Posted: 12/28/2016 8:33:33 PM EDT
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We've used State Farm for 15 years, since we've been married. They're great to deal with and the few times we've had a claim they've taken care of us. However, it seems like we pay through the nose for their "premium customer service." After visiting with a local insurance agent, he ran quotes for us from Safeco. Line by line for our home / cars we can save $1,500 per year (similar limits / deductibles).
Anybody here with State Farm? I feel like I'm paying for "premium service" that I don't need. Anybody use Safeco? They've been around as long as State Farm and they're a Liberty Mutual Company. Saving $1,500 / year seems like a no-brainer...what am I missing here? Thank you. |
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We were State Farm homeowners customers for over 20 years. In 2005 we had some slight damage from a Hurricane and State Farm paid for the repairs. We also had State Farm car insurance with no claims ever. When we moved from South East Texas to North Texas we tried to again get State Farm. They told us that they could not insure us because we had a claim and we came from a hurricane area. I was bummed until I checked on how much cheaper other insurance was.
Vince |
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Maybe there's some changes you can make to the State Farm policies that would reduce your premiums(?).
In 2013 my house and 2 year old truck were both completely destroyed by a tornado. State farm took very good care of me. Now I have my house plus 2 vehicles covered by them. Premiums for all 3 policies combined is well under $2k per year. |
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I was with them for years.... Until they pissed me off over something fairly minor.
Once I started shopping around I got MUCH better rates for identical coverage. These days I tend to change companies about every 2 to 3 years. Catch it at the right time and you can save some good money shopping around. |
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Quoted:
We've used State Farm for 15 years, since we've been married. They're great to deal with and the few times we've had a claim they've taken care of us. However, it seems like we pay through the nose for their "premium customer service." After visiting with a local insurance agent, he ran quotes for us from Safeco. Line by line for our home / cars we can save $1,500 per year (similar limits / deductibles). Anybody here with State Farm? I feel like I'm paying for "premium service" that I don't need. Anybody use Safeco? They've been around as long as State Farm and they're a Liberty Mutual Company. Saving $1,500 / year seems like a no-brainer...what am I missing here? Thank you. State Farm all the way. |
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I've had State Farm for about fifteen years now (two cars plus homeowners), never had a problem with them.
Every year family and friends tell me State Farm is expensive and I should shop around, and every time I shop around State Farm is always one of the cheapest rates to coverage for us. |
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I've been with Statefarm for ever no issues.
My parents switched from Progressive that they had been with for 20 years to Statefarm a few years ago their premium went down abou 1/3 they've had no claims since I was in high school on their insurance 20 years ago. ETA in the insurance world you get what you pay for Statefarm is as far as I know the only insurance company that does not use aftermarket sheet metal for repairs. Statefarm for auto Travelers for home owners Can't go wrong with that |
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Whether you file a claim or not, your immediate area and fellow neighbors who do file claims increases your premium as well. If a hall storm rolls through fit example, contractors sweep in and knock on every door, slowly increasing their radius until no more damage.
Underwriting will increase the area's premiums regardless of who filled claims, and even more regardless of the denials/withdrawals. |
| Ive had State Farm since I started driving. The few claims over the years were pretty much trouble free. That said over the past 7-8 years it seems customer service in in the gutter and the preimums are constantly rising. I'm ready to can them but cant find a significantly better deal with an A rated company. Guess I'm stuck for now. |
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I've been with the same State Farm agent for 27 years (I'm 42) and my parents have been with him for maybe 45. Â I have three cars, a motorcycle, and home insurance (with a large firearms rider) with him. I can call the office, say 'This is Jason" and they know who I am. Â Since I am a spin-off of my parents' policy and they have a "never be cancelled for any reason" letter, I won't/can't be cancelled either. Â Over the years we have had several vehicles written off from accidents and theft, plus dozens of claims for minor accidents and hail damage and such. Â My parents have had numerous high dollar home claims (roofs, water damage, etc.) Â I once had a motorcycle intentionally pushed off its kickstand in a parking garage and called the office and told them. Â My agent's response was "get an estimate and fax it and I'll deposit that amount in the bank account linked to your policy." Â No adjuster, no oversight, nothing. Â I have never had any problems whatsoever. Â Hell, I once had to close a bank account for possible fraud and neglected to update my info and instead of the usual cancellation and late fees and reinstatement fees or whatever the average business does these days, my agent's office PAID my premium to corporate and called me to let me know I needed to straighten it out at my leisure. My point? Â Yeah I probably pay (significantly) more for my State Farm insurance than I would elsewhere but I get what I pay for and more. Â I simply can't forsee any situation in which my agent wouldn't take care of me. |
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ETA in the insurance world you get what you pay for Statefarm is as far as I know the only insurance company that does not use aftermarket sheet metal for repairs. State Farm put OEM sheet metal back on my truck. I specifically asked the repair shop at the time. |
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State Farm was a great company for many years. But times change, even the guys at the local office told me I should switch.
