Auto Insurance - GEICO or Progressive

AsSiMiLaTeD

Allstate has continually raised our rates term over term for the past 5 years, with no accidents or tickets at all during that time period. It's really odd, but that's where we're at. I've been looking around, and GEICO and Progressive are both considerably cheaper than what we're paying now. If this was a few bucks a month I wouldn't bother, but we're talking $500 - $600 a year here, and actually for better coverage, on paper at least.

That last part is easy enough to compare, I can compare coverage amounts and all that and make sure I"m getting an equivalent or better policy, easy enough. I've also read reviews online, and both of these companies seems to be well liked overall, and in fact fared even better than Allstate.

So on paper and in reviews these companies both seem ok, but are there any other factors or 'gotchas' that I haven't though of?

Anyone have experience with either or both, or have another alternative that I should be looking at?

Toolfan66

Emlyn

GEICO has a practice of quickly cutting off policy holders who pick up tickets for moving violations, which is part of how they keep their rates low. I've had GEICO insurance for many years and never had anything bad to say about their policies. Their commercials are pretty funny too. The only company I know of that might be better is USAA, but that's limited membership to folks with military connections.

No experience with Progressive, other than their annoying commercials. They'd be better if they were more like the image above.

exalted512

Allstate is a terrible company. When I worked for State Farm - we had more people come from Allstate because of bad service over any other company.

Do you own a house too? If you're insured with Allstate for home and vehicles, you'll lose your mutli-line discount on your house.

If you have any insurance questions, feel free to send me a PM. Car coverage is pretty simple, just make sure the coverage matches.

Really, the biggest difference is windshields. Some companies will make you pay your deductible if you get a large crack. Some will replace it for a separate deductible. Some will fix cracks for free, some will not. But of course, if you're liability only - that doesn't matter.

Other than that, it boils down to service. I like having an agent with State Farm - which you don't get with Progressive or Geico most of the time. It's nice that if something happens, I can call someone and have them take care of almost everything. And if I dont like the service I received from the people who handled an accident, etc - I can contact my agent. I spend enough through State Farm that my agent takes care of me because he would lose money if he didn't. If you don't have an agent - they simply dont care as much.

Do you have any family, grandparents, etc - that are in the military? USAA is typically the best you can get in price AND service. Not sure how they do it, but that's the way it is. IMHO, if ANYONE has access to use USAA, they should.
-Cody

F1nut

Check out Amica.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I looked at amica, they were higher than Allstate, UsAA would be good but don't have any connections there.

ken brydson

We had Met Life for years. My dad signed up for USAA and we got a quote from them. Ended up changing to Travelers. They were even lower than USAA...

pitdogg2

exalted512 wrote: »

Allstate is a terrible company. When I worked for State Farm - we had more people come from Allstate because of bad service over any other company.

1000% agree!!

My story 15yrs ago a neighbor told us our dog bit their child. Yes the kid teased the dog daily when he walked home from football practice. My son witnessed the whole thing Yes my dog charged the kid and knocked him down. The emergency room papers even said didn't appear to be dog bite. They sued us our Allstate rep told us not to talk to them they'd take or it. Their kid was going around school telling all who'd listen they were going to get rich soon. I told the rep about all and they needed to investigate they still paid this family $56,000.00 no investigation at all. 29days before our home ins. was due a letter came to us that said they were dropping us and had turned us into the state for a vicius dog and also sent a letter to our bank. We had no claims until this let's just say this really screwed us hard. We had to come up with insurance FAST. Thank god for Country Ins. I happened to work for them but that didn't help my case it just happens that our agent's son had raced BMX yrs back(as did I) and remembered me from the story his dad told and had convinced his dad to go all out and take a chance. To this day I'm thankful and still have not had any claims ...yet
My insurance has also went up every year and I have no tickets or anything it is just the nature of the beast but to save a few dollars on car insurance would mean my house insurance would go up hundreds unless I'd be able to get both but I went with cheap before(Allstate) and got screwed, they still send me stuff begging for me to come back to which I reply go pound sand in your ---
good luck on your search
Ivan

cstmar01

I have progressive. Just recently had a small accident that well, I didn't care for their claims department at all.

