I always go through an agent. When rates go up I have someone who can answer questions about why. He (or she) can also make sure that quotes have the correct information in them. Your agent is your advocate when you have a claim. When making claims with a policy written through an agent, you are less likely to get jerked around. If the insurance company plays games then your agent has much more leverage with them than you do, since he or she writes many policies with them. Lastly, when buying a new car, my agent is super responsive with providing insurance binders to the dealer so they can register the vehicle with the state.
As a society we have forgotten the value of expertise (and the experts who have it). Why pay a travel agent a fee when you can book a ticket online? The answer can be found the first time you miss a flight or get stuck in a city due to any number of reasons. My travel agent moves mountains to re-book me, find rental cars, or put me in a hotel, all the while I kick my feet up and relax while waiting for her to call me back. It’s also why I work with an insurance agent, instead of an insurance company.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, my experience with a fairly small insurance company was totally positive, whereas my neighbor had an EXTREMELY bad experience with State Farm.
Our houses are the same model, built at the same time.
My roof sustained a loss of ~40 shingles. His house lost probably more than 100 shingles.
My insurance company authorized a complete tear-off-reroofing at a cost of $7k+, but State Farm would only agree to pay for replacement of the missing shingles.
I urged him to file a complaint with the state’s Commissioner of Insurance, and he did as I suggested. The outcome–many months after I had my new roof–was that State Farm reluctantly agreed to pay $3,000 for his roof repairs. At that point, he was tired of living with a giant blue tarp on his roof and he was tired of fighting with State Farm, so he accepted their check, footed the remaining $4k roof replacement bill himself, and then dropped State Farm like a bad habit.
I had State Farm for 50 years, found out on a Sat. morning that my new car did NOT have collision coverage. Called agent. His off=ice was closed until Monday. Called State Farm, was told they could not change my coverage, my agent had to do it.
Called Geico, my policy for two cars dropped from over $1300 to less than $900 for same coverage. Two months later a idiot driving left and looking right destroyed our car. Could not be happier with Gieco’s service. Found out later that State Farm will not offer “Legacy” customers lower rates unless they ask.
My State Farm agent offered me a competitive price after I left. I told him if he had been giving me a good price I would not have left but I was not going to reward him for gouging me for all those years.
With Gieco, I can make policy changes by phone or computer that take effect at midnight. When my granddaughter bot our minivan and loaded it with all out possessions, I put full collision coverage on it and took it back off when it got there. It cost me $12.
Part of the jack-up in price is probably age related, if you’re turning 65 this year. Insurance companies can increase rates if they’ve suffered more losses than they anticipated, so it might have to do with storms and fire losses they’ve experienced in Texas, Florida, and California recently. The state’s lawmakers can cause the rates to go up too, if they require the insurance company to cover something that wasn’t previously covered. If you have less than what the insurance company considers to be adequate, even though it is still within the legal requirement that can make them cranky and cause a rate hike. If there are other drivers who use the car or you have coverage for other cars , and for your home, changes in those can affect the rate too.
My guess for your case, 65 + new state laws + higher than normal loss claims expected due to storms etc.
I just got the latest issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, and it contains an article on the topic of rising car insurance rates. According to the Kiplinger’s folks, the increased use of high-tech safety devices (sensors, cameras, computers) on cars has led to higher payouts for collision damage, and despite more safety devices, the number of collision claims and comprehensive claims has risen over the past two years.
More specifically, the article states that collision claims have risen by 11% over the past two years, and comprehensive claims have risen by 25% during that same period! And, those statistics don’t take into account the huge number of comprehensive claims that resulted from our most recent severe hurricane season.
I’m curious, what is the reasoning for expecting them to completely re-roof the house versus just replacing the missing ones?
What percentage does 40 or 100 shingles represent on your homes?
How old were those shingles at the time of the storm damage?
Not picking on you, seriously interested in the details.
Reasoning?
I can’t really answer that question. All I can tell you is that the adjuster who was sent by Mercer Insurance Company stated that it would be impossible to match the color of the old, faded shingles, and because it would “look like hell” if it was just patched, he was going to recommend a complete re-roofing. And, the insurance company went-along with his recommendation.
I honestly didn’t expect that type of good treatment in view of the fact that the roof was then 17 years old, but I suspect that you would have accepted that offer also.
By contrast, when my neighbor was told by the State Farm adjuster that she would only recommend a patch job, he mentioned my experience with Mercer Insurance Co., and her response was, “State Farm will not issue you a check so that you can go on vacation in The Bahamas”. He was so shocked that he thought he must have mis-heard her, and he asked her to repeat what she had said. Believe it or not, that tactless woman repeated the exact same inappropriate response.
