Pros/Cons of Geico?

[Lil bastard]

I am with GEICO, and this is my 2nd time around with them. Lured away by Progressive because of rate only to have the rate increase and exceed GEICO a year later, so I went back. I was never unhappy with GEICO, just tried to save a buck.

I've never had a claim, but my sister who is also with GEICO did and they were great to work with. Had an adjuster there the next day and my sister's claim was settled within the week - fairly.

Don't let rates rule you. Your individual state's insurance laws have as much to do with rates as anything. Each Ins. co. has a proprietary rate formula, which in my state must be submitted and approved by the State Ins. Commissioner. Once that happens (and it's an involved process) the ins. co. is locked in, they cannot easily change in order to compete with co. X. Progressive is waay higher in my state because of this process than say GEICO.

State Farm is a very good co., but inclined to cancel you if you have a claim (or jack your rates to the point you wish they had).

Btw, my Boxster is not insured w/ GEICO. I am under an agreed value policy with a Collector Ins. co. - I get full coverage for 7500 mi. annually (I store the car in winter, and it's not a DD - avg. 5800mi./yr.) and I pay $244/yr. full coverage. Don't have to be in attendance, not restricted to parade or club activities, etc. Just need to be a PCA member and send proof of an alternate car for each licensed driver (we have 6 cars + 1 bike, 2 drivers) and send a photo of your garage, which must be at your primary residence.

Sometimes a switch can be a good thing. If you find it's not, you can always switch back as I did.

[nola911]

lil, is that with any PCA chapter? I am paying 1400 a year for my boxster!

[bmx672]

I've been spending time online tonight and found that Geico would save me about $75 a month for the same coverage as I get with State Farm (for wifes Passat, My Audi and Boxster)... I have to see if my home owners insurance would go up if I dropped the cars from SF though. I doubt it would much, if any...
I think a savings of $75 a month would be really nice! I'm going to call them tomorrow though and make sure that their quote is on the level.

[fender55]

I switched to Travelers from Safeco last fall when my 18yr old daughter got her license. Now costs me $ 2,100/yr to insure my '97 & 2 other cars... and my daughter is insured on the Boxster too (not that I'm going to let her drive it).
Costs me $45.00 (Comp) to garage the Box for 6mo.
The switch saved me $ 1,100 on premiums. Geico was compareable to Travelers ratewise.

Geico uses independent photographers for collision photos. The idiots they chose in my town never had time to take my pics, next thing I knew my collision was canceled. So, I ditched Geico, went back to state farm and they didn't even make me get new photos since the lapsed time was only a couple weeks.

[NickCats]

bmx,

I switched to Geico in October. I was paying $180 / mo for the Boxster, Benz, and Harley with Farmers.

With Geico I now pay $80 a month for the Boxster and Benz ( and the Benz is now fully insured, it only had comp & coll with Farmers ) and $20 a month for the Harley ( which is still with Farmers ). So, $1k less a year for more coverage. I haven't had a claim yet, but so far I have been pleased with their customer service.

Hope that helps...

Nick

[bmx672]

Thanks for the feedback... I've pretty much decided to give Geico a try. I talked to a rep about the pricing etc... Everything is apples to apples... I think it's basically cheaper because there's no agent/building etc etc. like State Farm has in about every town.
My premium will go down by about $900! But, I will not get a discount on my home owners through State Farm... so I'll pay an extra $100... still a good deal for me though.

[Lil bastard]

Originally Posted by bmx672

Thanks for the feedback... I've pretty much decided to give Geico a try. I talked to a rep about the pricing etc... Everything is apples to apples... I think it's basically cheaper because there's no agent/building etc etc. like State Farm has in about every town.
My premium will go down by about $900! But, I will not get a discount on my home owners through State Farm... so I'll pay an extra $100... still a good deal for me though.

Not having a Brick & Mortar operation certainly has something to do with it.

But companies set their rates using their own proprietary tables and algorythms. These are largely drawn from their own experience with a particular demographic (State, Zip code area, Age, Sex, Marital status, Credit history, Car type, etc.). Since they cannot access the records of their competitors, they can only calculate their risk from their own.

[kmmcdonald]

IN 2002, after 1 year of ownership of my 2001S (and 14000 miles), I was rear-ended by a hit&run driver and went spinning off the road into a tree. The front of the car was crushed, the rear was mashed, but I was uninjured. The original estimate for repairs was $16,000, but after about 2 weeks, GEICO decided that my car was totalled and gave me a check for $54,000 for a car that cost $60,000 new.

This exceeded my expectations at the time. Also, as a footnote, my Boxster held its value significantly better than my 401k during the 1-year period of ownership.

Keith

[Nick-L]

Rest assured that Geico is not giving away thousands of radar and laser speed guns because it has anyone's welfare at heart, or is trying to achieve some greater social good. It's all about money, plain and simple.

Car & Driver has written stories in the past about Geico's financial analyses. They do this purely as an investment. They make much more money from jacking up the rates of their 'customers' who get speeding tickets than they spend buying and giving away speed guns.

I personally would not give my money to a company whose official corporate policy and practice is to try and rape their own customers (that and I wouldn't last very long with my propensity to go faster than allowed...).