Experiences with GEICO.

[AndrewF]

Prior experiences with GEICO:

Last time I had them, they emailed a SurveyMonkey survey saying I reported 6,000 miles/year during the original quoting process, and that nonresponse to the survey would re-rate me to 12,000. I replied early confirming 6,000, but my renewal later showed 12,000. The state Department of Insurance responded to my complaint and forced GEICO to change it back and refunded me $55 — GEICO was fined $500 for that bump.

I filed a $0-deductible glass claim that was deemed not my fault, yet GEICO reported it to CLUE, causing other insurers to quote me higher. After a complaint, the DOI got GEICO to remove the claim from CLUE.

I used GEICO’s DriveEasy telematics to save money, but my rate still rose. It said I was a great driver. Every time they raised my rate (over three six-month renewals my premium jumped over 33%), GEICO claimed I was “saving more” due to DriveEasy even as my actual premium skyrocketed.

Around the same time my rates were increasing, numerous reports said GEICO was raising rates in Illinois due to problems with their rating systems that were costing the company money. My most recent six‑month rate (Paid in Full) ended up over $850.

Approximately two months ago, I got an email saying GEICO was offering lower rates in Illinois. Now, about a year later, they want me back — offering a six‑month policy for $432 (Paid in Full).

I don't think this is a good faith quote on GEICO's part. 

It is my opinion that this is some kind of monkey business where my rates are just going to shoot up again really quickly if I leave Progressive.

Most insurers are now quoting me between $632-$1264 for a 6 month term. I have tried Allstate, Farmers, Mercury Insurance, Root, and I know Progressive will be higher than the $706 I paid them for this term when my policy lapses in April.

What is the forum's take on this? Have you had good experiences with a car insurance company that pays their claims and doesn't play games with their quotes?

I purchased an Accident Forgiveness from Progressive, and a unique feature to Progressive is they still let you bank apparently unlimited additional free Accident Forgiveness credits for a long period with them and no at-fault claims.

Progressive has a really weird "points system". I have no tickets, citations, or convictions, but in Progressive's point system, even a simple speeding ticket can cause your rate to go up more than a DUI conviction with no property damage or injuries. Everyone I've talked to seems to joke that Progressive is the place to go for drunk drivers.

An amusing aside... If you're in the US with a green card, they've been known to start REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS over a DUI, but not a simple speeding ticket, and Progressive apparently views some DUIs as if they're no big thing.

Then there's The Hartford. 

Outside of the AARP co-brand, they offered me a policy but it would cost about $1060 for 6 months.

They say the AARP discount only applies to AARP members over 50, but after I joined AARP at age 41 (for restaurant discounts and stuff), and used an internal link from the app, that price fell to $729.

I called The Hartford and the agent confirmed that it gave me the AARP discount and he said "usually the AARP app just passes us your membership number in the background, if it doesn't, we'd ask for it before you can check out".

(Another Edit):

I also checked Erie Insurance. They do a twelve month policy and their rate wasn't so bad. $1324, but it's for an entire year. Might be worth signing up for a 12 month policy and paying in full. That way I can count more of it towards a large spend requirement AmEx SUB me and my spouse are working on.

[dfwxjer]

I've bounced between Progressive and Geico for the past 10+ years. Staying loyal leads to rate jumps while changing carriers usually nets me a teaser rate for at least a year. 

Where have you gotten the info that a simple speeding ticket has less impact than a DUI? This is misguided at best. 

[AndrewF]

Progressive has an internal points system.

An agent that I know who did business in Indiana told me that in their point system, a DUI without injury or property damage was two points and a speeding ticket that did not rise to reckless driving was actually 3 points.

Also, for whatever it's worth, I got hit by a drunk driver in 2002 on my way to see a movie in Bloomington, and he had Progressive.

The economics of used cars was different. To say the least. My car was seven years old and in good shape. It was a 1995 Chevy Lumina.

Progressive only wanted to give me $2,000 for it to total it out and they demanded to take the car and scrap it.

I told them that I wouldn't agree to $2,000 unless I got to keep the car too, and I got it fixed for less than $2,000.

I went out to the junkyard and found one that had front end damage that was the same color and pulled the passenger doors off it.

The frame was not bent. I also had them check and reset the alignment which had been thrown off somewhat, and all in I got it fixed well enough for less than $500.

But very little labor because the only thing I took it to a shop for was a tire shop for an alignment.

Their customer was already on probation for DUI so he went to jail that time.

The guy that hit me was coming home from the VFW in Martinsville. He ran a red light and rammed the side of my car at a high rate of speed. He was driving a PT Cruiser, pretty new.