The rest for roadside when I was stranded in Madison WI worked well though, claims not so much.

tonyb

Ok, I've been on that insurance company merri-go round too. 30 years with one company didn't mean squat in the end. So I'm going to give you the name of a company that literally cut my homeowners almost in half, better coverage, and even threw in 5 g's of emergency medical for the.....dog. Car insurance too was cut by 40% over Farmers. They do this by staying out of higher risk states such as the east/west/southern coasts. Also, hardly zero advertising, word of mouth only saves them big bucks.

ERIE insurance, not a fly by nighter either. Google them, then call them up and you'll be impressed at what they can save you.

EndersShadow

tonyb wrote: »

Ok, I've been on that insurance company merri-go round too. 30 years with one company didn't mean squat in the end. So I'm going to give you the name of a company that literally cut my homeowners almost in half, better coverage, and even threw in 5 g's of emergency medical for the.....dog. Car insurance too was cut by 40% over Farmers. They do this by staying out of higher risk states such as the east/west/southern coasts. Also, hardly zero advertising, word of mouth only saves them big bucks.

ERIE insurance, not a fly by nighter either. Google them, then call them up and you'll be impressed at what they can save you.

Ok, I am a fan of State Farm, however the assumption by most is that you pay a bit more, but I personally have not found that the case, or if there is a difference its not that much when you stack all the multi-line discounts, etc. My wife was with American Family before we got married and we are paying the same for both our cars with better coverage, renters of a very high policy limits, her ring insured and life insurance as she was for her own insurance.

Now most will realize I personally am a bit biased toward said company, as is my wife, however we get no breaks on cost either so we have no reason not to shop around just like everyone else.

I have had a couple claims with them that they have gone out of their way to make sure it was covered under my policy in such a way as I didnt have to pay my deductible. But as with all things YYMV and prices vary state to state.

If you want to talk further PM me and I will give you my number.

drselect

My Allstate home policy went up 20% this year so time for a change. Finding a lot of companies won't write new home policy without auto. So far Nationwide is at the top of the list.

exalted512

And as far as home coverage goes - at least in Texas - you will NOT find another large company that compares to State Farm's coverage.
-Cody

tonyb

Almost half isn't a bit less....thats substantial. Farmers decided that raising my homeowners by 300 bucks, was just for the hell of it. No claims, zero, yet every year I have to fight with them. Same with auto, no accidents, yet my rate goes up every year like clockwork. Loyalty has to work both ways for it to work.

If your happy with who your with and what your paying, cool, rock on. For me, the more coin in my pocket the better. Just my .02 is all.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Weird, State Farm is actually fairly priced as well. They're not as cheap as GEICO or Progressive, but they are considerably less than Allstate. THey're close enough that I may give them a chance.

exalted512

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Weird, State Farm is actually fairly priced as well. They're not as cheap as GEICO or Progressive, but they are considerably less than Allstate. THey're close enough that I may give them a chance.

Do a google search for the agents in your area and read their reviews. Not all are created equal. Also, sometimes rates are cheaper when you call the agent vs filling it out online.
-Cody

sucks2beme

But all of them tell me they can save me money?
Somebody is telling a lie!
I had State Farm in Texas. $$$$$.
The wife switched it and it went down a lot.
I'd have to go look it up to see who the new guys are.

marvda1

i have had state farm on car and home since i can remember with no problems.

rpf65

I've lived in central Texas for 20 years, and have had the same insurance company for 18. I pay less than $80 per month, and have full coverage on my 2012 F-150. Hit a deer about 10 years ago, called the company at 8 AM, and adjuster was in my driveway by 1030. Had a car totaled 2 years ago, and the adjuster called me at work, with an estimate at work at noon the day I called him. He even gave the body shop a call so that they were expecting, adjuster didn't see the bent A-frame, garage did.

I suggest you go to your local Texas Farm Bureau office, find it at TFB.com, and look there. Will have to become a member, but only about $45 per year.

exalted512

There's also benefits to being a farm bureau member that you save make up your membership fee on ^^

USAA
State Farm
Farm Bureau

In order of insurance companies that would have my home and autos if I could. I can't get USAA, so State Farm it is.
-Cody

F1nut

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I looked at amica, they were higher than Allstate, UsAA would be good but don't have any connections there.

