Insurance - Auto, Bike and Home - Progressive ok?

[Twisties]

Really, my question is a simple as that subject line. Suffice it to say that I'm feeling Progressive's quotes are enough cheaper than our current line-up through Farmers/Foremost to warrant asking the question.

 

Auto is coming in at 50%, homeowners about 75%, and motorcycle is about 90% of current rates. Overall, the savings are substantial, and I might add the coverage limits are higher/deductibles lower.

 

Too good to be true? Gotcha's?

[AviP]

Progressive is fine. I've used them in the past and their website is great. But they all are except for the big ones like State Farm, Allstate, etc. I shopped around a couple of years ago and got a whole lot less from my local insurance agent. So nowadays I just keep shopping before renewal time and keep the meaningless annual increases (no claims) at bay.

 

Competition is great.

[Twisties]

Actually, I just found our state's ratings, which include amount of coverage written in the state, comparison prices, complaint rates, and profit/loss ratios. Progressive has an acceptable complaint rate, comparable to the other insurers, and is near the bottom in price.

 

Gieco is lower, but we wouldn't qualify. Amazingly the price comparisons were very accurate in comparison to our rates and quotes.

 

Thanks!

[PabloH3]

All insurance companies are terrific until you have a claim. That's when the differences turn up. Some of the big names are notoriously stingy when it comes to paying claims. Progressive is a good company from what I hear, although I haven't had to test them with a claim yet, thankfully.

[Rphoto]

Progressive is fine. I've used them in the past and their website is great. But they all are except for the big ones like State Farm, Allstate, etc. I shopped around a couple of years ago and got a whole lot less from my local insurance agent. So nowadays I just keep shopping before renewal time and keep the meaningless annual increases (no claims) at bay.

 

Competition is great.

 

 

Same with me. I was with Progressive for my bikes but to my pleasant surprise, my local Nationwide Insurance agent, where I have my cars and homeowners, pulled in the bikes for considerably less. I had some personal reasons for not liking Progressive, too, so this was a double bonus.

[alimar]

If you were (or are, or have family) in the military seriously look at USAA. Top ratings for their insurance and other products. For bikes they pass on to Progressive where you get a nice discount. I went from DairyLand to Progressive with USAA and saved a ton. Again as mentioned, claims is where one shines or not and hopefully you never need to file one. USAA appears tops in all respects and although only with them for less than a year the customer service I've dealt with was top notch.

[Twisties]

If you were (or are, or have family) in the military seriously look at USAA. Top ratings for their insurance and other products. For bikes they pass on to Progressive where you get a nice discount. I went from DairyLand to Progressive with USAA and saved a ton. Again as mentioned, claims is where one shines or not and hopefully you never need to file one. USAA appears tops in all respects and although only with them for less than a year the customer service I've dealt with was top notch.

 

A friend is having a total nightmare with them right now. Bank accounts frozen, insurance fubar'd. Absolute nightmare.

[notacop]

I currently have Safeco because it was cheaper than Geico. Full coverage, 100/300 etc. New bike, you know.

[Marty Hill]

USAA for 39 years with claims on car and house. They have been outstanding in all respects.

[hopz]

I have only been with USAA a short while...what is it? 45 years... I think they are pretty good.

 

Jan, I think you know my rap against Progressive. If not I can fill you in, but you may also want to chat with Fugu... as you know Mike, totaled his RT and the settlement experience with Progressive was an inch short of lawyer-time.

 

Of course Fugu is an insurance insider ans he knows the system. He may have been taking the hard line. IIRC his final settlement suited him but it took a long while.

 

Having said that... putting the house, the cars and the bike ina package may be well worth it.

 

[Twisties]

I have only been with USAA a short while...what is it? 45 years... I think they are pretty good.

 

Jan, I think you know my rap against Progressive. If not I can fill you in, but you may also want to chat with Fugu... as you know Mike, totaled his RT and the settlement experience with Progressive was an inch short of lawyer-time.

 

Of course Fugu is an insurance insider ans he knows the system. He may have been taking the hard line. IIRC his final settlement suited him but it took a long while.

 

Having said that... putting the house, the cars and the bike ina package may be well worth it.

 

Nope, don't know your rap. Hadn't heard Mike's saga either. Not eligible for USAA in any event.

[hopz]

When I bought the Duacti I called Progressive. They were happy to quote me something ridiculous for it... but they also increased my premium on the RT. A call to them revealed nothing in the way of an explanation for why my rate on the RT would go up. A polite attempt at escalating the question to a member of management was basically resisted, and a shuffle from one regular telephone quoter to another was done- several times. Along the way I was given several different "reasons" none of which passed the smell test... just call-center B.S. All this took place over several days.

 

Finally I insisted on speaking with a higher up and I eventually got a call back from someone. She fundamentally said they were not going to answer my questions because the underwriting algorithm was proprietary and basically... take their offer or leave.