I save over $100 a month with travelers. The State Farm guy said they are all about pulling in new clients now. That I could leave and come back a year later and get a better rate. And I had been with State Farm for 15 YEARS. You can't watch tv for more than two hours without seeing a geico or State Farm commercial. The higher rates are how they pay for them. That and shitting people out of claims. |
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State Farm put OEM sheet metal back on my truck. I specifically asked the repair shop at the time. A 1.4 billion dollar suit will do that. They still put an aftermarket radiator and condenser in it though didn't they. And that OEM sheet metal, did it come off a Katrina flood car in a salvage yard? State Farm is no longer the great service company that they once were. |
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Can't recommend. One of thier insured drivers rear ended me and they pulled some shady BS. They will never see a dime of my money. Fuck State Farm. ETA: Travelers is great. Travelers has always provided good service. But, for several years they ran television ads touting OEM parts and then overnight started writing aftermarket parts on all their estimates. To me that represented fraud sucking people in with those promises and under delivering when they had claims. |
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I've been with the same State Farm agent for 27 years (I'm 42) and my parents have been with him for maybe 45. Â I have three cars, a motorcycle, and home insurance (with a large firearms rider) with him. I can call the office, say 'This is Jason" and they know who I am. Â Since I am a spin-off of my parents' policy and they have a "never be cancelled for any reason" letter, I won't/can't be cancelled either. Â Over the years we have had several vehicles written off from accidents and theft, plus dozens of claims for minor accidents and hail damage and such. Â My parents have had numerous high dollar home claims (roofs, water damage, etc.) Â I once had a motorcycle intentionally pushed off its kickstand in a parking garage and called the office and told them. Â My agent's response was "get an estimate and fax it and I'll deposit that amount in the bank account linked to your policy." Â No adjuster, no oversight, nothing. Â I have never had any problems whatsoever. Â Hell, I once had to close a bank account for possible fraud and neglected to update my info and instead of the usual cancellation and late fees and reinstatement fees or whatever the average business does these days, my agent's office PAID my premium to corporate and called me to let me know I needed to straighten it out at my leisure. My point? Â Yeah I probably pay (significantly) more for my State Farm insurance than I would elsewhere but I get what I pay for and more. Â I simply can't forsee any situation in which my agent wouldn't take care of me. That's kinda where I am. My wife and I switched to State Farm soon after we were married when I had to call my previous agent daily to get any response on a minor claim. As soon as it was paid we went to a Stat Farm policy and have had very, very good service. No idea how much that's costing me over the other companies, but when we call and say 'this is SCW' they immediately know us. Same agent and secretaries for the last 17 years or so. Phenomenal service. |
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They gave us the cheapest quote years back for home insurance.
