Anyone use GEICO for car insurance?

[CosmosMpower]

Allstate has been pretty good to me so far but the increase to replace the S2000 with a BMW is insane so I shopped around and Geico is quite cheap. I've read some horror stories online about their claims specifically but there are 2 sides to every coin. Any personal experience with them?

[J8635621]

I've had Geico for about a year. Hit a dog 6 days after buying a new Jetta and the only problem was them trying to put the cheap aftermarket parts on a car with 500 miles. I know the body shop people and it seems all the checks they got were a few hundred short of the quote. Not sure if that's just how insurance is though. They are cheap.

[CosmosMpower]

Did they end up making it right with OEM parts? Did the shop end up getting paid using the parts you wanted? I've read that they are cheapasses when it comes to paying claims.

[Sharpie]

With the nice cars you drive, I wouldn't skimp on insurance, it's sort of like good tires vs. crap tires.

[altiain]

I've been with Amica for several years now, and I wouldn't change for anything. Excellent claims service, excellent rates, and you'll typically get part of your premium back as a rebate every year. FWIW, JD Power & Associates named Amica highest in customer satisfaction among national insurers for eleven years in a row.

BTW, I left Allstate to join Amica. I was tired of my rates slowly creeping up with Allstate at every renewal, even though I had no claims or other policy changes to justify the rate increases.

[CosmosMpower]

With the nice cars you drive, I wouldn't skimp on insurance, it's sort of like good tires vs. crap tires.

Agree, that's why I'm doing some research now. Really what it comes down to is that Allstate thinks the 135/335i is some kind of risk like an Evo or Viper. They want 150 bucks more every 6 months to insure one than my Lotus!

[CosmosMpower]

I've been with Amica for several years now, and I wouldn't change for anything. Excellent claims service, excellent rates, and you'll typically get part of your premium back as a rebate every year. FWIW, JD Power & Associates named Amica highest in customer satisfaction among national insurers for eleven years in a row.

BTW, I left Allstate to join Amica. I was tired of my rates slowly creeping up with Allstate at every renewal, even though I had no claims or other policy changes to justify the rate increases.

Checked them out, cheaper than Allstate but not quite as cheap as Geico. Geico was $180ish for the 3 cars full coverage, Amica was $225 for 3 cars full coverage. I've heard great things about Amica in general though. Might go with them but the deductible is high $1K vs 500 for everyone else. With 500 deductible it's 250 a month.

[altiain]

I guess I'm glad I don't own a bunch of Euro cars. I pay ~$100/month for full coverage on both cars with $100 deductibles for comp (I like to keep a low comp deductible with a convertible) and $500 for collision. I do have my house insured with them as well, which adds a discount, but I don't know how much.

[goofygrin]

The fact that you own a domicile now means that you need to look at all of your policies together.

Auto
Home
Umbrella (you do have an umbrella, right?)

Our agent, once a year runs all of our policies through the system to see where we can get the best deal. This last year we saved money on the home and auto, but the umbrella was a little more with Safeco than Travellers, so we switched.

Our agent is Brian Burcham (http://burchaminsurance.com/). I've actually never met him in person, we do everything via email and IM, which is perfect for me.

[goofygrin]

I guess I'm glad I don't own a bunch of Euro cars. I pay ~$100/month for full coverage on both cars with $100 deductibles for comp (I like to keep a low comp deductible with a convertible) and $500 for collision. I do have my house insured with them as well, which adds a discount, but I don't know how much.

Don't forget that being old lowers your premiums a lot

[J8635621]

Yea the car ended up getting OEM parts. It took multiple calls from me and the body shop to convince them though. Body shop ended up getting shafted a few hundred from their quotes AFAIK.

[CosmosMpower]

The fact that you own a domicile now means that you need to look at all of your policies together.

Auto
Home
Umbrella (you do have an umbrella, right?)

Our agent, once a year runs all of our policies through the system to see where we can get the best deal. This last year we saved money on the home and auto, but the umbrella was a little more with Safeco than Travellers, so we switched.

Our agent is Brian Burcham (http://burchaminsurance.com/). I've actually never met him in person, we do everything via email and IM, which is perfect for me.

I tried to combine home and auto when I bought my house last May, no dice. The home policy was so cheap through Travelers that no one could touch it (like $500 bucks for $350K worth of house coverage).

[CosmosMpower]

I guess I'm glad I don't own a bunch of Euro cars. I pay ~$100/month for full coverage on both cars with $100 deductibles for comp (I like to keep a low comp deductible with a convertible) and $500 for collision. I do have my house insured with them as well, which adds a discount, but I don't know how much.

Probably not to do with the fact that the cars are euro but are "sports" cars. I bet IS-F, GTR and 370Z insurance isn't cheap either.

[Rob®]

I tried to combine home and auto when I bought my house last May, no dice. The home policy was so cheap through Travelers that no one could touch it (like $500 bucks for $350K worth of house coverage).

Kind of had the same situation here. The house insurance through TWG was a good $1000 cheaper than anywhere else we looked. The rub was that we had to have two cars insured along with the house to get the discount. Seems easy enough since the wifey and I both had a car at the time. But my Miata is my Florida car. Insurance on that from a company in FL would not be counted towards our discount package. It actually came out *cheaper* to insure the Miata twice - FL coverage and TX coverage to get the package discount (and keep the Miata in Florida). I did the math every which way, and the bundle with house and cars was cheaper than individual plans elsewhere. Then I bought the truck, so now I'm back to having just one insurance policy on the Miata. Saved myself that $200 a year by buying another vehicle. w00t But you have multiple cars, so that's kind of odd they wouldn't make a nice package for you (ours is a healthy chunk off each individual policy).


Oh, and back to the GEICO question: The only firsthand experience I have with them is when I was calling around to get quotes when I first moved out here. Believe it or not, they were one of the more expensive companies for me. I've heard of maybe one or two others that say the same thing. Other than that, all I hear from friends that have them is that they try as hard as they can to pay as little as possible - more so than other companies. But that's stories from delinquent friends, so probably not worth much.

[Titus]

I have house and cars through Travelers. They have been great to deal with so far on getting my Miata fixed. They refuse to use non-oem parts, but they do try to use used OEM body panels from local salvage yards if available. The adjuster came to my house, had no issue with me doing some of the work myself, and simply requires me to email him a picture when I find something he missed when he was out here.

[cwisenheimer]

Never been a GEICO customer but my perception is that I was shafted by GEICO when their customer totaled my car. It might have happened even if it had been another company but I won't ever give them my business after that.

Also, back in the days when the Escort/Passport was the best radar detector, GEICO would cancel your policy if you admitted to owning a radar detector. I don't know if that's still their policy, but I crossed them off my list back then. Too many other good choices. I'd rather pay an extra few bucks and not support GEICO.

[gabkwong]

The fact that you own a domicile now means that you need to look at all of your policies together.

Auto
Home
Umbrella (you do have an umbrella, right?)

Our agent, once a year runs all of our policies through the system to see where we can get the best deal. This last year we saved money on the home and auto, but the umbrella was a little more with Safeco than Travellers, so we switched.

Our agent is Brian Burcham (http://burchaminsurance.com/). I've actually never met him in person, we do everything via email and IM, which is perfect for me.

We gone through the same yearly review of all the insurance polices by my agent. We now getting everything from Travelers and saved a few hundred bucks! We do most of the business via email and phone. He dose have an office at Rockwall. A very nice guy. If interested, give a PM and I'' give you his contact.

[Robert]

I have also heard that GEICO will cancel your policy if they find out that you autocross. Because of this I will not give them my business either. Odd for a company that sponsers Supercross racers.