 

I made several calls to the obvious competition and all beat Progressive my a large margin. I switched to Dairyland and got better coverage, lower deductibles at about half of the total price from Progressive.

 

 

[alimar]

[progressive] said they were not going to answer my questions because the underwriting algorithm was proprietary and basically... take their offer or leave.

I've no patience for his kind of customer service. I would have said right then and there cancel; now; immediately. Many others are standing by to take my money and even if it were a few $$ more, on principal it would have been worth it. I would likely also seek out the top dog at Progressive and write a scathing letter with details of this. Absolute BS...

[Twisties]

[progressive] said they were not going to answer my questions because the underwriting algorithm was proprietary and basically... take their offer or leave.

I've no patience for his kind of customer service. I would have said right then and there cancel; now; immediately. Many others are standing by to take my money and even if it were a few $$ more, on principal it would have been worth it. I would likely also seek out the top dog at Progressive and write a scathing letter with details of this. Absolute BS...

 

I guess their point is that if you own a sport bike they think you are a riskier rider. That's a legitimate business decision on their part, and you exercised your equally legitimate consumer prerogative to go elsewhere. I don't have any problem with that at all, on either side.

 

Bob, thanks for the Dairyland tip. I just got a quote from them. Unfortunately they bundle some coverages we don't need into their package, and they don't offer an acceptable level of "underinsured motorist" coverage, only $10,000/20,000. Why bother? The result being that their offering was priced about 15-20% higher than Progressive's and had a significantly lower protection level. I found their website a bit stodgy as well.

 

Progressive's site, though it's a bit scary, especially since our registrations are supposed to be "protected records" per State law, actually picked up our vehicles from State records for the cars, and used the vins for the bikes to fill out all the other info.

 

Dairyland isn't quite there yet, for whatever reason. I had to keep re-entering data that it would lose, and there were a few non-intuitive frustrations. But I am glad to have had another option to check out.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your story.

[James H.]

I went with Progressive...good rate for a year with full coverage. Now, I've not had to file a claim with them (thankfully), and their responsiveness would be the measure of goodness to go by, I think.

[Matts_12GS]

they have done well by me. Consider trying to purchase through a local AAA office if they are selling insurance. My local AAA is a progressive agent and cut my costs about 10% from the website.

[philbytx]

Shop! Shop! Shop till you drop!

 

You can get different quotes from the company and an agent (happened with Allstate). You will also find that you will get better quotes if you call by phone to the majors that are on-line instead of filling in the info.

 

I was forced by State Farm (after 25 years with them!) to go elsewhere for my motorcycle insurance. Some corporate wonk decided they didn't want to be in the cycle biz...now they are back! Effin' idiots!

 

Anyway, the good news is that I ended up with Dairyland and got a great quote and have received fabulous service from them (2 accidents and my premiums keep going down!!).

We kept the cages with State Farm (along with the house) as the rates are OK and to move would only get me a couple of bucks saved...plus I have guaranteed cover for life.

 

Each state is different...it really does pay to shop around to different agencies and companies

[RedMac]

Everyone's experience is different I think.

 

A buddy of mine totaled his ST1300 and had progressive. They gave him a more than fair price for the bike and covered every accessory he had as well (He is an LD rider and VERY heavily farkled), including his gear and his helmet. He was more than happy with the entire experience with them. So much so that I switched from bikeline to progressive last year and save quite a bit to boot.

[Twisties]

Everyone's experience is different I think.

 

A buddy of mine totaled his ST1300 and had progressive. They gave him a more than fair price for the bike and covered every accessory he had as well (He is an LD rider and VERY heavily farkled), including his gear and his helmet. He was more than happy with the entire experience with them. So much so that I switched from bikeline to progressive last year and save quite a bit to boot.

 

Progressive lets you choose between $3k-30k in accessory coverage. This includes protective gear and helmet.

[awagnon]

Hey, Bob and Jan,

 

I've been with USAA for over 40 years for home, cars, trailer, bikes. Consumer reports always rates them #1 or close to the top. My two current bikes are still insured with USAA since they were insured before USAA started moving all bikes to Progressive. When I bought my 12GS last fall, USAA sent me to Progressive. The rate was quite a bit higher than USAA for the same coverage. IIRC I wrote a letter to USAA complaining about dropping bike insurance. A waste of time, but it vented my spleen.

 

When I totalled my bike in 2004, the other guy's insurance gave me all kinds of grief even though the police ticketed him and assigned him 100% of the fault. My USAA finally paid all my bike, gear, medical expenses, plus compensation for not being able to ride for seven weeks and sued the other insurance company. I'm not sure Progressive would have done that.

[AdirondackJack]

Have had all of the above at one time or other over 46 years of motorcycling. Latest best deal in last 5 years is a company called American Modern Home Insurance. Before that, best deal was General Motors Bike Insurance. Quote em and see, Can't hurt. My $.02! Dave R.