Switched from Geico. Yikes, what a difference!

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DocFJR

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
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Location
Winter Springs, FL
I'm in my 60s, with over 40 years of accident-free riding here in Florida, and I have a clean record. I have a 2014 FJR ES and a 2004 Honda Rune. I've been with Geico for almost 15 years, and the rates always seemed high, particularly on the FJR ($550 per year for good coverage for both; the FJR alone was almost $400). I asked them about my 2006 FJR price a couple of years ago, and then again a few weeks ago for my 2014, and both times they said it was a competitive price. I also insure my Hummer H2 with Geico, but that's a separate policy. Of course, if I hadn't been so lazy, I'd have checked around, but I hate that task. This week, I finally called an Allstate office two miles from me, and I'm now paying $208 a year.... for BOTH. Same coverage. Damn, that's $342/year cheaper! Thanks Geico.

 
I think its time for me to start shopping around also. Accident free record for over 30 years. No citations either. I am in your camp soon.

Dave

 
I got my Insurance from the dealer where I bought the bike. WAY less than what State Farm, who insures everything else I've got, quoted. I'd never heard of the company (American Reliable). A little over $200 a year full coverage with much higher than the min state required liability levels. I just kind of crossed my fingers and hoped that I didn't learn the "u get what u pay for" lesson come claim time. The claim resulting from the EOM lowside went smoothly and I can't complain about the settlement. I guess the moral of this story is somebody has to pay for all the Flow and the lizzard that you see on tv.

 
Now I can't help thinking about all the cool upgrades I could have had for the $3000 plus I spent over 10 years on a promise from a gecco. That it's my own damn fault is salt in the wound.

 
and I'm now paying $208 a year.... for BOTH.
I can only dream of rates that low!

Here in Ontario Canada, my FJR is $700 for just the basics! Clean record as well.

 
GEICO did me a solid last year when my wife totaled her car and the car she hit as well. Three kids in the other car went to the hospital as well for "soft tissue" injury's. They promptly paid all claims, replaced the damaged vehicles and did not raise my premiums one penny. I think I'm staying with them for a while longer, even If I'm paying a little more for their coverage. I pay $355 a year for my 07 FJR, full coverage, and liability on a 89 Honda TransAlp, and a 96 TW200. I think that is fair for the service I get from them.

 
I was told by my last insurance guy (a bit too honest?) that you should shop around about every five years, as each company has their own formulas they follow and it can change bit by bit without you noticing. Age, vehicle, zip code, credit etc, are things considered beyond the obvious claims/crashes.

 
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This is not a defense of Geico or any other insurance companies. It's just some information.

I have had Progressive, Amica, State Farm, and Tennessee Farmers Mutual at various times over the years.

Tennessee Farmers mutual (Farm Bureau) has always been the cheapest and since we have a farm, some rental property, cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers, etc, they are able to bundle very effectively.

They are the only one that will offer me farm premises liability insurance which is a must in 2016 if you have property that is not completely inaccessible to the public. So I use them because of their cheapness and their broad coverage.

But they are also the poorest when it comes to paying claims. I feel like I am partially self insured when I have them. In fact, I keep high deductibles in order to hold premiums down, and over the long haul, this has worked out for me.

However, you've seen their ads where they tell you to "know the gaps" and that their agents can explain them to you. Of course they can. In my experience, Farm Bureau INVENTED the gaps.

The other companies have paid claims more quickly, and with higher quality settlements (no counterfeit parts, no arguments, no consultants to argue a claim down).

There was a time when I spread my business out. I had Amica for the cars and trucks. Progressive for the motorcycles. State Farm for the buildings. And a company I don't even remember the name of for the premises liability.

Sometimes I wonder if I ought to go back to that system.

Let's face it. You buy insurance so that you will be covered effectively in the event a claim becomes necessary. You don't buy it for the cheap premium.

Is Geico any good? I dunno .... how well do they pay claims?

 
I was told many years ago by my best friend's father, who sold insurance, that every 5 years you go without a claim you should shop around. He told me the insurance companies would give you a teaser rate for the first year or two, taking you at a loss even, in order to help lower their averages. Around the third year your rates would go up and then a little more each year after with "across the board" increases until you were actually profitable for them.

