Insurance

[blarkey]

thinking of switching to Progressive for home and auto any pros or cons?

[randerson]

I heard that they push to use used parts when fixing your car so imagine a silver car with a paint chip that is red because of a used fender or hood. That to me discouraged me

[311Hemi]

Good info in another post.

[pureinsanity]

I use to have progressive, too expensive so i switched to state farm and i get multi family discount.

I wonder how good of people get a discount with common names such as Johnson lol

[PurpleFloyd]

We have been with State farm for nearly 20 years and they have been great with covering us when we have had claims.

[Biggerfish]

Beware of switching companies....let your current company know you found cheaper rates and give them a chance to come close. It is ashame we have to keep them honest but it is what it is.

Laws are written to help insurance companies and leave us common people hanging. Switching puts you in a limpo position. Even if you never had a gap in coverage. I would be writing for days to explain it all here....Just beware of changing companies.

[Biggerfish]

I have to agree Purplefloyd.....

[dougger222]

Go with the big guys who've been around a long time. The only one's I'd not recommend is am fam and allstate. Up until last year am fam insured 3 cars, 3 trucks, 2 boats, 5 trailers, and 2 houses. They were very tough to deal with on an insurance loss on one of the houses and they jumped the rates up over a grand last year.

They also insured my business as personal which is not good. Switched to Auto Owners and saved about $2,000 a year and now have real commercial insurance.

BTW, Am Fam also don't like to match roofing and siding materials, found that out again yesterday on a four tab roof. Told the insured any other carrier would be buying this roof right now.

[BobT]

I heard that they push to use used parts when fixing your car so imagine a silver car with a paint chip that is red because of a used fender or hood. That to me discouraged me

That hasn't been my experience. I had a hood replaced due to hail damage and I told them I wanted to use genuine Ford parts and that's what I got. My wife's expedition got hit with baseball hail causing nearly $10,000.00 in damage. No used parts used on that either.

I do know that the body shop didn't like working with Progressive because they negotiate everything but that's not my problem. That's between my insurance company (the ones paying the bill) and the body shop. They could always turn down the job if they don't like to work with Progressive but they didn't.

I have a 2009 F150 Lariat (full coverage), 2007 XLT Expedition (full coverage), 1997 Bonneville (liability), and a 1992 GMC Sierra 2500 (liability). One of the drivers is my 16-year old daughter and my total package is less than $850.00 for six months coverage. I have tried shopping around but as yet there is no insurance company that can even come close enough to get me interested. American Family tried recently at $1,200.00 for six months. MetLife tried recently with an offer of $2,400.00 per six months.

[SFC]

I have Amer. Family no problems on a storm claim a few years back, no rate change. A question , so your house burns down how do you prove what you have in it, do you videotape everything and store somewhere else, besides your residence? Keep receipts for purchases off site? Thought about this today when I put my icefishing stuff away in the basement for the year.

[nofishfisherman]

Progressive typically gets pretty high marks on their claim service at least on the auto side, I don't know much about the home insurance side but I assume its the same. If they aren't the largest insurer of personal auto they are right up there. There size alone gives them a lot of power in negotiating prices with repair shops and contractors. These shops know they are going to get a lot of business from progressive so they don't usually like to bite the hand that feeds them.

The same is true for Independent Agents that sell Progressive. Progressive typically offers one of the lowest commission rates to agents but agents still sell Progressive because they know they will get volume and Progressive takes care of claims very well which makes the agent look good.

The power to negotiate and the lower commission levels usually allows them to offer pretty competitive rates.

[not_nuf_time]

Just another idea for you that I haven't seen mentioned. We just recently switched all of our stuff over to AAA Insurance. Didn't even know they were in insurance field, but saved me a ton cause I have five drivers now. About cut my bill in half.

[SkunkedAgain]

A question , so your house burns down how do you prove what you have in it, do you videotape everything and store somewhere else, besides your residence?

My AmFam agent has always said to inventory everything, take pictures if you can, and store that off-site. I keep an external hard-drive in my work office that is a periodic backup of the pictures/music/files on my home computer. Therefore, if there is a fire or my house blows up, I've got all of that stuff at work.

[Hillbiehle]

I've been in insurance for many years and I shake my head when I see some of the recommendations and the reasoning regarding this topic. Review the original thread about this. You should be able to recognize some of the posts from people who understand the insurance business and offer some valuable information. As with anything, it's just not about price.

[MJBaldwin]

I would have to put a thumbs up for StateFarm....

[Tom7227]

I've been in insurance for many years and I shake my head when I see some of the recommendations and the reasoning regarding this topic. Review the original thread about this. You should be able to recognize some of the posts from people who understand the insurance business and offer some valuable information. As with anything, it's just not about price.

Agree with this comment. IMO getting to know an independent insurance agent is the best thing you can do. Many times over I've called Mike and asked what would happen if ... claim under $750, kid moved to NY, etc. Quick answers that have save me a ton of dough and a lot of hassles.

Think about it. You can't get the same thing from X as you get from Y for 60% the cost. This name your own price foolishness is B. S.

[10,000 Casts]

I own an Insurance Agency and here are some of my thoughts. The Insurance industy has changed.