I had the local agent quote our vehicles figuring coupled with the home policy we'd probably be at least as cheap as our vehicle insurer. Coupled with the house, it was nearly TWICE as much for similar vehicle coverage. Now our agent back then was an ass, and took nearly a week of pestering to give us the sky high quote..... I need to check around again. Thanks for the reminder. |
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Quoted:
We've used State Farm for 15 years, since we've been married. They're great to deal with and the few times we've had a claim they've taken care of us. However, it seems like we pay through the nose for their "premium customer service." After visiting with a local insurance agent, he ran quotes for us from Safeco. Line by line for our home / cars we can save $1,500 per year (similar limits / deductibles). Anybody here with State Farm? I feel like I'm paying for "premium service" that I don't need. Anybody use Safeco? They've been around as long as State Farm and they're a Liberty Mutual Company. Saving $1,500 / year seems like a no-brainer...what am I missing here? Thank you. My house was destroyed during Katrina. State Farm refused to pay anything for te wind damage. Told us to file everything under flood insurance. Tried hotel me that my gutted and other items were torn down by the flood waters moving so rapidly when the water was 11 feet high. I had a video of my house when the water was high. The water was not moving. I told the adjuster that I had a video of my house with the water above the gutters. You could clearly see debris on the water not moving. The adjuster told me he could not watch the video and walked off |
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I'm in Houston and my State Farm agent is in Lubbock. Â If any Texas folks need a good agent I'll be happy to forward his information. Â I've had his phone number memorized for years. Â It's not kosher to post up his information in this thread, is it? Â I get no benefit or discount or anything. Â Hell, I don't even know if he even takes new customers. |
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Quoted:
I've been with the same State Farm agent for 27 years (I'm 42) and my parents have been with him for maybe 45. Â I have three cars, a motorcycle, and home insurance (with a large firearms rider) with him. I can call the office, say 'This is Jason" and they know who I am. Â Since I am a spin-off of my parents' policy and they have a "never be cancelled for any reason" letter, I won't/can't be cancelled either. Â Over the years we have had several vehicles written off from accidents and theft, plus dozens of claims for minor accidents and hail damage and such. Â My parents have had numerous high dollar home claims (roofs, water damage, etc.) Â I once had a motorcycle intentionally pushed off its kickstand in a parking garage and called the office and told them. Â My agent's response was "get an estimate and fax it and I'll deposit that amount in the bank account linked to your policy." Â No adjuster, no oversight, nothing. Â I have never had any problems whatsoever. Â Hell, I once had to close a bank account for possible fraud and neglected to update my info and instead of the usual cancellation and late fees and reinstatement fees or whatever the average business does these days, my agent's office PAID my premium to corporate and called me to let me know I needed to straighten it out at my leisure. My point? Â Yeah I probably pay (significantly) more for my State Farm insurance than I would elsewhere but I get what I pay for and more. Â I simply can't forsee any situation in which my agent wouldn't take care of me. That's exactly how State Farm works for me too. Zero complaints from me. |
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Uncle had them for 40 years, had an accident caused by another State Farm customer and they have been dragging their heals for more than a year to pay up. We had them for 20 years, called about some hail damage on the roof and our agent told us to call the 800 number and have a nice day. We
found cheaper insurance, no need to pay extra to have an agent not help. |
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Travelers has always provided good service. But, for several years they ran television ads touting OEM parts and then overnight started writing aftermarket parts on all their estimates. To me that represented fraud sucking people in with those promises and under delivering when they had claims. Couple months ago some Amish kids broke into my 2015 Chevy when I was downtown in Shitcago. They could've cheaped out fixing my driver side door but they went all out replacing the whole door skin with OEM. No complaints here. |
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Whether you file a claim or not, your immediate area and fellow neighbors who do file claims increases your premium as well. If a hall storm rolls through fit example, contractors sweep in and knock on every door, slowly increasing their radius until no more damage. Underwriting will increase the area's premiums regardless of who filled claims, and even more regardless of the denials/withdrawals. This .... I just got 10% rate increase in my truck. No trucks no claims no nothing. Called bitch they said evrrybody got the same rate increase. |
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Never any issues and quick handling of our claims. Two of the four of us have had a wreck in the same car and it was totaled in the 2nd wreck. Handled quickly. We do pay a lot for our insurance, but I am afraid to go elsewhere and get no service.
The only time we had an issue was years ago when another SF insured hit me in a parking lot. The spot she hit showed it was her fault even when she tried to put 1/2 of the blame on me. SF said we'd each pay our deductible or something like that (or I'd only get 1/2). I told them I worked in insurance coverage in a law firm and clearly understood insurance coverage law in my state and that they had better pay properly. They did. |
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I have State Farm for both my cars, wife's wedding jewelry, and home.
