Author Topic: Thoughts on Geico?  (Read 4130 times)

Penn42

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Thoughts on Geico?
« on: July 25, 2018, 08:02:31 AM »
I've been meaning to do some shopping around for car insurance for a while because I feel like I'm paying a little too much at USAA.  I have a clean record, drive less than 5k miles a year, the car is a 2000 outback and I'm paying close to $50/m.

Geico is, of course, what Pete recommended.  Not that I don't trust him...  I'm only interested in what folks experiences are who are not sponsered by them.  How's the customer service?  Any major problems when filling claims?

I haven't actually called to get a quote yet, but I expect it'll easily be less than 50 bucks a month!  At which point I'll want to switch, of course. What is your first hand experience?

FIRE@50

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2018, 08:15:28 AM »
We have Geico and haven't had any issues, other than the premium goes up every year. We had a terrible experience with Progressive. I would avoid them.

NextTime

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2018, 08:18:28 AM »
I've had Geico for about 2 years, but haven't had to file a claim yet.

We did use the Roadside Assistance once and that went pretty smoothly.

Hard to beat the price.

Frankies Girl

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2018, 08:19:26 AM »
Had them for over 20 years, very satisfied and they handled the few claims I've had quickly and easily. This is when someone hit me, or for a car breakdown, so I don't know how they handle accidents where their insured are at fault.

Customer service is stellar from my experience. Call at 6am on a Sunday morning, get a live English speaking person. Call at 2am on a Thursday, same thing.

I price shop every year or two and can't beat them. Nearest competitor when I looked last year was over $200 more for less coverage. I have two vehicles, just recently renewed the policy (older vehicles, collision coverage on both, with auto club for roadside assistance which is towing/lockout/breakdown on both and higher than required liability coverages) and pay ~$23/per vehicle per month total. I also insure my house through them (my area's home insurance partner for them is Travelers) and they are AWESOME. But I know that makes a difference if you're carrying a multi car and home insurance as bundling gets you cheaper rates, and my longevity with them also knocks down the pricing.

I push for my discounts tho. I call them up and we fine tooth the policy and that's after I go online and play with the coverages through their site. They let you add/remove and see how things cost out and you can save quotes without applying them - they're stored in your user ID. I got one rep that actually found a regional coverage through GEICO County Mutual (it's still GEICO, but they have regions that differ? Yeah, I don't get it either) but it literally cut my 6 month premium in half, and the only loss to the coverage was accident forgiveness. Um, yeah, I'll take it!

I have been hearing about a new company called Root, that only insures good drivers and require you to allow them to monitor your driving for a few weeks before they'll even offer you a quote... or outright refuse to give you one if your driving is deemed undesirable. Sort of intriguing as they claim to get you more than 50% off standard insurance policies because they won't insure anyone that drives poorly/has a record of past accidents. I may be looking into them at some point because we also drive very rarely at this point and the one thing I know for sure is as of this year, GEICO doesn't care about minimum driving; it is either you drive the car for work or for recreation (two categories as I've understood it). I've told them I drive less than 2K a year and they don't go off of actual (low) mileage; they just put in that vehicle is "occasional/vacation use" which could mean you drive it only on the weekends but could still rack up 10K a year...
« Last Edit: July 25, 2018, 08:21:02 AM by Frankies Girl »

Yankuba

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2018, 08:19:46 AM »
I have had them forever - no complaints, no claims filed.

AMandM

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2018, 09:58:53 AM »
We've been with them for 20 years and have been very happy. Excellent customer service both when we were hit by someone else (both locally and while traveling out of state) and when one of our kids totaled the car while on her learner's permit.

Penn42

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2018, 11:33:15 AM »
Thanks for the response everybody.  I'm glad to hear some good accounts.  Will be calling for a quote tomorrow.

soccerluvof4

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2018, 12:17:07 PM »
If you have stuff to bundle , try Secura for a quote.

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2018, 12:31:05 PM »
Going with a discount insurer is fine. But when you pick your coverage amount, remember that you are insuring yourself, not the vehicle.  People mistakenly think that because they are driving a beater that they don't need that much insurance, and that's mistaken.

BigRed

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2018, 01:35:56 PM »
We have GEICO, every claim experience has been very smooth, even when we were moving out of town literally the next day.

