# Experiences switching car insurance to Geico **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2015, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751 "2015-06-29T01:55:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/21 "2015-06-30T02:35:09Z")
On the other hand, I’ve always really liked those insurance commercials with the white duck. Those are cute. Not that I’ve ever had occasion to do business with them, though. I’ve been with AAA for 30-some years. I’ve only had two claims that I can recall – one, a minor thing about a broken mirror. The other, my car got totaled because I T-boned a motorcycle. (Guy suddenly turned left in front of me on a winding mountainous road on a blind curve. Smart, dude.) When a car gets as old as mine was, they’ll declared it totaled if you get a squished bug on the windshield, and give you its $200 for the scrap metal. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/22 "2015-06-30T02:45:44Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > This description of coverage makes no sense. I don’t know where you are, but here the minimum coverage is liability and it is required in order to register a vehicle. Also, comprehensive (coverage for towing and other incidentals) is available only as an adjunct to collision coverage. That is verbatim what they claimed, bad joke about the tree and all. Granted, no they didn’t whip out paperwork and show me all the details… but they were PO’d enough about GEIKO to make such a specific yet emphatic point that I let it go. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/23 "2015-06-30T02:55:25Z")
Well, I switched years back to Geico because they gave me a quote that was about 20% below what I was paying at the time. Money was very tight, so I jumped. I was a bit…surprised…when I saw the first bill. They were charging me about 25% MORE than what I had been paying. Oh, well, they said when I called to complain. Apparently someone had “put in the wrong code” for the city I lived in. They were blase enough about it, it seemed like it happened all the time. I switched to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/24 "2015-06-30T03:07:50Z")
We started with GEICO and they were great, until they decided that being rearended three times and using their free roadside service four times merited doubling our payments. We switched to Travelers via AAA instead; we no longer require auto insurance but still have Travelers homeowners. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/25 "2015-06-30T05:35:19Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > My impression of GEICO, which I freely admit is based on anecdotal material from many sources over the years, is that they fall into that category of service company that’s just great and real cheap… as long as nothing ever goes wrong. You can pay them and have no claims or late payments, or you can pay Allstate and have no claims or late payments, and the only difference is lower rates. > > Get into any kind of tangle over a costly accident, missing payments, undotted i’s, etc. - and THEY’LL DOCK YA! > > I’ve always preferred to pay more than rock-bottom prices to companies that have a demonstrated track record of being easier to deal with and more forgiving of small mistakes. But YMMV. Take any sufficiently-large company – which all the major insurance companies are – and for every person who finds that Company A is horrible in certain situations, you can find a person who finds that not only is Company A absolutely wonderful in that exact same type of situation, but also that Company B is the horrible one. ---
**Author:** ![Collaborator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Collaborator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Collaborator)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/26 "2015-07-02T05:16:25Z")
I’ve been an on-again, off-again Geico customer for years now, though I tend to shop around every 6 months. I got in a wreck that totaled my car last November while I was with Geico, and they couldn’t have made the process any easier. They sent their own tow guy to pick up me and the car on the freeway, he ferried me to the rental car place (enterprise in this case), the rental car place acknowledged that I was a Geico customer and gave me a free upgrade from a sedan to an SUV. There was no charge for any of this. Within about 3 days they had evaluated the car and gave me a check for what I believe was surprisingly fair (1k over the KBB excellent condition, plus some added money for taxes or something like that). It really could not have been smoother, they kept in touch by phone constantly and let me know what was going on, and the app was useful to document everything. On top of that, though I had only been with them for 6 months, and not paid for any kind of “accident forgiveness”, they forgave the accident anyway and my rates actually went DOWN on my subsequent car. I’m much more hesitant to leave them now because they did provide outstanding service and are very price competitive that I’ve seen (It’s usually between progressive and geico for me). ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/27 "2015-07-03T22:50:56Z")
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Looks like it’s worth getting a quote from AAA to see how that compares. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/28 "2015-07-04T15:39:06Z")
