I work for GEICO as a Corporate Sales Trainer, and that is not our procedure. When you speak with one of our agents over the phone we run both an MVR and CLUE report over the phone after commitment to buy. We wait for commitment to buy, because the reports cost money. This allows us to offer lower premiums to our policy holders because we are not wasting money on people who do not wish to purchase the quote. Some states are not "online" and do not offer an immediate MVR and CLUE report. These states take about 3 days to get the reports back, this is true no matter what insurance company you use.

 

thaphillips - you are correct. I apologize for singling out your company. The point that I tried to make and did a bad job doing is that a quote is only as good as the information we are given. If you lie or don't remember things like tickets and accidents your quote will not be what you end up paying for your policy. Two - make sure your coverages match up. Too many people think they are getting a "deal" taking lesser coverages.
When I do quote what a company does I am using info from dec pages and customer information and my own situation. I have edited the offending posts, again my apology.
Pat

 

Man I like it when ins agents go at it, cause I am always thinking those sobs got me again...My coverage always, always goes up and never down and I haven't had a claim in 30 yrs. I always think I am paying for everyone elses mistakes...or hurricanes or whatever...my state says I must have coverage, so I do...I always shop my insurance, I always match my coverage by having policy in hand, and never get the same quote...I am with ERIE right now, but I think all companies suck...just me .02...Doc

 

You are paying for everyone else's mistakes, insurance is a shared concept.
I was told when I was 16 the older I got my rate would go down and it never did for a variety of reason, my taste in cars for one.
As for us going at it, I made a mistake, he was kind enough to point it out and I made corrections. For some reason GEICO stuck in my mind this week. They are a great company as is the company you are insured with. We all have to work together.
and yes we all do suck
You guys are a tough crowd!
Pat

 

no, the fun is when the independent agents go after the captive agents. i went through the same training as an independent agent, or maybe more training, but they look down on the captives for some reason. the way i looked at it...i wasn't gonna gouge someone on the commission just because i had a boat payment or something coming up.

 

Well technically I'm not an agent, I'm a producer. The agent/owner is who I work for. A few years ago I was put on salary so I don't have the same pressure as commissioned sales people. I basically run the office when the boss isn't in which is a lot of the time so I do service calls and a bunch of other stuff too.
I do get a kick out of people who call and TELL me they deserve a good rate. I had a guy this week call for a motorcycle policy and when I pulled his driving record it more than doubled the quoted rate. He told me he was gonna find a company that didn't do that, "I have home and auto with you and I should get a better rate". He also argued every ticket and accident on the report. I told him no problem, be my guest. I told him to call GEICO and Progressive because both have some of the best bike rates out there. He had purchased the bike the night before and they were bugging him for the insurance coverage. Well he calls back two hrs later and takes the policy.
We also work with several independents who take the stuff that we can't write which seems to be more and more lately. My boss has an agreement with them that they wont actively go after a referrals other lines we have just the ones we can't write.
This is starting to get like the music business where I spent most of my life and don't miss for a minute.
Pat
By the way I totally agree with your "stick on" comment, that'll probably get me in more trouble!

 

There are many diffrent types of agents and insurance companies, they all have diffrent +'s and -'s.

Didn't mean to be rude Patpur.


Cost of insurance will almost almost go up when you start out with a perfect record and a non-youthful driver. It's just like everything else, inflation affects insurance companies just like all other forms of business.

The truth to insurance is that it is something you buy and hope you never have to use. There are very few items that you buy and never hope to use. A few I can think of is a smoke detector and a home alarm system. But when you do have to use them, you will sure be glad you had them.

Look at the price of cars, homes, and medical bills over the last 20 years, they have sky rocketed. Insurance is paying for cars, houses, and medical bills, it kind of makes sense that it will go up in price as well.

Did you know the average consumer pays an extra $100 on averavge in car insurance a year due to fradulent claims.

Also a little FYI .... most insurance companies do not make a profit of the premiums you pay. Most insurance companies take that money and invest it, and earn their profits off the investments. Ask Warren Buffett about float

 

I used to have Statefarm and i used to pay about $230 a month. I switched to USAA @ 100/300/50 plus uninsured motorist on all 3 cars and pay only $104 a month. Granted the 3000GT has liability, but my XF and my Ranger XLT both have full coverage. Is that too much or is it ok. I am in TX.

My Vstar 1100 Classic I have with Progressive at $430 every 12 months.

You wouldn't believe how much is taken off for a safety driving course.

 

i always liked those too. another fun one is the person buying a car and they need insurance before they can take it off the lot, but they didn't realize that they couldn't afford the insurance before they signed the paperwork for the car. i'd get salesmen on the phone asking what they needed to do to move this car, and i'd tell 'em "i need a downpayment of _____ before anyone gets a policy number." sometimes the salesman would put it on his credit card, sometimes i'd check back the day after and the policy was sold later, and sometimes not.

anyone under 25 wanting a quote on a sport bike was fun, especially if they were in downstate New York. the state says we can't deny someone coverage, but they don't say anything about pricing a policy so unattractively that the customer goes away on their own. keep that in mind when shopping for rates, if one is determined to be a bad risk the rate will reflect it and they are hoping they'll buy a policy somewhere else.

i won't apologize for my hatred of stick on crap and i can take the heat.

 

If you are asking about your liability coverage my rule of thumb is more is always better. 100/300/50 is fine. We are starting to suggest 100/300/100 only because there are quite a few cars now that are worth over 50k and that's the part of the policy that fixes the other guys car in an at fault accident.
There are higher limits available, call your agent.
As for the full coverage. I don't like that phrase because full would mean you have everything the company possibly could give you. What I think you mean here is Comp and Collision. If you have liens on the cars then you have to have those two. No liens its your call. If you have the money in the bank to fix your car in an at fault you can do without collision, I don't think its wise to do this unless the car is old and not worth much. Few people can shell out thousands out of pocket to fix their vehicle. You may save on the front end but God forbid you have "the big one" and its your fault. Comp. I always suggest be kept on as it covers windshields, theft, vandalism, animal hits. Some states have different requirements when it comes to glass coverage. Hope this answers your questions.
Progressive and GEICO have always had great bike rates. Allstate is just now coming around, we are now competitively priced with them.

MR.F - Check this one out. I get a call from our corporate attorney (not Allstate but the agent I work for) that he is sending his secretary in for insurance. Two cars and a house. I get the dec pages and I'm missing a few things so I call and get the husband. He gives me the mileage on both cars. So I work up the policies, mileage is a rate factor and based on the info the guy gave me both cars should have been long mileage. So I give them the rates and he says I'll get back to you. We beat both their old home and auto policies rates. A few days goes by and I hear nothing. So my boss calls the lady and she says we bought a policy from another Allstate office, your quote was high. He hangs up and proceeds to start in on me. So after I show him I did everything correct we decide to pull the policies. We have the ability to do that and she was right, the auto was a good bit cheaper. What her husband had done was take my info on the mileage break (under 7500 miles a year gets you a better rate) and lied to the other agent about it. He also changed some info on the house so that rate was lower also. So we lost the sale, not the kind of business you want anyway. Then we get a call from the attorney concerned about what he is paying. Apparently the secretary went back and told the attorney she got a cheaper rate from the other Allstate agent. My boss had to tell him what they did.
Pat

 

You know what? I never thought about that. the 50K thing. You're right.