The cheap roadside assistance adder is also excellent.

kpd905

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2018, 02:10:00 PM »
I switched to Geico from State Farm and saved about 50%.  We pay $50/month for full coverage on two vehicles (2013 and 2014).

Make sure you get the 8% discount for being in an affiliated organization.  If you need to, join the Freelancer's Union online for free in about 2 minutes.

Rubic

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2018, 02:55:58 PM »
I switched from USAA to Geico several years ago.  Each year I price out alternatives
to Geico, but none of them come close to being competitive.

grandep

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2018, 04:52:02 PM »
I have heard a lot of people talk about how happy they are with Geico but when I recently priced out car insurance, Progressive ended up being the cheapest option by far (a little over $100/month for a 2006 Accord and a 2016 Accura with a lien on it, so had to get comprehensive). Everywhere else I looked was way more, including Geico. I will check it out again in 6 months when I renew my policy, but I don't know why Geico was so much more.

jeff2017

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2018, 05:19:51 PM »
I just switched to Geico, decreased my premiums. Everyone I know that has it has been satisfied.

Abe

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2018, 08:12:24 PM »
We have Geico and maxed out our insurance coverage (LA has a lot of traffic accidents, a lot of accident scams, and we have a lot of assets). It was around $125-150 a month for a 2014 and a 2016 car. We filed a claim once several years ago, and it was very straightforward.

icemodeled

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2018, 08:10:23 PM »
We have Geico and very happy with them. After our first policy ended we shopped around again and found progressive offering a lower rate so we switched. BIG mistake! When we shortly after sold a car and bought one they increased it quite an unreasonable amount. Once our policy was up they sent renewal and it was almost $300 more!!! We went back to Geico. I'd never recommend progressive.

Paul der Krake

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2018, 10:49:03 PM »
Insurance is a highly regulated business and pretty much a commodity. Each of the major carriers has tens of millions of customers, so you are guaranteed to find people who love them and people who hate them.

Just make sure you actually understand what you buy and you'll be fine.

chasesfish

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #17 on: July 28, 2018, 05:44:47 AM »
Insurance is a highly regulated business and pretty much a commodity. Each of the major carriers has tens of millions of customers, so you are guaranteed to find people who love them and people who hate them.

Just make sure you actually understand what you buy and you'll be fine.

This is accurate.   I got hit by a Geico customer, their service to me was pretty awful.   I learned a lot of lessons in the process.  Inaccurate information, picked at me during the process.  I had to remind them I was at a complete stop and their driver rear ended me doing 40mph, hard enough to total the car IN FRONT OF ME that I was sandwiched into.

DealingWithDreams

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #18 on: July 28, 2018, 07:43:13 AM »
I currently have State Farm and they are pretty expensive (230/month) for two vehicles but I worry about the claims process of other companies should something happen. Is there a comprehensive website to compare rates?

Davids

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #19 on: July 28, 2018, 08:08:44 AM »
I have Liberty Mutual. They are the cheapest for my home and auto from my shopping around. I don't know if they are good or not because thankfully I have not had to file a claim with them yet. The problem with if an insurance company is good or not is you won't know if they are good or not until you have a claim with them and then you will know the answer.

Dr Kidstache

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #20 on: July 28, 2018, 11:59:05 AM »
I've had GEICO forever and been happy with them. One caveat - I used their Roadside Assistance only to discover that it is considered a claim.  Using it twice resulted in a bump in my premiums. I do not recommend using their roadside assistance.

JRA64

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #21 on: July 28, 2018, 12:47:37 PM »
I've had GEICO on and off for years. Only one claim for a hit and run, it was handled well and smoothly.

This past year their auto rates for me went up something like 40%. I shopped and ended up going with SAFECO for home and auto, saving $500 per year. It was a PROCESS however (or maybe I just don't have the best agent). Every two weeks for about three months it seemed like I had to do something related to the policy, whether it was making a phone call or submitting documents (again).

Trifle

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Re: Thoughts on Geico?
« Reply #22 on: July 28, 2018, 03:47:38 PM »
I switched to Geico from State Farm and saved about 50%.  We pay $50/month for full coverage on two vehicles (2013 and 2014).

Make sure you get the 8% discount for being in an affiliated organization.  If you need to, join the Freelancer's Union online for free in about 2 minutes.

I called Geico for a quote earlier this year and the price they quoted was only $30 per year less than our current insurer State Farm.  I was pretty surprised.