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It's time once again to receive our insurance companies renewal notice. We left Allstate after getting tired of increases every 6 months and the increases seemed to be double digit. We've been with Safeco for home and auto now for two years. It's nice to pay once a year. For 2020 our car insurance for 2 vehicles has gone up about $40 to $662.00 which is about 6.5%. Home owners went up $20 or around 4%. The agent every year tells us they do not have a better product for us and they are with AAA and she does have access to other insurance companies.
We see companies like American National Insurance Company and United American Insurance, American Insurance and American Family Insurance. Tricky names they have there and a tongue twister trying to name them.
Please give your best insurance company for car and home for 2020?
Safeco (Liberty Mutual) has been fine but maybe there are others who might get our business with lower rates.
Thanks.
I signed up with this company on 8/30/2017 because I had no prior insurance. I had an old, beat up 2000 Ford Contour. Even at 25/65/15 the price was high. I paid in full. In January 2018, I purchased a 2013 Toyota Corolla and placed this vehicle on the policy as well. On 2/28/2018 my policy with Kemper was over. I felt gyped of 2 days' worth of coverage. I switched to Bear River. Kemper subsequently charged me a $15 renewal fee and a $25 cancellation fee. All of this was sent to some internal Kemper online portal, which I had never used. I had no need to work with Kemper directly because I got everything through my agent (Neal Dastrup). Since I paid in full, I never used the portal. I only found out when I got a letter threatening to take me to collections. My agent did not help me. I filed a complaint with the Utah Department of Insurance and prevailed.
Bear River Mutual: Uncertain.
I paid a year's worth of insurance with Bear River. I never filed any claims or had any incidents. I canceled after 3½ months. Their rates were good. I filed no claims. The refund was prompt and fair.
Sublimity Insurance Company: Fantastic
Sublimity's rates were good. They also provided no-fee financing for my premium. I paid monthly through my bank account. I had two claims with the company. In both cases, the adjuster paid more than I considered fair. In the first case, I had an estimate for repairs on my vehicle for $4200 and received a check for $3,357 -- $4,357 less my $1,000 deductible. Sublimity is the best insurance company I have ever dealt with.
United Underwriters: Avoid.
I switched to United Underwriters in October 2019 because my wife, who has a foreign driver's license, arrived in the US and could not be added to my Sublimity policy. UU's rates are high. Their online access portal will let me see how much I owe but does not let me print id cards, make payments, print declaration pages, or make changes to my policy. Calling the company is similarly useless. My goal is to get my wife a Utah license by April and then switch to a better carrier.
I signed up with this company on 8/30/2017 because I had no prior insurance. I had an old, beat up 2000 Ford Contour. Even at 25/65/15 the price was high. I paid in full. In January 2018, I purchased a 2013 Toyota Corolla and placed this vehicle on the policy as well. On 2/28/2018 my policy with Kemper was over. I felt gyped of 2 days' worth of coverage. I switched to Bear River. Kemper subsequently charged me a $15 renewal fee and a $25 cancellation fee. All of this was sent to some internal Kemper online portal, which I had never used. I had no need to work with Kemper directly because I got everything through my agent (Neal Dastrup). Since I paid in full, I never used the portal. I only found out when I got a letter threatening to take me to collections. My agent did not help me. I filed a complaint with the Utah Department of Insurance and prevailed.
Bear River Mutual: Uncertain.
I paid a year's worth of insurance with Bear River. I never filed any claims or had any incidents. I canceled after 3½ months. Their rates were good. I filed no claims. The refund was prompt and fair.
Sublimity Insurance Company: Fantastic
Sublimity's rates were good. They also provided no-fee financing for my premium. I paid monthly through my bank account. I had two claims with the company. In both cases, the adjuster paid more than I considered fair. In the first case, I had an estimate for repairs on my vehicle for $4200 and received a check for $3,357 -- $4,357 less my $1,000 deductible. Sublimity is the best insurance company I have ever dealt with.
United Underwriters: Avoid.
I switched to United Underwriters in October 2019 because my wife, who has a foreign driver's license, arrived in the US and could not be added to my Sublimity policy. UU's rates are high. Their online access portal will let me see how much I owe but does not let me print id cards, make payments, print declaration pages, or make changes to my policy. Calling the company is similarly useless. My goal is to get my wife a Utah license by April and then switch to a better carrier.
United Underwriters is a high risk insurance company that I do not believe writes anything more than minimum limits policies. If you have claims, they will low-ball you. You'll will have to sue their insured and take the case to arbitration to get what it is worth. I could not/would not recommend them to anyone unless no other company would write insurance coverage.
I had one claim on behalf of a client with Sublimity. Claim service struck me as prompt and fair.
Bear River Insurance handles claims fairly and adequately. I am not overwhelmed by them, but I won't criticize them either.
