Geico question (I know...another friggin ins. question)

[Wild Bill]

I have USAA insurance right now. My 16 year old son will be driving this Jan. and I got a really low quote from Geico.

If you have Geico do they rope you in with a low rate and then bump it up every year? USAA has actually gone down over time. I like USAA but money talks and b/s walks

Thanks

Bill
(Oh and just FYI-no he will not be driving the Viper.)

[Klayfish]

Bill,
You probably won't be able to get really accurate information, and it wouldn't apply to you anyway.

Underwriters base premiums on a number of factors so everyone's situation is different. They generally don't offer a special low rate to get someone in and then raise the rates. They'd be taking too much of a risk doing that. I'm not an underwriter (I'm in the claims end of insurance), but to my understanding, the reasons rates bump up is more to do with paying out on claims. Things such as hurricane losses, or the ever increasing number of plaintiff lawyers who sue for everything, are factors that can drive rates up.

Steve

[kcobean]

Bill, I have USAA insurance as well...Viper is on it right now, but is coming off ASAP. Here's why:

NADA currently values your car at 37,800 average retail ( I used my zip code for this example). If the car were totalled, a dollar amount in this range is what you can expect to receive (I spoke with USAA at length about this). I did a quick check of Autotrader and the classifieds here and at VA for 98 RT/10's and they seem to run anywhere from $42 to $46. On my car, the spread between book and market is even worse. I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to take a multiple thousand dollar hit if something happens to my car. IMO, an agreed-value policy is the only way to go. They put some pretty serious restrictions on you though. I checked with Leland West, Grundy, and one other company, and none of them permit driving the car to work, or on errands, etc. where the car will be left unattended. They all have mileage restrictions, and they require the car be in a locked garage when not overnight at a show or similar.

I'm actually considering putting the car on two policies so that if I drive it to work, it's still insured, but with an understanding that I'm exposed to some greater risk.

Hope this helps.

[99 R/T 10]

If your car is wrecked, USAA has to find a replacement. They can say all day long it's only worth $37K, but then you tell them to get you one with similar mileage and condition, they will have to come up about $10K. I have USAA and am not worried about it. JonB has help out other members during a crash crisis and in the end the insurance companies have come thru, even if it took a lawyers prodding

[kcobean]

If your car is wrecked, USAA has to find a replacement. They can say all day long it's only worth $37K, but then you tell them to get you one with similar mileage and condition, they will have to come up about $10K. I have USAA and am not worried about it. JonB has help out other members during a crash crisis and in the end the insurance companies have come thru, even if it took a lawyers prodding

According to the representatives I spoke with, they are not obligated to "replace" the vehicle with a like vehicle (or provide payment based on the cost of a similar condition replacement vehicle), they are obligated to pay you a value that falls in line with what NADA says the vehicle is worth. I'm not calling you out, I just got different information from them. Out of curiosity, what's your source for this information?

[99 R/T 10]

No worries, and I understand what you're saying. My point is the insurance companies are obligated to get you back into a car of similiar value. If they go by NADA (which we all know is way off), and you still can't get a car for $36K, you will have to get a lawyer to force them to make up the difference. That said, I have never had any issues with USAA and they pretty much took care of any issue I had no questions asked.

Some have had similar problems in the past and brought up here, JonB chimed in and help to get them a fair compensation.

[V10SpeedLuvr]

I have Geico and they are pretty reasonable on rates and I haven't had any problems with them when I've had to file claims in the past. One company I would avoid is Progressive. I'd rather insure my car with Billy Bob's Tractor Insurance than them

[Viper23]

I Had Geico and just moved to Allstate. Lets just say I had Geico for about 5 years then left. Long story short, my nephew was on my insurance policy and because of a stupid accident that they paid 50 after my deductible, our policy went up over 1000 every 6 months. That was over 3 years ago and they keep on telling us, oh it will go down when you renew, they lied.

My wife and I have perfect record with no accidents or tickets forever.

I rather eat a gecko than go back to Geico.

[pdmracing]

I have state farm, max coverage availabe, no kids, 698$,claims(road atlanta t12 stuffed the wifes porsche) & they pay the claims right away.

[Lee00blacksilverGTS]

Go with Geico, my 2000 GTS had an unfortunate encounter with a F450 crew cab, they gave me the option of either totaling it or fixing it with original parts. I chose to total it as it would have had a bad car fax AND in the interim I found an identical car with only 1,500 miles on which I purchased. The great news was they understood the value of the car and gave me $62,000 for it. Very impressive performance for an insurance company in my book.