The front of his was smashed, the engine was destroyed, it wouldn't even start. He was trying to crank it over to drive off but the front end was basically gone. 

[Cowboys4Life]

"What is the forum's take on this? Have you had good experiences with a car insurance company that pays their claims and doesn't play games with their quotes?"

I haven't had any experience with claims in the past 20+ years but as far as I am concerned ALL the insurance companies play games with their quotes.  The days of being loyal to a company are gone.  Some like Liberty Mutual actually penalize you for being a long term customer.  I churn my policy every 6-12 months.  I was bouncing back between GEICO and Progressive.  This past 12 months I did better dumping GEICO and going back to Progressive and got a decent rate.  The renewal for the next 6 months came in for next month and they have the audacity to increase the policy $40 if I pay in full but will increase it $183 if payments autodrafted are made monthly.  I used to have my auto policy with Allstate and had a great rate the first year with a combined bundled discount with my home owners insurance.  When they tried to hit the auto with a 45% increase for no reason other than "they had claims to pay" I dumped them for auto.  

Allstate hit my home owners with an unexplained 30% increase for this upcoming annual renewal so I shopped around for quotes.  I got a WAY better deal for a bundled home and auto policy from State Farm for the exact same identical coverage.  GEICO and Progressive both tried to get me to bundle but there is NO way I will trust my home to a company that is not known for handling property claims well or for even insuring homes.

"I used GEICO’s DriveEasy telematics to save money, but my rate still rose. It said I was a great driver. Every time they raised my rate (over three six-month renewals my premium jumped over 33%), GEICO claimed I was “saving more” due to DriveEasy even as my actual premium skyrocketed." 

NEVER ever use those devices.  The insurance company claims that it saves you money are an outright lie.  It is to collect data to find a reason to raise your rates and nothing more.  All they are doing is data mining to justify egregious rate increases in the territory/state.  DO NOT help them.

The bottom line is forced insurance is a scam.  In most states PI lawyers treat insurance like the lottery and soak them for every cent they can get.  If insurers clamped down on that fraud policies might be reasonable again.  It is patently ridiculous to me that my home is valued around $400k and the annual policy with State Farm is around $1100 for FULL coverage at levels I set to ensure if I lose the home I replace everything with almost nothing out of my pocket.  Mean while car insurance of an asset worth 5% of the home's value costs 50% more annually than the home owners insurance.   To date no agent has been able to explain that either.

[AndrewF]

Yes, Progressive installments are very steep. 

Just for fun, once, I decided to take my Paid In Full policy and try to turn it into an installment plan on my spouse's AmEx Gold and the installments (based on 27.49% APR pay over time rate, but called a Plan Fee) would have been roughly the same as adding Progressive's installment fee.

If you can't pay in full, it's a great reason to avoid Progressive. There are companies out there where the installments don't amount to a high interest credit card loan.

[AndrewF]

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@Cowboys4Life wrote:

"What is the forum's take on this? Have you had good experiences with a car insurance company that pays their claims and doesn't play games with their quotes?"

I haven't had any experience with claims in the past 20+ years but as far as I am concerned ALL the insurance companies play games with their quotes.  The days of being loyal to a company are gone.  Some like Liberty Mutual actually penalize you for being a long term customer.  I churn my policy every 6-12 months.  I was bouncing back between GEICO and Progressive.  This past 12 months I did better dumping GEICO and going back to Progressive and got a decent rate.  The renewal for the next 6 months came in for next month and they have the audacity to increase the policy $40 if I pay in full but will increase it $183 if payments autodrafted are made monthly.  I used to have my auto policy with Allstate and had a great rate the first year with a combined bundled discount with my home owners insurance.  When they tried to hit the auto with a 45% increase for no reason other than "they had claims to pay" I dumped them for auto.  

Allstate hit my home owners with an unexplained 30% increase for this upcoming annual renewal so I shopped around for quotes.  I got a WAY better deal for a bundled home and auto policy from State Farm for the exact same identical coverage.  GEICO and Progressive both tried to get me to bundle but there is NO way I will trust my home to a company that is not known for handling property claims well or for even insuring homes.

"I used GEICO’s DriveEasy telematics to save money, but my rate still rose. It said I was a great driver. Every time they raised my rate (over three six-month renewals my premium jumped over 33%), GEICO claimed I was “saving more” due to DriveEasy even as my actual premium skyrocketed." 

NEVER ever use those devices.  The insurance company claims that it saves you money are an outright lie.  It is to collect data to find a reason to raise your rates and nothing more.  All they are doing is data mining to justify egregious rate increases in the territory/state.  DO NOT help them.