Kemper is a good company if you have to make an injury claim. The company seems to evaluate injury claims fairly and to respond without undue delay.
My current limits with United Underwriters ("UU") are 50/100/100 with $3k PIP, $500 comp/collision on 3 vehicles. While I wouldn't classify these as "high limits" they are not state minimums.
My "limits" with Sublimity were $80,000 CSL. I prefer combined limits as I think they offer better coverage and flexibility.
My other options for foreign licenses are back with Kemper Specialty/Alpha Property & Casualty (not to be confused with Kemper Preferred), Dairyland (Viking Insurance), and Gainsco. Gainsco's top coverage is 25/65/25. Dairyland will let you have 100/300 but won't let you start there — you have to work your way up. My opinion of Kemper Specialty is known.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have been with State Farm since 1974 and have been perfectly happy with their rates and service. We have had 2-3 vehicles, homeowners and life since then, and more recently added a travel trailer. We also had business insurance with them for 16 years. With good driving record, multi-car and multi-line discounts our 2017 and 2014 with full coverage and low deductibles are about $800 every 6 months. Homeowners is about $1,800/year, home value $775,000. The car insurance went up this year, but hardly worth noticing, at $14. The homeowners should go up as the cost of building materials and labor go up in the area.
If it doesn’t go up, it means you will be underinsured in the case of a claim.
It's time once again to receive our insurance companies renewal notice. We left Allstate after getting tired of increases every 6 months and the increases seemed to be double digit. We've been with Safeco for home and auto now for two years. It's nice to pay once a year. For 2020 our car insurance for 2 vehicles has gone up about $40 to $662.00 which is about 6.5%. Home owners went up $20 or around 4%. The agent every year tells us they do not have a better product for us and they are with AAA and she does have access to other insurance companies.
We see companies like American National Insurance Company and United American Insurance, American Insurance and American Family Insurance. Tricky names they have there and a tongue twister trying to name them.
Please give your best insurance company for car and home for 2020?
Safeco (Liberty Mutual) has been fine but maybe there are others who might get our business with lower rates.
Thanks.
Safeco is a great company. Your increase for 2020 is very minimal compared to most companies. In my experience as an agent, AAA is good but typically will not beat Safeco. Erie and Travelers are also good. Allstate and State Farm have not only the worst customer service, but also the worst claims service. I think UAI in non-standard, but I could be wrong.
I can't give too much more advice without knowing your entire situation, but based on what you stated I would stay put.
So, here's my experience with State Farm. On Friday 1/3 I went to have my oil changed. While I was there, the person in front of me (who had decided that the wait was too long) attempted to back out and damaged my vehicle. She has a California driver's license and lives in California with a Utah phone number and a Utah policy.
I asked her how she wanted to handle it, and she said she didn't know. So, I just took pictures of her license and insurance card. On Monday, I went to Cascade Repair in Lehi and got a quote to repair the damage. It came in around $1,300 with the caveat that if there is damage behind the grill, that amount could go up.
In the afternoon, I still hadn't heard from the driver so I went to a local State Farm to ask for aid. Since it wasn't a policy sold through their office, they couldn't tell me anything about the policy — not even whether it was still valid. So, I called the driver's agent's phone number and got confirmation that the policy was valid.
Eventually, the agent's office called the driver, and she "decided to file a claim." But, all she did was sent me a text message asking me to file one. So, I called State Farm's customer service line and filed the claim. The person there reached out to the insured, verified the information, and emailed me a claim number.
But, State Farm won't accept Cascade's estimate. Cascade is no fly-by-night company. It's part of the Allstate Good Hands Network. It's got stickers out front for Nationwide, Farmers, and a slew of other insurance companies. But, not State Farm's sticker. So, I was directed to someplace in Orem called Martin's Collision.
I went there and got a different estimate, which is about $400 cheaper. As far as I can tell, the main factors in the different price is the grill (Cascade wants to buy me a new one whereas State Farm wants to give me a used one) and grill fasteners (Cascade wants to buy me some whereas State Farm doesn't mention them).
While I was there, I felt high pressure to have my car repaired there. I received an email from State Farm telling me how happy they were that I had chosen Martin's Collision for my repair work. The estimator also pushed for me to schedule my repairs. But, why should I have my repairs done there? If Cascade does the repairs, they'll be done right. If La Voiture Auto does the repairs, it will be "good enough" and cheaper. So, why Martin's?
As part of their pitch to have me do the repairs there, they said they could get me a rental car on the spot. But, things aren't that simple. I drive for Lyft in the mornings and evenings on my way to and from work. The loss of use is a factor, and a simple rental car won't offset that.
To add insult to injury, when I left the parking lot, I noticed that there was fresh damage to the side of my car. Apparently, one of their (potential?) customers had sideswiped me on the way out. I'm not sure how much that will cost or whether I can recover that from Martin's or even whether they have external cameras who might tell me who it was.
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