Like most folks though I got complacent and spent too many years with one company. After my wife's accident last year on her Harley we found out just what kind of "good neighbor" State Farm is. Got pretty well screwed on that deal. They never even had an adjuster come out and look at the bike giving us no chance to try to discuss that she was willing to write off some of the cosmetic issues in order to keep the bike. When I questioned this they informed me they no longer have "specialty vehicle adjusters" to look at motorcycles, boats, or RVs. I asked why then do they write policies for those vehicles? Their response was it's a "favor" to their customers. Some favor. We've switched all of our bikes to Progressive.

A year prior she was hit by a car carrying Geico insurance. I will admit they impressed me with how quickly the adjuster came out and how he wrote her a check on the spot. Very professional.

 
I was told many years ago by my best friend's father, who sold insurance, that every 5 years you go without a claim you should shop around. He told me the insurance companies would give you a teaser rate for the first year or two, taking you at a loss even, in order to help lower their averages. Around the third year your rates would go up and then a little more each year after with "across the board" increases until you were actually profitable for them.
My Tennessee Farm Bureau guy told me something very similar. He said that I should expect an increase due to "inflating coverage" on the houses over the next few years.

I do not want inflated coverage. I would like to be insured for a fixed amount, and if inflation comes along and erodes my insurance, I'll suck it up and rebuild a smaller place, or I'll dig into other resources to cover the difference. But they cannot figure out how to do this. The first year quote is intentionally low in order to get you to make the change to the new company, and then in subsequent years it is expected that premiums could rise even with no claims.

Some other companies give "safe driver" discounts, and every claim free year actually leads to a reduced premium, or possibly some premium rebate.

So ... I guess the moral of the story is that insurance is about more than just the initial quote.

 
I was with Progressive a few years back and dropped the bike in Utah on a loose surface. The damage was enough that I turned it in to my insurance. Progressive paid like a champ, and the adjuster found scratches in places I wouldn't have actually have worried about. That was good. However, when it came time for renewal, the rate had increased tremendously -- something like 35 to 40% as I remember. I called and told them I knew I'd had a claim but I didn't expect them to try to recover all of it the first year (sarcastic I know, but ....). I told her I'd been riding 50 years and this was my first claim ever and that it seemed silly to run a customer off that would, in all likelihood, never have a claim again. She said they couldn't do anything about the rate, so I thanked her for the service on the accident and said I wouldn't be renewing.

I called Geico and explained the situation, and they insured me for what Progressive had charged the previous year before the accident. I'm happy.

 
The ONLY reason I don't like GEICO is something that they used to do at least twenty years ago. They would DONATE radar detectors to police departments in regions where they knew they had a decent amount of customers. THEN, when those customers invariably got speeding tickets, their rates would instantly go up. Sorry, I have a hard time forgiving that kind of sneakiness. Progressive has been OK so far, but I don't recall having made any claims, either.

 
I had a shithead on a Harley pull in front of me. I almost got stopped, but ended up barely touching him. He and the bike fell over. No damage to the bike but a scratched saddlebag. He took an ambulance ride as a precaution. He checked himself out of the ER, got his bike, and rode it home to another state, same morning.

A month later, my wife gets a voicemail from him (no idea how he got her number), saying his wife had cancer and his back was f'd up and I needed to pay him. I referred him to GEICO. He sued me and GEICO, alleging I was at fault. GEICO defended itself and me (shithead was suing for more than my cap, so I had some exposure). GEICO didn't just hire an attorney. They hired one of the best around and vigorously defended me. Guy refused to provide proof of injury or damage to GEICO. Did and said crazy stuff. It was no holds barred for a while. They held out and held out until the guy settled for almost nothing. The lawyer explained that what usually happens with the fraudulent claimants is they'll settle for what little provable past medical expenses are claimed, then the claimant pockets the money and the doctor/chiro never gets paid. I still have insurance with GEICO.

