Ok, so which are the ten BEST insurance companies in America?
Your mileage will vary. Sometimes a company might be fine for auto but not fine for home. Or, they might be fine for home and lousy for liability.
In any event, when Liberty tried to raise my homeowners’ insurance 40% in one year (they based it on “rebuilding” cost in a neighborhood where it would make no sense to put a Marvin Gardens house on a Vermont Ave. property), I switched to Farmers. Almost immediately after a freak storm knocked down a tree that pulled down a power line that ripped out my meter box and a lot of other stuff. I felt bad for them, as I had JUST signed on with them. Liberty got off scot-free!
Then, when we built a new house, we had a major theft during construction. Farmers dealt with me quickly and fairly. The biggest hold up was the cabinet company, that doesn’t want to reveal the prices of their cabinets to anybody, even insurance companies. Farmers agreed to just go with a local dealer of said cabinets instead. They also reimbursed full cost of my Canadian (3.5 gal flush toilets).
After their swift and fair performance, it would take a lot for me to switch. I threw my auto in with them for the discount, but have not had to use it, so I cannot comment on that.
My advice to y9ou is ask the people around you what their experiences are. Some of this may be due to the quality of the local office.
After a major disaster, the government allows them to skate — they get out of having to pay full benefits to policy holders -- because it would be too big of a burden --- on the insurance company.
Auto insurance ‘uninsured’ and ‘under-insured’ coverage. That is ME subsidizing the car/person(s) who did damage to MY vehicle. I can't even get a renewed driver's license or annual auto tag without proof of insurance. So how/why does an ‘uninsured’ or ‘under-insured’ get away without having to carry comparable insurance?
Try Farm Bureau. You don’t have to be a farmer to be insured by them. They are very responsive and settle claims really fast. Five years ago when hurricane Isabel went through central Virginia, I didn’t even have to call them. They were at my door the day after the storm hit and spent two hours going over the damage to my property. When they left I had a check in my hand that more than covered the identified repairs, and when I called them about some hidden damage they covered that as well with no problems. They even replaced all of the refrigerated and frozen food we lost due to being without power for ten days. Their rates are very competitive and I have more coverage on my house and autos than with my previous company (Allstate) for the same price. In fact, both Allstate and State Farm came out earlier this year and gave us a quote, and for the same coverage either would have cost me around 18% more a year.
later
Costco.
How in the world did they miss american family. Crooks one and all. They do not honor they contractual obligations. At all.
Still, I'm unsure whether to switch because in the two auto claims I've had, Allstate treated me well. No problems at all.
Nice. Were running promos for American Trial lawyers of America ads on Free Republic.
We currently have Grange insurance for our home and auto. I’m shopping for a new provider. We were backed into by someone who gave us false insurance information. After realizing that his said insurance wasn’t going to do anything for us, our insurance (Grange) confronted the guy and got him to agree to pay for the damages. Well, all seemed great, but weeks and weeks went by and we never got our check in the mail. Every time we called our agent he said he couldn’t get a hold of the guy. Finally I called our agent’s manager (after about two months of waiting) and she immediately seemed to jump on the ball, but after another week of waiting and calling back for an update, we started getting the same old excuses. So we’re taking the guy to small claims court to get our money and picking up a new insurance provider.
I’ve looked at AllState because I’ve heard they handle claims well.
Just a note ... the source is the American Trial Lawyers Association, formerly called ATLA but now they are hiding themselves under a non-specific name. Just pointing that out.
Wow - all these posts and nobody comments about who published this document - The American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. John Edwards is no doubt a charter member. This organization is composed of trial lawyers who feed off of liability insurance claims.
Among all carriers, Allstate is the toughest, tough as nails, when it comes to paying on questionable liability insurance claims. They will “yellow sheet” a file, which means that the case will be tried - no nuisance or economic settlelents. Plaintiff’s attorneys make money when you settle a case, not try it. And Allstate has been right - not all the time - some cases ring the bell, but for the most part, juries do the right thing and toss these questionable cases. So why do you think Allstate is at the top of the list of “bad” carriers?
Uh,oh ... my homeowner’s insurance company made #10 (Liberty Mutual). We are only in our second year with them, but have not had any claims, so no experience there.
Has anyone had any claims experience with Liberty Mutual?
This article is from the trial lawyers, i.e., the plaintiff’s bar. They have to trash the insurance industry in order to create a bogey man for juries to punish, and the insurance industry is the deep pocket the trial lawyers want to fleece. I handle third-party claims for a well-known, global insurer (it is not one of the 10 mentioned in the article), i.e., claims brought against our policy holders by people alleging they were injured or harmed by them. What the trial lawyers don’t want you to know is that the insuranhce industry is one of the most — if not THE most — regulated industry in America, regulated by local, state and federal governments, by statute, by industry oversight bodies, commissions, boards, etc. Unlike the legal profession, which is the most UNregulated industry in America.
I’ve had a great experience with USAA. I’ve been with them for about 15 years and they’ve been very good and I don’t think the price can be beat. I don’t have a local agent and haven’t ever needed one.
One of the best USAA
About 10 years ago I had a major house fire with Travelers.
People who have not been through such a thing have no idea. At this point, instead of helping me, instead of helping me, my company declared war on me and put me through living hell.
Do you know if you have a fire in the middle of winter, you better drain your pipes asap? If they burst, the company will say that’s YOUR fault and give you problems about paying your plumbing.
Nothing was covered right, or quick, or in any way easy. Everything was a struggle. Everything had to be approved. And nothing was approved for what it would really cost to rebuild.
I would bring in a company to rebuild say, a roof. The company would get me an estimate of say, 7500. The insurance would say, oh, no, you can do that for 2300. Which would send every roofing company in town into laughing hysterics when they heard that figure.
It took years to settle, and I’d say we got about 3/4 of what it actually took to rebuild the house. And the mental grief of fighting with them was unbelievable.
Fortunately I had access to cash like that. But many people don’t.
I hate insurance companies. And especially travelers.
Lib Mutual is on my S-list, anyway. They cancelled me after ONE claim. Funny bit was, a couple days before the end of the policy, someone broke into my car and took the stereo, etc. Sucks to be LM.
I’ve been with Safeco ever since, not the cheapest, but their service has been hard to beat.