Car/truck insurance?

[rumblecloud]

Here in Michigan, we pay some of the highest insurance rates in the US. We go through a local independent agent and get insurance through Auto Owners. Bundled with our house, we still pay a really high rate.
What do you guys use? Is Progressive any good?
I don't need to know how much you're paying necessarily, more about how they deal with claims, etc.
Thanks,
r

 

[Ranger850]

I use a 3rd party agent that matches me with the best coverage provider. I haven't changed providers for a while, but it's not uncommon. I've had to replace the windshield on my '19 Santa Fe, because full coverage insurance covers 100% of the costs, and it's illegal to have a cracked windshield in Florida. That being said, I've had NO issues with claims being taken care of.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I've had Progressive for a long time. I got rear ended by someone that also had Progressive a couple years ago now, just dented the tailgate on my '97, did their online submittal thing where you take a video walking around the vehicle and they determined I'd get like $550 for dealing with it myself (just the tailgate was damaged...) and I had money in my bank account in like 3 days... apparently they're decent to deal with from what I've heard from others that worked at a body shop too...

 

[19Walt93]

I've used the same agent for over 30 years but switched companies. I had Peerless insurance from Keene, NH for decades until they were bought by Safeco. I asked our body shop manager about Safeco and he warned me away from them. In NH it's illegal to fix a 2 year old vehicle with other than OEM parts. He had a customer in 2012 with a 2010 car that Safeco wanted fixed with counterfeit parts, saying it was 3 years old. 2010, 2011, 2012 counted as 3 years for them.
Progressive was also awful to work with and wanted to do shoddy repairs. We had a Focus show up with the owner saying "every light on the dash was on". She bought it elsewhere and her salesman sent her to us, rather than recommend his own flat rate shop- because he knew we'd actually try to fix it. We found 52 dtcs in it- every system had faults. We cleared the memory and road tested it trying to repeat the faults but couldn't. After several days we gave it back and told her to call us immediately when the faults reappeared because we had done nothing to fix it. It came in on a car hauler with the Progressive Snap Shot still plugged into the data link.
Far and away the best insurance company we dealt with was USAA, they wanted cars fixed right and returned to the customer quickly.
It's great to save money but it's better to have good dependable coverage.

 

[Shran]

I think it depends on what coverage you want. If it's just liability, go with who ever is cheapest (in my case that is Progressive, $96/month for liability on 7 vehicles.) I switch companies every other year or two, my agent deals with a bunch of different companies and will get me the best deal. I have also found through working with them that "bundling" has never saved money. Convenience, maybe, but it has always been more expensive to use one company for everything.

The one company I have had shitty experiences with is American Family. I had two vehicles hit by their insured drivers, not my fault, and their adjusters are just assholes. Rude, will try to low ball you and delay your claims and both times they tried to pin part of the blame on me. I had to complain to the state insurance board both times to get it resolved.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’ve had or had dealings with a good number of different ones. None of them seem to be very good with anything beyond minor stuff. Progressive said they would pick up my medical from an accident months ago and I presently have a big stack of nasty-grams from people who haven’t been paid yet. When I complained they told me to use my health insurance. Health insurance says they want nothing to do with it and the auto has to pay. It’s a disaster.

The Hartford was another miserable one to work with.

All of them seem to have no shame in blatant lies, they will do everything to devalue a vehicle so they don’t have to pay out much. I had one try to total my F-150 for hitting a deer, which if I remember right, it cracked a headlight bucket, bent the bottom of the core support, and shattered the fender liner. Dad’s Ranger that got wrecked years ago the insurance priced it out as a lower optioned truck and then made claims that were so beyond ridiculous, like, we found this “similar” Ranger (it wasn’t at all similar) at a dealership and they want $10k but we feel you can get them down to $3k so that’s all we are giving you. Dad called the insurance commission and insurance fraud and they said that because it was the insurance company doing it, there was no fraud.

 

[Roert42]

I have Erie. That’s what my wife had before we got married. Seems to be very good. Much easier to deal with then other companies I’ve had dealings with.

Whatever you do I would stay away from Geico. Never heard anything good about them, don’t have anything good to say about them.

 

[rumblecloud]

There are advantages with local independent agencies. For one, you can call them on the phone and they know who you are. To me, that's a big deal

 

[Shran]

Geico was great when I was in my early 20's. Cheapest insurance I could find and they had a local office. They quickly became one of the most expensive as I got older and I had to drop them, and their local office closed up.

 

[Roert42]

Around here they seems to be the cheapest option. It’s very easy because they don’t pay any claims.

 

[Uncle Gump]

We've used progressive for many years. Rates took a pretty good beating when we had two young drivers at home. A local independent state farm agent was going to beat progressives price and we were about the switch. Hail storm come through and damaged our roof pretty good... so we had to stay on board until the roof got repaired. They paid out pretty hefty to fix the roof on that big ass house. Then we sold it and down sized... kids moved out and their rates were the cheapest again. We've never had any problems with claims... but we have only have a couple in about 15 years.

 

[John97]

I am in FL which has insane insurance prices. Travellers gave me the best rate. I've had Progressive, Safeco (Liberty Mutual), 21st Century, Farmers, and Geico over the last few decades. USAA quotes me absolutely insane rates, double everyone else's rates and they can't tell me why.

 

[scotts90ranger]

For Geico and USAA if you haven't served in the military or work for the government you will NOT get a good rate (GEICO is Government Employee Insurance Co, USAA is United Services Association of America I believe...), if that helps answer any questions on that...

 

[Chapap]

What are opinions on the various options? Comprehensive, collision, liability, property damage I believe are the big ones in FL. I don't recall specifics, but the max for the various options range from like 20k to 5M. 10k is probably plenty for any of them, but what if I really hurt someone? What if I get a blowout and plow through a Bently dealership?

Edit: forgot to give a company opinion. USAA is not quite half the price of everyone else for me. I used to shop around, but no one ever came remotely close.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

For Geico and USAA if you haven't served in the military or work for the government you will NOT get a good rate (GEICO is Government Employee Insurance Co, USAA is United Services Association of America I believe...), if that helps answer any questions on that...

After however many eons of commercials I don't think the little lizard has ever mentioned that...