 
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However, when it came time for renewal, the rate had increased tremendously -- something like 35 to 40% as I remember.
This what "progressive" means.
Guess so
smile.png


I will say that I went to them originally in 2002 or so because of the quick and fair way they handled a claim for a friend. I have no complaints at all about the way they handled my small claim and have no trouble talking nice about them in that regard. But if you have a claim, based on my experience, you may as well be prepared to go somewhere else when it's time for renewal.

But your experience may not be the same. For all I know, they looked at my age and decided I'd probably be dropping that big old bike some more
lol_zpsfd3ahpbp.gif


 
I pay Progressive about $800 a year to insure two FJR's, 2004 and 2014. Coverage is 50,000/100,000 stacked limits, full tort, no deductible.

Yea, it's a little expensive but they pay quickly and tend not to screw you around (although they only agreed to pay the labor rate for the cheapest shop around). Still my only claim with them was not my fault at all, and they paid me $4800 to repair a 2004 honda shadow 1100. I spend maybe $400 fixing the bike took the balance and paid off the loan. A year later I sold the bike for $3400 and bought a Kawi Concours.

PS: They also paid me retail to replace my Shoei Multi-Tec and a Cortech Jacket. (without receipts to prove what I paid initially).

 
I do risk mgmt. for a living - In over 20 years, I've processed thousands of insurance claims from a claimant's perspective. That doesn't make me an expert, but I've seen a few things.

In October 2015, I totaled a '14 FJR and Geico paid my claim in full. They gave me full price for the Actual Cash Value of my motorcycle based on a local market equivalent, plus full price for any damaged accessories and riding gear, plus the reimbursed me for the majority of my personal cost to haul my mangled crap 1200 miles home via my towing coverage. The claim was handled swiftly and professionally. I could not ask for anything more.

The day I received my settlement from Geico, I went to the dealer and bought the actual local market equivalent bike used to establish my loss. I negotiated my deductible off the asking price and bought the bike. I guess you could say I got off scott-free, except for some forearm skin that I left on Hwy 149 outside of Monte Vista, Colorado.

On purchase day, I called Geico to put insurance on the new bike. Vaseline in hand, I fully expected the "royal treatment" with respect to premium. Imagine my surprise when my cost actually went DOWN significantly from the previous bike (pro-rated) due to the fact that I turned 50 years old in the process.

In August 2016, when my premium renewed, as expected with the claim experience firmly anchored in my record, my cost went up $200.00, or about 45%. I called a Geico underwriter, and he told me that if I don't have another claim or moving violation on my record, I can expect my premium to stay the same for 2 more years (3 total), then a return to "good rider" status.

Incidentally, my wife and I currently use Geico for our car/truck insurance, and there was no increase in that premium.

Historically, my mo-jo has always been to shop the major players (minimum AM-Best rating) every renewal and may the lowest bidder win. I'm inclined to stay with Geico for a while now.

YMMV....

 
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I'm in my 60s, with over 40 years of accident-free riding here in Florida, and I have a clean record. I have a 2014 FJR ES and a 2004 Honda Rune. I've been with Geico for almost 15 years, and the rates always seemed high, particularly on the FJR ($550 per year for good coverage for both; the FJR alone was almost $400). I asked them about my 2006 FJR price a couple of years ago, and then again a few weeks ago for my 2014, and both times they said it was a competitive price. I also insure my Hummer H2 with Geico, but that's a separate policy. Of course, if I hadn't been so lazy, I'd have checked around, but I hate that task. This week, I finally called an Allstate office two miles from me, and I'm now paying $208 a year.... for BOTH. Same coverage. Damn, that's $342/year cheaper! Thanks Geico.
I was with GEICO back when their name matched their clients (Government Employee Insurance Co). When they opened up their base to everyone their rates exploded. Around that time their questionnaires started asking if you had a radar detector. If you did they wouldn't cover you. If you claimed you didn't but a cop or agent saw one after a claim was made, they'd disallow the claim (fraudulent statements in the form) and not pay for the claim... even if the detector was in a vehicle they didn't cover.

Maybe the risks in the general population were higher. That, along with the owning a detector, their radar gun loaner program, and their anti-rally policy of limited miles-per-day ridden are why left and never went back.

 
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