auto & home insurance companies?

[Curt Harms]

At the prodding of SWMBO, we checked into different insurance carriers. We have both been with Nationwide for years, me for 25 and she for 48 (!). We were checking on both auto and home. The auto quotes in particular were about half of what we are paying now. the homeowner's quote was lower but not quite as much. The companies we checked with are State Farm and Liberty Mutual. Does anyone have any input, good or bad, on either company?

The only significant change we would be making would be to put both vehicles on one policy. Right now, we have separate policies for each although we're supposed to be getting a multi vehicle discount. We can't figure out why quotes can be so much lower than what we're paying now just going from separate policies to both vehicles on one policy. Thanks for any insight anyone can provide.

[Neal Clayton]

generally happy with state farm although i've only ever had auto claims, never homeowner's claims. i can give you one first hand horror story from allstate, if that's worth anything.

i think my opinion of insurance companies has come down to: those with the most ads on TV bragging about how honest they are, turn out to be the most dishonest.

[Dave Wagner]

State Farm for many years (25+), no problems and only a couple auto claims. (currently have 4 vehicles, motorcycle, and homeowners). Their claim service was very fast in responding. we totaled one vehicle and their adjuster came out I think the next day and had the check within 3-5 days. Just my 2 cents.

Nowadays, your price depends on the Type of vehicle (safety systems, alarm, etc..), yearly miles driven, location and they do check your credit score now from what I have heard.

[John M Wilson]

Assuming that you like Nationwide/your agent/etc and the only reason you are looking to change is to reduce your cost, you may try something that has worked for me in the past: take your paperwork with the better offers in to your Nationwide agent, and let him take a shot at the price. Often I have opened up a dialog and end up getting the price I need, without having to go through the hassle of switching. Or, sometimes, the other offers are not exactly "apples to apples" and you can make changes there. Good Luck!

[Neal Clayton]

also if you want a good gauge of insurance company response, look back at the claims following hurricane katrina.

http://www.insurance-reform.org/pr/KATRINAREPORT.pdf

allstate appears to be the worst, to the point of the state of texas threatening them with legal action if they kept denying valid claims. state farm and nationwide not so bad. that coincides with friends/family who had personal experience from katrina losses around new orleans.

[Larry Frank]

I had been with State Farm for 30 years and was very satisfied. All of the claims were handled to my satisfation. However, over the last two years in Indiana the rates for Homeowners insurance almost doubled even though I am not in an area that floods. I started checking and eventually changed to a different company as the price difference was just too much.

I did check several reliable sources for reveiws of the company including the JD Powers before I changed.

[Steven DeMars]

Well I have a little different take on the "BEST" company.

First, the price shoppers will be disappointed most of the time whenever there is a claim filed where $$$ should be coming to them. Not always, but most of the time. Usually these "low rate" companies use contract or independent adjusters. It is a flip of the coin who you get and the attitude you will deal with.

Now you have Allstate which was my insurer for 15+ years. I only stayed with them because here in hurricane country once you get one of the big boys you keep them. Allstate's adjusters, company and contract for the most part are ball busters. Allstate sees a claim as a loss, PERIOD.

I now am lucky enough to have State Farm. A window for new policies opened here and I grabbed it. State Farm looks at claims on storm damage as a marketing opportunity.

They used to call it "SPREADING NEIGHBORITIS". After a storm State Farm looks at where they need to increase there business and they instruct all their adjusters in that zip code to "give away some roofs & floors". This creates good will and has neighbors talking & people start switching to State Farm.

The reason I know this from working as a contract catastrophe adjuster for State Farm for 4 years. Worked Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas & Arkansas.

After you get past the price issue, the most important thing is how do they handle claims. You will find no better than State Farm. They are the fairest and they are consistent. Don't jump to some "fly by night" company because your buddy at work got a good settlement. He may have lucked out and just got a rookie adjuster. I have seen rookies give away a roof when I was working claims for Travelers and have a re-inspector come back (2) days later and take half the roof & the tear off back. Also you have to look at how a company handles "depreciation". Allstate will make it just about impossible for you to do any repairs yourself and break even. Then they will turn around and not give you enough to hire somebody that will do it as well as you would.

Remember, a company adjuster is rewarded for "screwing" you. The same holds true for a contract adjuster if it is a "call out" that a typical small insurer would use. The only time you will do well on a claim is with a seasoned contract adjuster. The more you get, the more he gets . . .