I use Geico because their premiums are $200 less per month then the next cheapest option. They also only charge an extra $1 per month for roadside assistance. I had one accident so far and the only issue was that their agent took a little too long to make it to the auto shop in order to inspect the damage. Took him a week from when I took the car to the shop. Even if it took him a month to get to the shop I’m still not paying an extra $200 per month for premiums. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/29 "2015-07-04T19:32:42Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > I do not use GEICO because the average non-government person’s premiums are used to subsidize and lower the rates for government employees, who receive the discounts that you pay for. > > It isn’t just an acronym, you are paying the Government Employee Insurance COmpany. > > You may be able to get lower insurance rates for yourself but you are also paying to reduce the rates of government employees. If you are aware of that and are fine with it great. But many people do not make the connection. I don’t think that’s true. GEICO started by offering insurance only to government employees. (The Wikipedia article says it was started by someone who formerly worked at USAA, which only offered insurance to members of the armed forces, although now it also insures their families as well.) But GEICO has been open to everyone for decades, and I really doubt that today the rates offered to the government employees are being subsidized by the rates offered to the general public. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/30 "2015-07-04T20:13:54Z")
I’ve always used GEICO so I don’t have anything to compare them to, but I was recently in a minor fender-bender and thus far I have no complaints about the service I received from GEICO. I say “thus far” because I suppose I don’t yet know if they’re going to jack up my rates (I was at fault), but the agent who handled things was professional, appropriately sympathetic, and patiently explained everything to me even though I must have come across like a total idiot – although I was uninjured I was pretty shaken up. Something that sticks in my mind is that the agent was careful to explain that I didn’t have rental coverage but that as a GEICO policy holder I’d be eligible for a discount from the rental office affiliated with the body shop. I was _not_ pressured to add rental coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/31 "2015-07-04T22:06:42Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > This description of coverage makes no sense. I don’t know where you are, but here the minimum coverage is liability and it is required in order to register a vehicle. **Also, comprehensive (coverage for towing and other incidentals) is available only as an adjunct to collision coverage.** The bolded part is untrue. When I was an agent, I often advised clients to keep the comp coverage, if they elected to cancel their collision. I myself, have comp and no collision on my car as since the car is old and paid for, but falling trees and colliding with deer is common here. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Beelzebubba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubba)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751/32 "2015-07-24T20:55:09Z")
The three highest rated auto insurers in California, according to JD Power & Assoc, are- Wawanesa Auto Club of Southern California Insurance Group The Hartford All three have the highest rating of five on their rankings. Farmers and GEICO are both rated as just average, with GEICO being slightly better in the areas of price, billing and various policy offerings. AMICA is the top-rated by JD Power and Consumer Reports (for the entire country, not just California). I was an AMICA customer from 2006-2011 and I have nothing but good things to say about them. I had three claims during that time- one where I was hit by an Uninsured Motorist, one where I was rear-ended by another car and had issues with the at-fault driver’s insurance company and the last was just a glass claim for a cracked windshield. They paid the Uninsured Motorist claim without any hassle and had my car being repaired and got me a rental car within 24 hours. The idiot who rear-ended me had a high-risk insurance company I’d never heard of and I couldn’t get them to return my calls. After my car sat at the body shop for five days waiting for them to hear from the insurance company (and I was renting a car out of pocket), I called AMICA for advice on how to handle the situation. They authorized the claim under my Collision coverage to get my car fixed and to cover a rental car. They also reimbursed me for what I had spent so far on a rental car. Then they dealt with the other guy’s insurance company behind the scenes to get reimbursed so it wouldn’t actually be a claim on my policy. That insurance company also tried to force me to have my car repaired with generic parts. AMICA’s policy (at least in 2011) was that all repairs they covered were to use factory original (OEM) parts and they let them know that. They are a great company when you have a claim and/or need someone to go to bat for you. So I’d check out Wawanesa, Auto Club of So Cal, Hartford and AMICA for auto rates before making a final decision. If you choose to go with GEICO, you won’t regret leaving Farmers. You might also give Mercury Insurance a look. My cousin lives in the Los Angeles area (Woodland Hills) and they have been with Mercury for years. She has had at least two auto claims with them and she was very happy with them. Despite some high ratings on various sites, my one word of caution is to stay away from State Farm. I work in Commercial Insurance and within the insurance industry; most of us refer to them as State Harm or Snake Farm. They are the largest insurer in the country, so they’re bound to have a large number of satisfied customers. But they also have a disproportionately large number of unhappy former customers! I’ve been amazed/shocked/horrified by some of the things I’ve seen them do……I’ll leave it at that. Good luck! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiences-switching-car-insurance-to-geico/723751.md?page=1)