Insurance came out fine with USAA. Took quite a bit of time on the phone, but is done!
Umbrella added the kids and the cost was only $40/year more for the new year policy cost than State Farm’s policy that didn’t have them covered (glad that got changed). Homeowner was $400 more/year but with $1000 deductible versus the higher one with State Farm, 1/2% which was over $2K (but that will go down away from the 2013 claim, water damage) and auto was rated $600 more a year due to DD Dec at fault one car accident, no one hurt but $8K in damage (if she was a boy in AL, the rating would have been $1000 - $1200 more rating a year, ouch on young male drivers) - will go down 3 years away from DD Dec accident. Lower rate after 5 years no tickets/no accidents. When the homeowner’s incident is 3 years out, will also drop on auto rate. Auto is also a little higher from 2013 claim (hit and run, $4K claim). I was pleased because getting dumped was stressful. Plus now DDs have member numbers and can get insurance through USAA on their own later.
USAA had higher amounts for bodily injury etc when also having umbrella policy - that may have added a little cost on the auto.
USAA did ask if we had a pet that attacked someone.
Geico asked about pets.
I am keeping my personal articles policy through State Farm. Couldn’t get a good rate (I did lose a $1600 earring Aug 2015) and didn’t want to go through the process of listing everything/transferring everything for coverage. I don’t think State Farm will charge me more at Dec renewal; it is a 2nd incident…
State Farm told me I could come back after 3 years - no, don’t want to go through getting dropped again.
USAA also bills the umbrella and auto with a monthly payment w/o added costs, which is nice. We opened a small savings account with USAA to maximize discounts.
Our State Farm agent had gone over our plans and what rebuild cost would be when the rebuild was automatically climbing to a high unrealistic level.
USAA threw out a minimum rebuild number based on home type and square footage (they went into the tax records on the home and property), and the numbers I had with State Farm were within the home protector added coverage up to 25%, so was able to get the same type of coverage that we had only lower deductible.
I am really worried about our insurance. We pay a ton for four drivers, including 2 young males (both no loner teens as of this month thoug, yeah. BUT, one son has two tickets and a total loss accident within the last 3 years. So even when our insurer said we could go to a “lower rate policy” if we just filled out the application, I never filled it out. Don’t want to get canceled.
But, like @IxnayBob, when my son totalled the car (ice related accident, four guys in car, none hurt), they gave us more for it in 2015 than I’d paid for it a couple of years before then.
We have car, homeowners and umbrella policy with Erie.
@1214mom , USAA told us the reason their car insurance was double Geico’s was because Geico does not price higher for young drivers, so check out Geico,$$
GEICO was significantly less expensive than whoever we had prior to GEIOC and the quote I obtained from USAA. While the boys’ premium is higher than mine, I am actually surprised at how reasonable it seems. Neither boy has hit anything other than scraping the side of the garage while parking the car, and we just allow that white paint to accumulate with the white paint on the bumper.
USAA agent told us that if you call in and get a quick quote from Geico, once they look at tickets and wrecks they will rate you higher. Also told us that a youth that has insurance with them (USAA) from the time 16/17 is getting a better rate than other places, but if one has tickets/accidents, then the rates will climb higher.
With State Farm, we had one DD not get her Driver’s License until she was 17 because we wanted her driving skills to be stronger. They told me she started on insurance at 17 as the same cost as our other daughter with starting at 16. Then State Farm counts how long you have had their coverage. They had good student discount, and until accident good driver discounts.
I believe ours was a bit of unusual circumstances - I told DD not to open a personal injury claim (her passenger was a little achy but no claims payment because she was fine, but opening a claim will count as a claim). DD didn’t listen to me. She drove too fast for the wet conditions. I learned many years ago that a ‘claim’ with no payout is still a claim.
You pay insurance to cover you. Smaller mistakes and bigger mistakes.Having small mistakes cancel one is horrible.
Young drivers are a risk.If covered under parents I do think they are less likely to drop you. @1214mom just make sure to not have other claims with that insurance company and you will distance yourself from that major claim - the 3 year and 5 year marks. Plus once drivers get to 22 and 25, or when married (of course married would be off the parents’ insurance).
Insurance does have to take care not to burn their bridges. State Farm said I could come back in 3 years. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Every policy has underwriting. It does really vary some by state and some by insurance company. My State Farm agent sounded like someone died when he called me; I am sure he is concerned about underwriting having him lose business. We were good solid customers. Well now we will be solid customers with USAA.
@SOSConcern – those GEICO commercials about 15 minutes…NO. I was on the phone for more than an hour and a half obtaining the quote and then moving the coverage. I completely agree that GEICO won’t touch you if you have a record, which is a bit of a problem with teenagers. We have just been lucky, and to be honest, neither boy drives all that far.
Our kids both went with Geico because of their rates. [BTW, didn’t Geico used to be owned by General Electric? I thought the Geico stood for General Electric Ins Co. Not important, I’m just curious.). They’ve had good experience with them.
H and I have stayed with Chubb. We agree with @IxnayBob that their claims handling is excellent. We had a tree fall through our roof and anticipated all sorts of problems. The Chubb adjuster came out to see it, told us they didn’t make the roofing tiles anymore so the damaged section of the roof couldn’t be repaired as the patch would be visible. So they paid for an entire new roof! Then they didn’t raise our rates the next year. They are typically more expensive than other companies, but it’s worth it to us.
We have had three serious problems with our house in the last 5 years (after having no real problems for 15). Chubb has been sensationally good on the first two. The third has just happened and my wife says that they are outstanding again – waived the $5K deductible and are replacing stuff that my wife was surprised at. In an earlier problem, a tree fell through our roof during Hurricane Sandy and they were very helpful.
I had the deductible waived on our homeowner’s policy when a thief ran odmff with Ann my jewelry in Th house and the loss exceeded their cap. Was pleasantly surprised about the waiver and our premiums didn’t increase.
I can’t change home owners insurance, as there were so many hurricane claims. Still, I’ve been happy with Amica. A workman cut himself badly when working near my pool. I called Amica, just in case the man made a claim. Someone came right over. He said they would give the man $1000, no questions asked. He said he appreciated my call. My rates never went up, so I guess it wasn’t considered a claim.
Honestly, I don’t like the lawyers from any insurance company.My friend and I were hit by a car running a red light. I saw MDs for 2 1/2 years, surgery, PT, etc. the way they interrogated me was not fun.
A contractor caused a significant damage in our house, and he carried a liability insurance with Kingstone. I had a great experience with them, and they provided a very fair compensation for the damages. Interrogations, and dealing with repairs was not fun, but this was unavoidable. But the Kingstone reps have been extremely polite, efficient and responsive, even though I was not their client.
=D> - And you still have a few days to spare. DS cut it too close for my comfort (Sat night submission, Sun night flight out of the country) .... but he did it all on his own, so in theory I should not have been stressed.
I would be shocked if my kids ever even remembered to do their taxes. I always just do it for them, and had to nag my older son just to send me the W-2’s. Talk about taking me for granted—though I did tell my older son that I must really love him, because I LOATHE doing taxes, and I had to do Federal and two states for him. He got a refund of over $4200, though, which was a nice surprise. Can’t believe how much of his salary goes to taxes, NY and CA tax obscene amounts.
:D/ =D>