The bottom line is forced insurance is a scam.  In most states PI lawyers treat insurance like the lottery and soak them for every cent they can get.  If insurers clamped down on that fraud policies might be reasonable again.  It is patently ridiculous to me that my home is valued around $400k and the annual policy with State Farm is around $1100 for FULL coverage at levels I set to ensure if I lose the home I replace everything with almost nothing out of my pocket.  Mean while car insurance of an asset worth 5% of the home's value costs 50% more annually than the home owners insurance.   To date no agent has been able to explain that either.

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I did have a claim with GEICO once. I had state minimum coverage at the time because I was in Indiana and pretty broke. 

I backed up out of the vet's office when my elderly cat was dying, and I was crying and not paying attention, and I bumped a woman's truck, it was not heavily damaged.

She got out and went absolutely ballistic over a small amount of my red paint that ended up on her truck's bumper that would just buff right out.

I made a claim with GEICO, they nearly doubled my renewal premium. They put down on my CLUE report that they paid $867 for that, in 2015, however the increased premium was going to be about $480 more per year for 5 years.

So they were going to make more than double what they paid. Or someone would.

Or so they thought.

Back then, MetroMile existed, and so did Root Insurance. I ended up getting pay by the mile insurance from MetroMile (before they got bought by Lemonade), and I ended up paying (normally) $18-$25 per month for car insurance, and you did not have to pay in full.

You plugged a little OBD device in. They charged a base rate plus a few cents per mile. If you went on a long trip and could bust out a lot of miles in one day (defined as 12 AM to 11:59:59 PM), they would cap the mileage rate at 250 miles per day. But for some reason they would cap it at 150 in Illinois, so there was the time I took off for Texas in the wee hours and made it down there in one go and slept it off.

Did the same on the way back. Banked almost a thousand miles each way at 4 cents a mile that they couldn't charge me for.

I got Root later. I rode around on the CTA bus and Metra trains and it picked it up as driving, and it qualified me as a great driver with a score of 98 out of 100. And then they sold me a policy based on that and I took the app off my phone.

Root's rates are much higher now, but I know they're good at paying claims and they pay higher than most companies value your car. My ex still had Root when they stole his car, and he showed me the check. I was impressed.

GEICO DriveEasy claimed it could detect when you were a passenger so it wouldn't activate and penalize you for someone else's driving, or looking at your phone, but that was a lie. It would actively state that you were driving when you were in the passenger seat of someone else's car. The only way to stop it is force kill the app and remember to start it later when you're back home.

[AndrewF]

Okay, I figured out you can end a current Progressive term after you quote and purchase a new one.

For some reason it quoted me at $475 for a 6 month term with slightly better coverage. ($5,000 medical payments vs. $1,000)

My old policy which I canceled effective an hour  from now when the new one starts cost me $709.50 back in October.

The agent I spoke to said you could just rewrite the policy whenever you want, so now that I know that, if they jack it up at renewal, it's going to get a rewrite followed by a cancellation. I did not want to declare the $709.50 a total loss, so I canceled early and set the new one  to start at the same time to get a prorated refund of over $266 from the old term, payable by check that they are sending to my address shortly.

I think it's truly ridiculous that you can stomp the policy and start over cheaper than you can renew, but now that I know, that may be what I'll do.

[FicoMike0]

I switch companies every few years.

[AndrewF]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

I switch companies every few years.

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I mean, I guess most people are like my mother where she just stays and keeps signing contracts and doesn't even check what other companies cost.

During her bankruptcy, she dropped the insurance on a car that got repossessed and they said they'd take her to collections for the remaining term premium and she said "That sounds lovely." and she filed bankruptcy three days later and put down the car insurance company.

I said, "What do you mean they would sue you for cancelling a car insurance policy?"

She goes, "All of them do that if you cancel in the middle of a term." I said, "Not anyone I've ever had a policy with. They just refund the unused term and cancel the policy early."

That's why I was able to cancel my Progressive policy mid-term yesterday and immediately turn around and insure with Progressive under a new policy number that was $235 cheaper for the term with higher Med Pay.

The agent pretty much flat out admitted that you can do that instead of letting it renew. I feel like a huge idiot for letting them just do that to me because I didn't know. And I'll definitely save that knowledge for the future.

You even maintain your continuous insurance discount and the progress toward different "tiers" of Progressive benefits (one of which includes less wait time on hold if you call them).

(I thought a perk being less time on hold was funny. I noticed something similar when I got my Priceline VIP Credit Card, which automatically takes you to Gold. Instead of waiting half an hour they're usually on the phone in a minute or two.)