Apparently the state’s Commissioner of Insurance agreed with my neighbor’s complaint, but unfortunately the Department of Insurance was not able to mandate the exact amount of State Farm’s settlement, my neighbor just decided to stop fighting with them after about 6 months, and he accepted less than half of what Mercer Insurance Company gave me without a fight.
Whom at Geico did you ask? Did you ask an insurance agent, or some faceless telephone operator who only knows what he or she is allowed to read from a script?
I think you might get better answers from an actual insurance agent or salesperson.
It would not have occurred to me either until the adjuster brought-up that issue. He was a very nice, reasonable guy–unlike the b*tch adjuster who was sent to my neighbor’s house by State Farm. He agreed that the damage to my fence would be covered, along with my roof, but he denied a claim for a tree that became uprooted, and that was leaning at a precarious angle. He explained to me that, even though the tree was leaning only a foot or two from the house, because it was not actually touching my house, it was not covered.
My neighbor tried using that line of reasoning (non-matching shingles) with the SF adjuster, and that was when she used that really offensive line about her company not wanting to give him a big check so that he could “take a vacation in The Bahamas”.
Not to argue or defend them but 40-50 (or 100) shingles is not much. I don’t remember how many are in a bundle anymore but I think it is 15-20, so that’s not even one square of shingles or the going rate is about $300 per square. I always had on hand a few bundles of the original shingles and used them to replace shingles over the years, either myself or a guy I hired. I even ordered ten bundles of the same shingle for a potential repair after 15 years. They look a little fresher but its not something that was really noticeable from the street. So I don’t know, that’s not much damage, and should be able to get matching shingles. The other issue is if he paid for the higher cost replacement value.
My only other claim was way back in the 70’s where we had hail dings on one side of our house. They would pay for re-staining that side. It wasn’t enough to go on vacation with but it was enough for me to do the whole house myself. I didn’t really see a problem with the payout.
Wait until Geico decides not to honor a claim, or shorts you. Then, without an agent, you will have to advocate for yourself. With an agent I always have someone who will fight for my rights and advocate for me. Since my agent writes MANY policies for each insurance company he has significantly more leverage then you do with Geico. To them you will just be an annoying gnat to swat aside. I benchmark my rates every renewal and my agent always offers my lower cost options, if they are available.
FWIW, I was with Allstate for 19 years and left them when they started jacking my rates up and would not offer me any reductions for good driving, clean record, and multiple policies. Progressive, through my agent, offered a much better premium for better coverage. With a couple of minor claims (deer and airborne debris) Progressive has proven to be very responsive and my rates continue to be amongst the best I can find.
I was with State Farm for over 55 years. My Dad brought me in at 16 and just stayed out of loyalty. When I switched to Geico I saved 34%. State Farm didn’t make any effort at all to retain me. No goodbye or let us see if we can save you some money. I even wrote the Agent several time with no replies. She was probably out golfing or on vacation or something. If I went in to her office I would get something like “She busy right now, how can I help you”. I never met her as I was transferred from a closing agency. I had her as an agent for 10 years and never got to speak to her. Geico has an office 15 miles from me in Tampa. But whenever I call I have to leave a msg. which never gets a reply. So no, they do not have local agencies. When I was a kid the broker/agent lived across the street. Getting old sux.
There was an article in the paper yesterday on what affects car insurance rates. There were five things if I can remember. Age was one. Younger bad but over 65 actually better if a male. Gender-at least male or female. Male bad until 65, then female bad. Credit rating. Location. Chicago bad but SD good. Marital status, married good. And the surprising one was coming from a non-standard previous insurer to a nation-wide company.
Sorry to drag up an old discussion but thought it was interesting.
Never understood the Credit Rating. That’s seems wrong.
I do know that if you haven’t had insurance in a while that your rates will go up. When my brother-in-law retired from Chryco he had to buy a vehicle. When he was there he had two vehicles leased for him by Chryco every other year which included all maintenance and insurance. So for over a decade he didn’t have any auto insurance. He was put in the high risk pool even because he hadn’t had any auto insurance for years, even though he had zero accidents and zero tickets during that period.
That is strange!
A friend of mine from my college days lives in the most urban environment in the entire US, and as a result, did not own a car for… decades. When I say that the last car he owned until recently was a '59 Dodge, I’m not kidding!
A couple of years ago, he realized that–as he is aging fast–having a car was once again a good idea. So, he bought a Scion IQ, chiefly because it is so small and would be so easy to park in his incredibly congested town. He was initially very anxious about not being able to obtain insurance coverage, but Geico readily offered him a policy at a decent rate (and not in a high-risk pool), despite the fact that he had not owned a car since somewhere around 1970.
It looked like in about three states including Mass., it was illegal to tie rates to a credit rating. I guess according to the article its just based on accident and violation history related to CR.
