The worst car insurance companies

[raljr1]

We've been with State Farm since the mid 80s. Have only had a few claims in that time, but service has been very good. They have my home, life, auto, and personal liability. I have tried shopping them because we pay a lot in insurance. Even my son, VP for an insurance broker, can't find me equal coverage for the same money.



Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

 

[LVSteve]

We added a driver to our car insurance about a year ago, our son, who is now almost 18. Wow. What an eye-opener that was and his record is clean. It way more than doubled my wife's and my coverage.

Bryan

If you have anything powerful or expensive in the stable, that's just how it works.

Here in Nevada you cannot pick and choose which vehicles your offspring can drive. If it's in the household, junior must be insured on it. The state does not allow for a circumstance where junior would drive insured in an emergency. Many parents here with fancy cars dread the day their kid becomes eligible for a learner's permit. I've heard of Corvette's and other hot cars being sold so as not to bust the family budget with car insurance.

 

[grover99]

I had State Farm for 49 years and no problem until the local agent stole some $5000 from my Mother-in-law. He was thinking because she was an old lady he could get away with it. with her not seeing the cash value of a policy she had disappearing. When we got the state involved he found the money that just got misplaced? Later that year he ended up in jail. Not sure what for but that was where he belonged. I dropped State Farm and went with USAA. Better rates and I think more trustworthy.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

I've been with Farmer's also . at least until they decided to move out of Florida . It started with homeowners , but I got another year out of them . Auto policy is cut off at the end of April , got about 1 1/2 months notice . Thanks a lot Farmers !

 

[meaneyedcatz]

Body shop estimator here.
Allstate
Progressive
Turo
These three are the worse in my opinion.

We no longer work on cars with Turo. BEAT IT, SCRAM.

 

[GaryS]

We've had Amica for 40+ years. Never any problems. Liberty Mutual has a long history of treating their insureds horribly.

 

[fordson]

I’ve had USAA since 1975. Auto, home and property, life. They’ve been good to us and mostly good to deal with. All Three adults kids have it as well.

 

[biku324]

State Farm since 1972. Very few claim a never a problem. Ever.

 

[john17427]

I have had State Farm and I would say they're a mixed bag, but generally they pay. I have a relative who has done body work his whole life he said GEICO was the best at paying in his experience.

 

[DWalt]

I have a friend who had only horrible things to say about The General.

 

[Bald1]

Progressive Insurance is owned by its shareholders. The company is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "PGR." The Vanguard Group and BlackRock Inc. are Progressive's largest shareholders, followed by Wellington Management Group, State Street Corporation, and JPMorgan Chase & Company.

Whew!!!!!! Glad you cleared that up. I have State Farm for everything but my motorcycles and ATV/UTV. Progressive was way cheaper. At the end of the day ALL Insurance companies are like ladies of the night. They take your money then, well you know.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Been with USAA for last ten years. Excellent service. Before that was Amica. Also excellent.

You never know how good your insurance company is until you file a claim.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I had State Farm from the time I started driving at 16 until last year. Their claims were paid promptly and fairly every time . . . BUT . . .

My agent retired, and I was shifted to a new agency. Quality of service went down drastically. Then that agent retired, and again I was placed at a different agency. This agency was horrendously bad. Getting a vehicle added to the policy and another removed took several phone calls and a personal visit to their office. That had always been accomplished in the past with a quick phone call.

Then I didn't receive a renewal notice for my policy when it was up. State Farm has an endorsement they offer (or offered) to long term policyholders called Guaranteed Renewal. That endorsement was added to my policy some years ago. I called the agency to ask why I never received a renewal notice. Told her I had to maintain coverage. A bit later she called me back and informed me that State Farm had cancelled my policy. I said that's not possible, I have the guaranteed renewal endorsement. She said that they had no record of that and that my policy was cancelled. End of story.

Wanting to maintain coverage, I immediately called a local Allstate agency. They were very helpful and I had auto coverage immediately. I told her to also get me a quote for home insurance since State Farm had canceled my auto policy (4 vehicles) they no longer deserved any of my business. She set me up with a policy right away.