My Agent is my old neighbor, and runs a fairly large office with a lot of clients. When I call in, if he's at his desk and sees on the Caller ID that it's me, he picks up himself and we'll bullshit about College Football for 30 minutes before getting down to business. When I got married, I forgot to give them all of that info to combine me and my wife's account (we had separate car policies before we got hitched), they called me and told me they put everything through to combine the accounts now that we're married and that there would be an adjustment on my next car insurance bill to reflect the new multi car discount effective as of our wedding date. His office staff takes care of anything I need. I shoot over an email, and they have whatever I need back by the end of the day. I priced out other options, and I could probably save a few bucks if I shopped everything around. But I'd rather stay with an office and company that takes care of me. |
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I had State Farm, had one at fault claim, slide off the road in snow, and one not at fault claim. they cancelled me due to the not a fault claim. We had home and 2 vehicles with them. Went to farmers 5 years ago, house 2 vehicles, started at 225 a month, now up to over 300, only one accident, was hit by a hit a run driver this summer 3500 dollar claim.
Going with Travelers, increased coverage on vehicles total policy is down to 160 a month. Now Farmers did have a no cancellation clause and incident forgiveness, but i can't see how it's worth it. |
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We've used State Farm for 15 years, since we've been married. They're great to deal with and the few times we've had a claim they've taken care of us. However, it seems like we pay through the nose for their "premium customer service." After visiting with a local insurance agent, he ran quotes for us from Safeco. Line by line for our home / cars we can save $1,500 per year (similar limits / deductibles). Anybody here with State Farm? I feel like I'm paying for "premium service" that I don't need. Anybody use Safeco? They've been around as long as State Farm and they're a Liberty Mutual Company. Saving $1,500 / year seems like a no-brainer...what am I missing here? Thank you. You should take a good look at Geico, and I say this as a State Farm customer.  Two late model Dodge 4x4 pickups insured at Geico for the price of only one at State Farm.  SF still has my house, Harley, and collector cars.  Nothing I have found will touch the rates and coverage. Geico settles claims as professionally as anyone.  I have had two claims with them as the insured and as the other party.  Both settled in a 14 day time frame to my satisfaction. |
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State Farm put OEM sheet metal back on my truck. I specifically asked the repair shop at the time. Quoted:
Quoted:
ETA in the insurance world you get what you pay for Statefarm is as far as I know the only insurance company that does not use aftermarket sheet metal for repairs. State Farm put OEM sheet metal back on my truck. I specifically asked the repair shop at the time. You better watch out for those flying sheets of metal. They could kill someone. |
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I had Amica and was very happy--they really treated me right on a roof claim. When my Son turned 16, their rating drove the prices way through the roof so I picked up a quote from State Farm. I had an intern whose best friend was with State Farm. Their rate was great compared to Amica, so I went back to State Farm (I previously had them from the time I was 16 until I was 35 years old). I had one claim for the ice hurricane of 1993 and State Farm did us fine also.
Good grief since switching it has been one headache after another with State Farm. First, they had my son rated only as a household drive, which saved me a lot of money but wasn't right. Three cars and each car has to have a primary driver if there are three drivers in the house. Keeping him driving as a household driver screwed State Farm out of a lot of premium. Had I left it and he was in an accident, they'd have gone up or canceled us then. But that was shady and not right, so I got that corrected. Next, it has been nearly monthly or bimonthly changes in our premiums without any sensible explanation over the first year. Every time I see the State Farm envelope in the mail, I wonder "how much is my premium going up now?". I'm so sick of it, I'm ready to leave again. The problem now is that my son is now 18+ and my daughter is 14. So I'll be able to change until my daughter gets on a policy in 2-3 years and then will have to re-rate. Insurance is a pain. Just charge me a rate and leave it alone until the next policy year. Don't keep jacking up/down my monthly payment. |
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I work in the industry. I used to have several friends who worked for SF. Some of the best adjusters Ive known. They have all since been laid off.
I wrote a 10 paragraph response to this before thinking it over and deciding not to explicitly point out SF's questionable business practices. My advice:. 1. Price all competitors and challenge yourself to find a more expensive insurer (this will probably be difficult). 2. Google "(your state) court bad faith" and count the percentage of cases involving SF versus the entire remainder of the industry. 3. Be guided accordingly. |