quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
I'm surprised GEICO was able to keep you for 14 years. Weren't you paying attention?

Don't be high-schoolish.

Their rates have been good until just recently with this covid situation and have allways been the best for my needs when shopping around.

quote:

Call back to Geico to be told rates for up so often especially in Florida. What a croc of bs the whole thing is.

Living here in Florida for over 60yrs now I can tell you that over the years when I've called about auto rate hikes with companies like Allstate, State Farm and even Progressive at one time in the early 90's, I've honestly heard that standard reply that my rate increase was due to the fact I live in Florida!!

Yea, it's definitely a croc with a little truth mixed, and thats when I first started jumping ship regularly, no loyalties at all, I'll shop.

As V-Tail mentions, my sister being a long time business owner here in Florida made the suggestion to call her friend Keith here in Miami as he is an insurance broker. He suggested to send his inspector friend out to reinspect my home for windstorm insurance because at one point after Hurricane Andrew my homeowners Allstate dumped me and I got relegated to the State run Citizens Windstorm. I needed to carry a separate policy for regular homeowners.

In years since Citizens rate increases got so high that it still was just under being competitive with off-brand policies that would combine the two together. After introducing Keith from my sister, he suggested contacting another home inspector. With some of the compliance upgrades he got my Citizens Windstorm reduced by $2,200 a year, and switched my auto to Progressive which applies an umbrella with my regular homeowners to save an additional $500 yr.

I wanted to send him a $100 gift card so he could enjoy dinning out with his wife but no matter how hard I worked at giving him a gift for helping me out, he'd have none of it. His agency has been family owned for many decades and is entirely successful through the years of helping folks by working hard and diligently for all his clients, a real Godsend and couldn't ask for a nicer guy.

V-Tail is right on the money with his suggestion, use an independent agent that will shop on your behalf. Here in Florida, as many places, insurance companies make good profits, and use the standard "Well you live in Florida" comment regularly. Which does have some merit I'll admit between the hurricanes and nutty drivers. If I were definitely younger and in better shape I'd definitely move but thats just not an option at this point.

I have their motorcycle and ATV/UTV insurance.
They were way cheaper than State Farm.
I have State Farm for my autos and house, but their motorcycle insurance was very high. '
I have never turned in a claim for motorcycle or ATV/UTV, but the price was so high, I ran to Geico.
What State Farm wanted to insure my Gold Wing was more than Geico insured my Wing, my Honda V65 and my Polaris ATV and Polaris Razor.
I have had State Farm insurance for many many years.

I had Geico for 10+ years and not a single claim. Not one.

Then I started seeing my rates creep up every six months. I called and complained and just got platitudes.

I dumped them and haven't looked back.

USAA gave us a discount for a couple months and my renewal just dropped $30.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
It is not legalized gambling. It is simple mathematics with the odds ALWAYS in their favor. No matter what happens they are making money.

This. When I dumped Geico, I initially went with State Farm. After six months (and no claims), they jacked up my rates 8%. I called my agent and complained. He told me the reason was "higher than expected" claims due to a hurricane.

I said 'How is that my problem? If I had an accident, I could understand it affecting my rate. But, you're telling me that my rate is being increased because of a natural disaster over 1,000 miles away and that apparently State Farm didn't have adequate reserves to cover the claims?'

At the end of that call I told him I would not be renewing my policy.