A couple of hours later I got a call from the horrible State Farm agency. They had "made a mistake" in canceling my policy because I had the guaranteed renewal endorsement, and they would be happy to reinstate my coverage. I told her no thanks, I've already paid Allstate and set up coverage with them.

Now, getting to the chase (finally); when I had my accident on New Year's Day Allstate took VERY good care of me even though the other driver was at fault. They paid my claim promptly and then collected from the other guy's insurance - guess who - State Farm. They sent me an offer for $10K MORE than I had paid for the vehicle and direct deposited it into my account. They have also paid my medical bills and are in the process of getting reimbursement from State Farm. They say I will get my $500 deductible reimbursed by State Farm as well as payment for time lost from work and pain and suffering, but it could take several months for everything to get taken care of.

I took 6 weeks off from work due to my injury, but I really didn't lose any money since I had lots of vacation and personal time built up, so whatever State Farm comes up with is gravy as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I did have pain - a good deal of it, but suffering? Meh.

 

[NFrameFred]

Encompass - don't waste your money.




Like lawyers, insurance companies have a lot of terrible traits, but when ya need it . . . . at least lawyers are supposed to by oath and creed look out for the best interests of their clients. Insurance companies . . . ? I have several pals/acquaintances in the insurance business and the internal joke is their primary function is figuring out how to keep money out the hands of widows and orphans.

 

[LVSteve]

I've been with Farmer's also . at least until they decided to move out of Florida . It started with homeowners , but I got another year out of them . Auto policy is cut off at the end of April , got about 1 1/2 months notice . Thanks a lot Farmers !

That's more notice than a former coworker got in Texas. He looked at the calendar one day and thought, 'I don't recall paying the car insurance.' He had been dropped, along with thousands of others at the request of the state insurance regulator. Seems the regulator thought his company (sorry, can't recall who) had too much business in the state. Customers were not informed individually, but a list was published in some obscure "West Texas Ledger" paper or some such. It met the legal requirement, but it left my coworker, and probably many others who were a touch forgetful, without car insurance.

 

[Golddollar]

I kept getting bounced around from company to company as they would quit writing insurance where I lived. After I moved here, on the advice of my late uncle I went with State Farm. I checked them out through A. M. Best and everything came up great. I became very impressed with the local agent looking out for policyholders, like accepting premium payments and making sure they get credited that day instead of risking the payment being delayed in the mail.

Companies act through people, and they set the tone for how the company operates. I used to work at the state underwriting office for a major title insurance company. If an insured had a claim, the claim was supposed to be promptly sent to a particular office as set forth in the terms of the policy. But some people decided to send their claims to our office, which was not a claims office. Technically those claims could have been denied for failure to comply with the terms of the policies. But state counsel said we were not going to play those games. If a claim came to our office, we were to immediately send it to the proper office, and that was it.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

My son in law ran a body shop for 42 years and hates all insurance companies. Enough said.

 

[S-W4EVER]

Allstate has ALWAYS been a joke. You get what you pay for. If you wanna get sued out of a crash, then have cheap insurance. I had Grange Insurance for years until they quit insuring in my state, now I have USAA. If I’m involved in a crash (especially if I’m at fault) I want the other driver to be treated right, I will pay a little more for good insurance (that I hope I’ll never need).

 

[MetalMan]

I'm in the 40-year club of being insured with Erie. The only break was during the few years we lived in AR; Erie did not offer coverage in this state.

The only major claim that we've had was a roof replacement last year resulting from a hailstorm which they processed quickly and satisfactorily.

As far as auto coverage goes, we've been fortunate as our only claims have been related to windshield repairs and an upcoming windshield replacement (awaiting glass, but that's another story...); all handled promptly through Safelite.

 

[Jebus35745]

Did body work my whole life as a career. Way different the way an insurance company treats your car with repairs and the way you view them as they treat you. Two companies stand out, Allstate and Progressive. They deal with junk parts and low repair time for the person doing the work. Every body shop usually guarantees the work then do when they have a program with the insurance company. I don’t understand why body shops use Progressive with a program, very demanding for the corners they cut repairing your car. There is one more, the name isn’t coming to me. They were basically idiots working with all body shops, not many people had their insurance and I hated working on their cars. A lot of the companies mentioned treat the customer and body shop nicely. Larry