1. All home and auto insurance premiums are based on your credit/pmt history. Every company has a different way of pricing a risk so you should find a quality company with a fair price. One company may be super cheap for a 24 yr old couple and yet super expensive for a 50 yr old couple and vice versa.

2. With the sophisticated pricing models we have now, there is a median price (what a risk should cost to insure). What I mean by this is a company should be running at a certain loss ratio so they can pay out claims fairly and still put a little in reserves for catstophies and opporating costs etc.

3. Insurance premiums run in cycles. What I mean by this is that some companies want to grow and they charge too little for the risk and when their claims catch up and they start paying out too much, they have no choice but to raise your rates.

4. Your insurance is only as good as your agent.

The way I see it, a person has 2 choices. Either go with a quality company and build your longevity discount and claims free discount or take the time and shop every year and jump from company to company. I've got clients that have been with my company for 15 years and they have the best rate in the insurance Industry. Keep your credit good, don't make small claims and pay your premiums on time and if you are with a good company, you will get to that point.

[Hillbiehle]

Regarding 10,000casts...well said. Doesn't get much simpler than that. Stay with a quality company; some years they are cheaper and some years more expensive. Have a qualified agent explain the finer details of the liability or some of the bells and whistles offered within the property coverage and the justification of why a certain policy may be more "expensive"; you may find it worth the extra $150.00 you paid to have a covered $30,000 claim vs uncovered. The advise I see on hear makes me absolutley cringe. Too many times I hear the same people that one time bragged about the $100 they saved and later complaining about the insruance carrier not "paying up" when a nasty claim actually occurs.

[Huskie]

Hey you car insurance guys, i carry full coverage on glass, because we live on a gravel road. Had a truck kick up a rock on the interstate the other day. Will reporting a glass claim, increase my rates. No other claims in 10+ years, the last was a glass claim as well. Only been with my current company for a year however.

[BobT]

Hey you car insurance guys, i carry full coverage on glass, because we live on a gravel road. Had a truck kick up a rock on the interstate the other day. Will reporting a glass claim, increase my rates. No other claims in 10+ years, the last was a glass claim as well. Only been with my current company for a year however.

Why pay for coverage you're afraid to use?

It is my understanding that most insurance companies will surcharge for collision claims but not so much for comprehensive claims. That rock damaging your windshield would be classified as a comprehensive claim. Check your policy if you want to be sure.

How much damage was done? Some of these glass companies to do wonders for minimal cost.

[BobT]

I've been in insurance for many years and I shake my head when I see some of the recommendations and the reasoning regarding this topic. Review the original thread about this. You should be able to recognize some of the posts from people who understand the insurance business and offer some valuable information. As with anything, it's just not about price.

This is true but there times when the cost just doesn't come close to outweighing the services.

I just recently decided to shop around for a new farm insurance policy. I've been with the same company for over 10 years but I feel it's good to do a little shopping from time to time. First, I found that farm policies are not easy to come by even around here in farm country. I asked those that quoted to use the same coverage that I currently have. I did not tell them what I paid for my policy. I sent emails to four different relatively local insurance companies. Three responded and stopped out to talk about insurance. Only two of them actually returned with a quotation. The best price between the two was still at least 50% higher than my current premium. The highest was Am-Fam and the other two were independent agencies.

After visiting with these two, I decided to talk with my current company about the level of coverage on my pole shed because both of them felt I was under-insured. Naturally my current company agreed that the pole shed could be better covered but even after making the changes my current policy only increased by about $30 per year and remained well below the closest competitor's bid. It was pretty much a no-brainer that they couldn't possibly provide other services that would justify the added $500 per year cost that they were bidding.

I also decided to shop around for auto insurance within the past few months. I am currently with Progressive Direct. I've been with Progressive for over 10 years. We've had two hail claims and one accident claim in the past 10 years with no claims for the past five years. So far Progressive has treated me just fine and I have no complaints about their service.

My place of employment has worked out some special rates through Met Life and so I thought I'd give them an opportunity to bid. I insure a 2009 Ford F-150 Lariat, 2007 Ford Expedition, 1997 Pontiac Bonneville, and a 1992 GMC Sierra with four drivers (1 17-year old and one over 70 years old). My total premium is under $1800 per year. Met Life came in at over $5,000 per year. Two weeks ago Am-Fam came in at just under $5,000 per year. These are the two best offers I've had in recently months. Again, it's a no-brainer where I will go for my auto insurance.

I even had a local independent insurance agent, who sold Progressive, tell me that when our daughter turns 16 and starts driving I might have to shop around because Progressive doesn't have very good rates for young drivers. Adding her to our policy cost us an additional $35 a month. Nobody even came close to that price.

You're right. It isn't always about price but when we're talking these kinds of price differences. You bet it is!

[Huskie]

[quote

Why pay for coverage you're afraid to use?

It is my understanding that most insurance companies will surcharge for collision claims but not so much for comprehensive claims. That rock damaging your windshield would be classified as a comprehensive claim. Check your policy if you want to be sure.

How much damage was done? Some of these glass companies to do wonders for minimal cost.