My new quote from Amica was so high, that I called them to see what I could do to reduce. Then I checked with USSA, as my,parents are vets. The rate was much lower, but I am so fearful of pulling the plug. I’ve had nothing but excellent service from Amica with regards to auto and home insurance. We use to have a member from Amica, but she hasn’t weighed in for years. Is there anyone here on CC who,knows what one needs for auto insurance?
USAA I assume?
USAA service is great. I wouldn’t fear pulling the plug to switch. Pretty much everyone in my family uses it and has used it for up to 60 years in some cases. In the off chance you don’t like it as much as Amica, you can always switch back.
I can’t offer any advice, but I have considered switching from Erie to some other company multiple times. So far I haven’t pulled the plug, even though I know I paid more when my boys were younger than others with similar drivers.
Good luck.
ETA - if you mean USAA, I’ve heard they are not as good as they used to be, but I don’t have a huge sample size for that opinion.
I would pull the plug for significant savings. We have had USAA for auto for years and never had any problems with them. In fact, I was once being strong armed by a rental car agent about buying extra insurance to pay for “loss of use”, and I said I didn’t want it. “Only USAA will cover that you know,” she said and then she finally stopped trying her hard sell after I said I had USAA.
Make sure your quote from USAA has everything you want covered. Uninsured driver, rental car in case of repairs, highway assistance, glass breakage, whatever.
We have had USAA for our D for 9 years now–wow the years have flown. They accept out premium money just fine. We haven’t yet made a claim, so no idea how that will go. None of the other companies which have offices in HI will insure a car in CA. We used to get the good student discount but now that she’s 28 and has a no accidents or violations on her record, her rates are pretty reasonable even though she’s aged out of good student.
Yes, I mean USAA. And I appreciate any comments.
We are longtime USAA clients for multiple services. To be honest, it isn’t as good as it used to be. Its not bad, but its not what it was.
While I’ve always heard good things about Amica, I’ve been a loyal USAA member my entire life. I could count the negative experiences I’ve had with them on one hand - and still have a couple of fingers left uncounted. That includes 40 years of auto insurance, plus homeowners insurance for for another 25.
Call an agent and have them get competitive quotes from a bunch of auto insurance companies. We do this every year with our agent…and we absolutely would switch if we got a lower quote with the same coverage.
We have Safeco. This year, we looked at coverage again…and looked at Amica, USAA, Progressive, and one other. I think one had a teeny less premium, but the coverage was not the same. So…we stayed with Safeco.
USAA was not the best bargain. At all.
We haven’t had negative experiences and have had claims as recently as last year. I haven’t noticed a difference and have been a customer for 30+ years.
We had some major issues with the body shop we used on a new vehicle last year. The regional claims manager from USAA drove 6 hours roundtrip to meet us at the body shop to help run interference for us with some quality headaches we were having. He basically showed up earlier than our time to meet up so he could look over the car himself and the repairs before we showed up (again since they had to redo a lot of stuff), and basically made quite clear to the body shop what was wrong and they better fix it pronto. This guy restores vintage cars as a side business so he knows his stuff and since the car was less than 2 months old when it was hit, he wanted to ensure it was returned to pristine showroom condition. Since the car wasn’t fixed correctly the first two times, he made sure the auto body shop ate the extra rental fees we had to pay as well. To me, this was definitely above and beyond what I think the average insurance company would be willing to do for a customer.
Also, consider getting the roadside assistance (similar to AAA). For us, it is $16 per car per year. One of our kids actually used it today to tow a vehicle to the repair shop. Since some of our vehicles are older with many miles, we have used it and it paid for itself today.
ETA: What has changed, IMO, is that as they have expanded who is eligible and grown as a result, their prices aren’t super cheap like the used to be. In the old days, it was for ex-military officers and their families only and the rate was cheaper than other insurance out there. That no longer is the case but service is still very good.
^^^Agree with doschicos. As they have expanded their eligibility pool, the actuarials have changed and they also have many more insureds… OTOH, we’ve had USAA sine 1984 and have always been been happy. If their premiums are a little higher (and I don’t know if they are – we haven’t shopped for premiums), the quality of service and knowing they will make it right has been worth it. I had a fender bender in NZ and our USAA credit card CDW coverage took care of everything without any problems and with much less out of pocket than we had feared ($200, which is less than our deductible).
USAA generally gives dividends too if they have a “good year” overall. They are distributed in mid December.
We have NEVER received a USAA dividend in the 9 years we have been with them but wouldn’t mind getting one.
Really? They come out pretty much every year. Lately, they have been small, for us about $50 or so and they get credited to your account online and they send you and email. In the old days they tended to be larger and came as a check in the mail.
Poking around online, it appears there are different insurance pools under the USAA umbrella. Dividends are paid, as the company is structured as a mutual insurance company (owned by policy holders), much like shareholders at a publicly traded company get stock. So, if your pool has less claims then expected, you get a small rebate.
If you’re not getting dividends most years, I’d give USAA a call and ask the question. It’s probably due to the pool you are on.
We have had Amica for 36 years with many different policies including Earthquake insurance.
I understand not wanting to leave them. The respond consistently well. When “things happen” we call them and they give us advice even when we are not filing a claim and do not make it points against us. I would call them and tell them how long you have been with them and the difference between the two. See if they can do anything.
Dividends even for auto insurance? Never received anything about that in 9 years—will call them.
We too receive a (recently small) dividend seemingly every year from USAA.
@CountingDown I was amused by your reference to ”the actuarials”. I’ve been a practicing actuary for more than 30 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word used in that fashion. Now I have something to ask my peers at work later today.
I’ve worked in P&C insurance my entire adult life, for a “premier” carrier. When we compare ourselves to the industry, USAA client surveys are immediately thrown out because the industry impression is that their results are impossible to match. They may not be the cheapest, but their service far surpasses most companies.
DH says we get a dividend every year, deposited directly. This year we will hit 40 years with USAA and supposedly get put in a higher category with bigger dividend.
I’ve had Amica for about 35 years. Claims have been infrequent, but their service has been extraordinary. One of the more recent claims was for damage from Hurricane Irene. A huge tree fell, damaging our garage. Not only did they pay to replace the 100-year-old slate roof with slate ($11k), but they counted the tree as 3 trees because it branched into 3 large stems about 10’ from the ground, so they paid 3x the allowance for a single tree. Another claim was over 20 years ago, so it may be irrelevant, but we had water damage to a finished basement from a leaking hot-water heating pipe. It had been laid under the foundation. The HVAC company advised us to re-route the piping, as more pipes under the basement floor would just continue failing periodically. Our policy covered jackhammering the basement floor to repair the existing pipes, but not to re-route the heating system. We decided to re-route even though we expected to pay the ~$3k cost ourselves. The policy was clear and this was not covered. The agent decided to cover it because they believed that doing it the other way would lead to more claims in the future. When the agent was going through the basement documenting damage, there were some sort of foam chairs that opened out to “beds.” We’d bought them for visiting kids, but they were so uncomfortable that we’d intended to throw them out. They were damaged, but I told the agent we were planning to get rid of them anyway. He said, we will still cover them, and gave us something like $30 each.
They have always gone out of their way to do as much for us as possible.