price wise for my situation - nearest competitor was over $250 more a year on our auto alone. (We have GEICO County Mutual, which may not be available through all GEICO coverage areas, but it's way cheaper than regular GEICO even)
 
I chose to jump to Amica when I left the insurance ghetto that is NJ. They have about the lowest complaint ratio with whatever state regulator you care to name. Within the first few years of being with them I had two hail claims (new roofs), and I bopped someone at low speed. The claims were all painless and generous. I shop them every couple of years to make sure I am getting a competitive rate and have never found a reason to jump ship.
 
brewer12345 said:
I chose to jump to Amica when I left the insurance ghetto that is NJ. They have about the lowest complaint ratio with whatever state regulator you care to name. Within the first few years of being with them I had two hail claims (new roofs), and I bopped someone at low speed. The claims were all painless and generous. I shop them every couple of years to make sure I am getting a competitive rate and have never found a reason to jump ship.
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Do they give you a check at the end of the policy if you do not have claims:confused:

I remember when I got a quote from them many years ago I said they were much higher than what I had... but the rep said 'yes, but you will get a check back'.... but since I had no idea on what it might be I never went with them...
 
Texas Proud said:
Do they give you a check at the end of the policy if you do not have claims:confused:

I remember when I got a quote from them many years ago I said they were much higher than what I had... but the rep said 'yes, but you will get a check back'.... but since I had no idea on what it might be I never went with them...
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The least expensive (net) policies they offer are dividend policies. They cost more at the start of the policy, but you get the excess (dividend) rebated to you as a check or applied to your next year's premium. Theoretically they could just keep the excess amount if they have a sufficiently bad year, but that has not happened in a long time. The payment of the dividend is based on company-wide results, not your individual claim history.
 
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