Possibly switching Insurance companies

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Just sent you a PM with somebody in PA.

If your rates go up, you can tell them you are leaving. We have Progressive and heard homeowners was going up 10% on average in MA. Ours went up about 50% with NO claims since the house was built 8 years ago. DH called this week and got a few hundred knocked off.

I realize that this was posted quite awhile ago but still wanted to comment. An insurance company has certain rates and they are not able to just change the price because someone has threatened to cancel. What has happened, is that the company had to change something on your policy or found additional discounts you qualified for. They either decreased a coverage or increased a deductible or found a discount. I was a licensed insurance rep for 3 years in MA (I just left the job in December 2012).

 

[Friendly Frog]

Just a note - Allstate did not have enough insurance on their insurance (however that works) in 2005 when Rita and Katrina hit. They denied most of their claims on weak grounds because they did not have the money to cover all the claims that came in.

Where I come from, we spit after the word Allstate.

State Farm and Farmers, OTOH, paid promptly and efficiently.

Another person who does not like Allstate, but for other reasons.

 

[goofyfigment]

I realize that this was posted quite awhile ago but still wanted to comment. An insurance company has certain rates and they are not able to just change the price because someone has threatened to cancel. What has happened, is that the company had to change something on your policy or found additional discounts you qualified for. They either decreased a coverage or increased a deductible or found a discount. I was a licensed insurance rep for 3 years in MA (I just left the job in December 2012).

I was going to say the same thing, im a licensed agent in PA and work for a company who writes in almost every state. We dont write in MA so i thought maybe it was a state thing!

 

[hapandpam]

Geico for auto. Liberty Mutual for home. Very satisfied with both.

 

[tinan]

Well I was going to suggest looking at State Farm as their claims is usually second to none, but it sounds like you have them and are not happy with them. I suggest staying away from Allstate as someone else has mentioned they do not cover near enough in their policies. Like for example, they are selling some policies in Ohio that do not cover for wind. Seriously....think about most homeowners claims....there are a lot of them that are due to wind. Progressive is supposed to have a good claims department as well though. As far as threatening to leave if they don't match, that normally doesn't happen. I know with State Farm the company sets the rates and the individual agent can't help with the cost in that manner. On the other hand, if you have a good agent they should be willing to sit down with you and make sure you are comparing apples to apples and to even review your policies with you to see if there are areas that you may cut costs. By basically making sure that the coverage you have is the coverage you should have.

 

[Minnie Momma]

Also in S.E. PA here. We had the same insurance company for a long time and felt that we had the best agent and prices. We were wrong. After years of loyalty when we needed to file a claim it turned into a bad situation.
The best thing we did is to find an independent agent and then let him shop around for the best policies for our needs. We have saved money doing this and when needing assistance the customer service was great!
We currently have Progressive and Cumberland Insurance.

 

[rock_doctor]

I'm in Southwestern PA and we use Erie for everything. Couldn't be happier. Very quick on any claims and have not had any issues with them. We do all insurance (Home, auto and life) through them.

Erie is the cheapest you will find just be aware they do not pay off. They give you what they think they should w/o any regard to you actually being able to do the repairs or replace what you lost with the money. We lost a section of our roof during Sandy (was flapping in the wind). The adjuster came out and said he would pay for 12 shingles...yes 12... The roof cost us $5800 to replace, much more then 12 shingles. Back in 2004 we were T-boned in NJ. Had no fault, was not given a ticket and Erie said they were required by law to give us this certain amount of money and not a penny more and did not care if we could replace our truck or not. Plus he (adjuster from Allentown, PA) actually said i had until 5pm that day to decide or they would walk away and i would have to pay vehicle storage fees on the truck... Seriously! We wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO of Erie and he wrote a very *nasty* letter back saying they looked into it and found their employees did nothing wrong. Your experience may vary but this was ours, embellished and absolutely true.

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

USAA can't be beat.
https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/why_choose_usaa_main?wa_ref=pri_global_usaaandu
If anyone in your family tree (father, mother, grandparents) honorably served in the military they are eligible and then you would be eligible.

 

[mrspaha]

As a few others have mentioned, we get our insurance through an independent broker, who deals with several insurance companies. For the past 4 or 5 years, we've had our policies with Travelers, and they were excellent to deal with on the one HO claim we filed. We've always bundled our HO and auto policy, as well as an umbrella policy with one company to get the best rates.

I like having the independent broker, because I can tell her what we want as far as deductibles and coverages; she checks the various companies; sometimes also makes suggestions about tweaking amounts here and there to best suit our needs. The agency has always been helpful in advising us on what is best for us.

 

[vacationer1954]

We just switched to Amica, after doing a lot of research on service quality and finding them consistently at the top of every list we found.

 

[Disneybridein2k3]

Another vote for State Farm! The price does count and their rates are very competative but the service also counts. It means a lot to me to have an insurance company that will be there when I need them and to pay claims I have (if needed, of course!) I've heard from many people who have claims and are very pleased with the service so I will continue to keep my business there

 

[leahjade]

Geico - I saved over $1800 a year for switching auto & home!

 

[Muushka]

We just switched to Amica, after doing a lot of research on service quality and finding them consistently at the top of every list we found.

This.

Look up Amica for their record. Not the cheapest, just one of the best.

 

[North of Mouse]

Another vote for State Farm! The price does count and their rates are very competative but the service also counts. It means a lot to me to have an insurance company that will be there when I need them and to pay claims I have (if needed, of course!) I've heard from many people who have claims and are very pleased with the service so I will continue to keep my business there

After 40+ years (cars and home) the few claims we have had have been paid promptly, with NO haggling, and our rates have never gone up because of them. A few of the claims were quite large also. Customer Service has been *the* best!