Switching Insurance Questions

[sze5003]

Hey guys, not sure if anyone has done this but I am thinking about changing insurance from AllState to Geico. Currently with allstate I have a 2011 Lancer GTS with 25/50 Bodily Injury, 5k pedestrian , 500/500 Collision/Comprehensive coverage.

I am financing the car so that is why I have full coverage on it. I had one accident in 2009 that they said would fall off this July which would happen when the policy renewed in November. I also turned 25 and they said it would lower my rates.

Well I just moved, same city, philly but different apartment and my insurance is still $225 a month for the car. Back in February this year, some woman ran a stop sign and T-boned me. My car was repaired and everything and I was not found at fault. But I never got my deductible back. Its been about 8 months or so and it went to arbitration in March I believe.

No one has gotten back to me after calls/emails and last I heard was that the other person's insurance did not have enough coverage.

My question, Geico offers me the same coverage + uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage for $130/month. I am thinking about switching but not sure how that works out. Will I get my deductible back? Will I have to pay AllState until November when my current policy expires? I use their auto deduct easy pay plan and wondered if I would need to pay extra if I switch at the end of this October?

 

[cheezmunky]

You can start the new policy whenever you want. You will get a pro-rated check from your old company refunding what you've paid for the remainder of your old policy. Go talk to a rep or give Geico a call. They should be able to answer all your questions for you.

 

[sze5003]

Thanks I just called Geico and talked to them. They said Allstate would still be responsible for carrying over the claim information from the last accident. Like you also said, Geico said I could start the policy when I wanted. I may start it in Middle of October or early november.

$225 a month is a lot for one car. I will keep allstate for my motorcycle and I also need information weather Geico gives discounts for renters insurance because I saw nothing about that on their site.

Any one have either Insurance companies what do you think of either?

 

[DeviousTrap]

I would seriously consider changing your policy limits.

25/50, 5k pedestrian is insanely low, imo. If you run over someone's foot, that's a 5k bill for xrays and an ambulance ride. And 50k per accident or 25k per person in medical bills is also low, don't underestimate how much one 24 hour hospitalization may cost. You'll be on hook personally for anything over those limits.

 

[sze5003]

Yeh I wish but I can only pay what I can afford. Every other insurance company has been pretty damn high in my area being that its Philadelphia. Besides the accident that happened 3 years ago, and the one recently which I was not at fault for at all, changing those limits for some reason shoots up my price like crazy.

 

[NutBucket]

The difference in cost as a result of increasing liability limits isn't huge. Plus, since you'll be saving money by going to Geico you can afford to increase those limits. Just my $0.02

 

[sze5003]

Yeh the thing is if I were to stay with allstate and increase the limits it would cost me about $300 a month or more.

With Geico I increased to BI 100/300 UI/UD: 100/200, FP Medical to 25/1500 funeral/25k work loss/10k death I believe and left everything else the same and it went up to 178.80 per month.

Any one other limits I should try? I want it to be less than what AllState has me at right now.

 

[Bartman39]

I just switched from Geico (the lizard) to 21st Century Insurance who is an offshoot from Farmers and all I can say is the difference is a ton... For my crew cab diesel truck the wife's new car and our 33' travel trailer (full coverage on all) it came to about $2300 per year and was going to add a work car I just bought which would raise it to about $2650 per year through Geico... The same exact coverage from 21st Century with the work car is $1950 so figure that difference... Super easy to deal with and their website is much easier to use and mucho faster too... They have claim agents all over the area as well..

dat .02 thing...

Toss this in as well... I have a good friend that owns a local body shop and he gave me the scoop on how they compare when you have a claim and he also said hands down 21st Century is the way to go for claims service... Bear in mind this in my area so cannot say about where you are...?

 

[sze5003]

Yeh I tried 21st century, they gave me an outrageous quote for the same liabilities as I have with AllState for a total of about $1866 for 6 months. I kept getting mail from them with personalized offers and did a quote online.

I hope that when I do cancel AllState they do not cancel my motorcycle too, just the car because I have a different agent and office location for my bike.

 

[Bartman39]

Must just be your area where you are...? Geico is not bad just got to the point with me it was out of reason... Best of luck...:thumbsup:

 

[sze5003]

I've asked geico to run my license and see if the quotes they offered held water. They wouldn't do that until you are ready to buy.

But to my knowledge I plugged in everything I knew including the 2 acdidents I know about. I couldnt do anymore quotes online with them because it said I've asked for too many for a single person for their system. They should option you to remove some quotes.

Yeh the area blows but I cant move I have some family that needs me here and I'm not even in the city I'm 30 min out.

 

[jlee]

Have you tried Progressive yet? They are consistently the cheapest I have found. I'm at $666/6mo for three vehicles (comp/collision, 50/100/50, except the truck which just has comp/liability). Granted that's with a Snapshot discount, but still...

 

[sze5003]

I think progressive was 20 bucks more for what I pay now. I'll have to get a quote with the same coverage geico is quoting me. I think it will be more.