Did you note that Amica returns a 25% dividend at the end of the policy year and have done so for just about forever.

treitz3

In our case, we just dumped Allstate like a dinner from Taco Bell. The rates went up every year, replacement value turned out to not be actual replacement value and trying for any discount was like trying to get money from my dog. Our family was with them for over 10 years on a multi-policy bundle [business, vehicle and home]. No tickets, no claims, no accidents whatsoever and both my wife and I have perfect driving records without even so much as a hiccup. Without getting into details, we ended up getting a State Farm policy that ended up saving this household over $90.00 a month. The kicker is, we have a better policy on both the house and the vehicles plus a few free extras we will probably never use. We do have an agent and it was lower through the agent -vs- online. IIRC, by about 20 smackers a month lower but I could not explain to you as to why.

With that said, I have not made any claim with either Allstate or State Farm so I can not comment on how either company pays out or performs on a claim. What I can tell you with complete certainty is that both were consistent on taking my money. FWIW.

Tom

dragon1952

We've had State Farm for over 35 yrs. No complaints whatsoever.

gudnoyez

I have Progressive through a independent agent, price is right and claims are setteled without problems

rebuy

I've had Geico for years and have been very happy with the service and claims dept.
My wife got hit by a dump truck in a parking lot and Geico took care of it with no problems.
Then some hit my car in our parking lot 3 months ago, didn't even leave a note, go figure,
and Geico took care of that too. Riding with the Gecko.

Syndil

Another satisfied State Farm customer here. Not that I've ever needed to use them... But they had the best rates when I was shopping around, and I have a local agent.

Jimbo18

I have had State Farm for my car for about 40 years and have hit two deer, had two claims for hail damage (one of those for my house as well) and had one for an accident (not our fault) and I don't have one bad thing to say about they way any of the claims were handled by SF.

The first hail damage was from almost golf ball sized hail that affected hundreds of cars in our small Pa. town. SF set up two tents to handle all the claims. You simply made an appt. then drove you car into one of the tents where they used a black light to check for dents, they they wrote a check for the damage on the spot.

I might pay a little more, not sure, but the service is great and there are plenty of offices.

cambir

Every company named is a "good" company, but they are quite different in what they offer and how they operate. Do you care about having a local agent, is a 1-800 call center ok for you, or do you want both? Do you care about having a large company with more stability? What do you want your insurance to do?

Please shop around and do your research before purchasing insurance. Insurance is designed to protect your assets in catastrophic situations. Talk to local friends, family, coworkers and find an agent you can trust.

Don't buy insurance based on reviews, stories or experience from 10-15 years ago...companies change and insurance and consumers are different animals today. Don't buy insurance based on their windshield coverage...look at major coverage and the extra features of the policy that are not always printed on the paper. You cannot compare the same insurance company's rates across different states, the state dept of insurance has a lot to do with pricing. You are an individual risk to a company and each company will target specific risk categories and apply hundreds or thousands of rating factors. Expect your premium to go up with every company...the price of everything else does.

Glowrdr

I just came from AAA, and they had pretty decent rates (was with state farm before that). With that being said, I just switched carriers again on Friday. My agent was able to get my rates from $250 a month, to $160 (2 vehicles, full coverage/glass/rental/roadside). Now I am with GMAC. 2 speeds on my record.

On a side note - went for a good 8-9 years without getting pulled over. Then BAM! 2 tickets within about 3 months. Boo.

Jimbo18

Just to see what the difference would be, I signed up for USAA (I am ex-USAF) and got a car insurance quote. With the same coverage as State Farm on two cars it came out to $499 for 6 mos. My last premium from SF was only $443.

Of course, the State Farm cost includes a discount for having my home insurance with them also.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well it looks like we're going to go with State Farm. I just assumed that they'd be expensive but based on advice here and from friends and family I decided to check them out just for grins. As it turns out, by the time I factor in the multi-line discount with condo and auto they're actually going to be a couple bucks cheaper than GEICO or Progressive, or at worst a couple bucks more.

Either way, I"m going to be saving about $60 a month over what I'm paying with Allstate today, and for significantly better coverage limits. If on top of that I happen to be getting a better company and claims service then that's an extra bonus, but honestly for me having an agent isn't that big of a deal (I may change my tune if I ever have to go thru a claims process).

Thanks for the help everyone, we'll see how it goes.