My experience as an adjuster has been limited to catastrophe. Now my personal experience with AUTO is simple Allstate sucks . . .

Steve

[Steven DeMars]

I had been with State Farm for 30 years and was very satisfied. All of the claims were handled to my satisfation. However, over the last two years in Indiana the rates for Homeowners insurance almost doubled even though I am not in an area that floods. I started checking and eventually changed to a different company as the price difference was just too much.

I did check several reliable sources for reveiws of the company including the JD Powers before I changed.

I hope you did not leave State Farm over the price of your home owners flood insurance.
State Farm does not offer flood coverage. They may sell it and service it, but flood insurance is a product sold by the good old USA government.

[Neal Clayton]

how's this one for an allstate story steven...

a guy on another forum i visit mentioned getting a policy from allstate on a house he just bought. wasn't by any means a new house, in fact it was about 120 years old, needed a ton of work and not inhabitable when he bought it even. all he needed was fire coverage to make his mortgage lender happy.

so anyways, allstate takes the policy, knob+tube, iron plumbing, lead paint, and all that good stuff, then three months after he's paid them for the first year at the closing sends him one of those ever popular "policy change" notifications giving him 30 days to replace the knob+tube wiring and the iron plumbing pipes or they're cutting him off, after they agreed to take the policy on the building as-is.

so yeah, after hearing stories like that from everyone i know who ever had allstate insurance, i don't know that i'll be with state farm forever, but i know which one i won't be with...

[Bill LaPointe]

I have been with State Farm for more than 35 years. I have also filed both automobile and home claims on several occasions. Their claims service has been outstanding and fair. A good example: Last year I had some hail damage to my motorcycle trailers. My agent had an adjuster come out within 4 days. They not only wrote a check on the spot, but also checked my roof and found damage to my gutters and roof vents. Also paid on the spot. A couple of years ago we checked the rates of other companies, more out of curiosity than anything else. State Farm rates were, in most cases cheaper. I could have saved $65 on coverage for 4 vehicles and 2 homes, with a company that I had no experience with. If you have a good company and reasonable rates, stay with them.

[Mike Sheppard]

We had State Farm on our house for 30+ years, up to 2006 had one claim back in 1998 for about $500.00. Them in 2006 and 2009 we had two claims one less than $500 and one $8500, they jumped us from $750.00 to $1750.00 per year.
Mike

[Pat Germain]

I had Nationwide for many years. When my son was getting his driver's license, I called to add him to the insurance. The amount of money Nationwide wanted to insure my son was downright obscene. They obviously didn't want my business.

A friend of mine became a Farmers agent right at that moment. I asked him for a quote which came in SIGNIFICANTLY lower than Nationwide. (Not cheap, mind you, just significantly lower.) I switched to Farmers immediately.

No kidding, in the past month, I have submitted claims for two new windshields, a new roof on my house and two seriously hail-damaged cars. Farmers might drop me like a hot rock tomorrow, but so far they have been outstanding to work with. I think that's the ultimate test of any insurance company; how they handle claims.

And I'll also throw in that anyone who is eligible for USAA insurance should take advantage of it.

[John Pratt]

And I'll also throw in that anyone who is eligible for USAA insurance should take advantage of it.

+1
I have USAA and they have provided us great service, low rates, and quick reaction on claims. USAA used to just be for those that either retired from the military or were on active duty, but recently I think they have started taking policies for anyone who has served at all for any length of time.

[Dan Hintz]

... or family members of active/retired military. LOML uses USAA because her father is ex-military. I need to switch over, though Geico has always treated me right. $3k claim for my car getting vandalized about 5 years ago didn't appear to raise the rates.

[Rich Engelhardt]

After you get past the price issue, the most important thing is how do they handle claims. You will find no better than State Farm.

Funny you should mention something like that...
Two of the three most miserable experiences with claims have been ones that involved State Farm.

Matter of fact, had it not been for the intervention of the district manager - I would have pressed charges for assualt against the adjuster that threw a pile of papers in my face.

Allstate?
Well let's just say that the way Allstate handled their end of a claim my wife had in 1980 & the way State Farm screwed her over, made us customers of Allstate for the next 25 years.

We left Allstate for Nationwide a couple of years ago & yes we did save some $$.

Personally, I feel the agent is more important than the actual company itself.
We had three outstanding Allstate agents and one dud.