Some of the other perks that are available aren't known by the agents giving the quotes:

I have USAA. Full coverage on all cars and properties. I could probably shop for better rates, but USAA has been more than lenient on claims.

Hail damage on one property...they wrote a sizable check and BOOM, done.

Daughter's spotty driving skills. Accident forgiveness. Claims rep admitted that they don't advertise this perk like Allstate does, but they do have it. This was on a year that I had three claims on vehicles (fender-bender, storm damage etc.)

When I purchased my ML, I was haggling with the salesman, and couldn't get him to go down any further...until he found out that they had an alliance with USAA and was able to meet my price!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

^One of the insurnace thugs I spoke with asked if I was an alumnus of anything “because we give special rates to alumni’s.” I said I was a college graduate but not a member of any association. She asked what college. I told her and she said, "Great, that helps."

Still they were 2x the fee of my current insurer.

Fwiw, I have provided IT consultation to about a dozen company’s that sell all kinds of insurance. Across the board they have done between very well and embarrassingly well.

The group that sold me my former health insurance package over 20 years ago, got a check from the insurance company 2x per year that came from my payments. The checks didn’t stop until I no longer used the insurer, even though i havent seen the sales person for well over a decade. It is a very good racket to be in for the sales people, at least...

It is a very good racket to be in. Just ask Warren Buffet. He says one of the keys to his wealth was the creation of insurance companies. Berkshire Hathaway was a textile manufacturer when he purchased the company. He promptly shut down the textile business and recreated the company as an Insurance company. The endless stream of premium payments not held in reserves provided the leverage for his other lucrative investments.

So yes, there are those in the insurance business who do not live down on the cube farm. Instead, they have NetJets on the ready to fly them to exotic destinations. Oh, and BTW, they say thank you, thank you very much for your regular premium payments which allows them to continue to increase their stock holdings exponentially. See, you pay them monthly and they take YOUR money (in the form of premium payments) and invest it for THEIR own good. The rich continue to gain, while the poor keep doling out insurance payments to the insurance gods. And, if you ask me, their genius is in the fact that they have the public believing they are necessary to life and survival.

From wikipedia:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company wholly owns GEICO, BNSF, Lubrizol, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds and NetJets, owns half of Heinz and an undisclosed percentage of Mars, Incorporated and has significant minority holdings in American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, Wells Fargo, and IBM. Berkshire Hathaway averaged an annual growth in book value of 19.7% to its shareholders for the last 48 years (compared to 9.4% from S&P 500 with dividends included for the same period), while employing large amounts of capital, and minimal debt.[2]
The company is known for its control by investor Warren Buffett, who is the company's chairman, president and CEO, and Charlie Munger, the company's vice-chairman. Buffett has used the "float" provided by Berkshire Hathaway's insurance operations (paid premiums which are not held in reserves for reported claims and may be invested) to finance his investments. In the early part of his career at Berkshire, he focused on long-term investments in publicly quoted stocks, but more recently he has turned to buying whole companies. Berkshire now owns a diverse range of businesses including confectionery, retail, railroad, home furnishings, encyclopedias, manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, jewelry sales; newspaper publishing; manufacture and distribution of uniforms; as well as several regional electric and gas utilities.
According to the Forbes Global 2000 list and formula[3] Berkshire Hathaway[4] is the ninth largest public company in the world.

If the sole concern is price, then the search is pretty easy. I usually recommend that consumers also make an inquiry with their local government agency that tracks consumer complaints of the carriers in their state. It would also be good to know if there are local claims centers, whether claims are handled by the carrier's employees or is sub-contracted to an adjustment company and get a list of their repair venders near you. Some of that information might influence whether to pay a bit more for coverage.

USAA all the way. I did not serve in the military, but I managed to get a policy due to my father serving in the military.

Story about USAA-

About 10 years ago, my father died. He had had USAA for his entire adult life, 30-40 plus years of insurance premiums on auto and home.

USAA like I assume most insurance companies, takes a percentage of your policy and puts it in a huge internal fund for natural disasters, where hundreds of policy holders will require insurance payouts. Like a hurricane or such.
Unbeknownst to me, the amount of your premium paid into this fund is apparently still the property of the insured, not the property of USAA, according to them. When my father died, out of the blue, they refunded the entire 30 years of this premium percentage to his estate. As I was managing the dispersal and payments of the funeral and whatnot, I received this totally unanticipated 10 thousand dollar check from USAA, representing everything my father had ever paid into the emergency natural disaster pool.

Still can't believe they did that, and that I didn't even know about it, or was forced to fight for it, like any benefit for medical insurance ive ever tried to get. USAA not advertising yet having unexpected benefits to the insured that they immediately act upon without request I have found is typical of them, unlike many insurance companies.

That act made me a life longer USAA member

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Brokers =/= providers.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

More from the dreamworld of HuskyMan, the place where company executives and investors are to be chastised for their work.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Amazingly, the PR the insurance gods are throwing down must be working because they have you defending their business practices.

You are delusional. I worked in insurance on a corporate level for more than five years and left on my own accord. I'm sure the "PR" that I am allegedly subject to really advocates my recollection of being overworked and underpaid. That makes them sound great. What's your hands-on experience in the industry Husky? How many personal jets did you amass? They are businesses like any other and survive on their revenue/profits, and like any other large company, has executives. In Huskyworld, everyone works for free!

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

what are you talking about? obviously hes got friends who are industry professionals with combined 32 thousand years of experience. Imaginary or not, these people present irrefutable evidence.

Why harvey the invisible 6 foot bunny alone has 3 private jets from his insurance call center job.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

In a previous post, you stated you worked at the cube farm. The "cube farm" is a long way from the Ivory Tower where the highly compensated executives live. I'm just a casual observer shooting my mouth off about subjects I know nothing about. I'm a self-appointed expert on anything and everything including insurance. I charge five cents for bad advice.

That much has been very apparent.


The cube farm is not very far removed from the execs in their "ivory tower". Same floor, even. I regularly worked with senior directors and VPs with my projects. But I'm sure you already knew all that being an expert on their business practices.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Holy CRAP bot!
I had heard of Horace Mann but didn't even know they did business in AZ. I just got a quote on all the passenger vehicles including the boychild's and it's 250 bucks per 6 months cheaper than what I'm paying GIECO.

I owe you a whiskey!!

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

HuskyMan has done a masterful job of depicting the theme of not only the insurance business, but the success resultant that is sometimes achieved by owners and investors in any number of insurance companies, including Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc.


I would like to expound on the idea that they (insurance companies) have you believing that you need their products.

I suspect that notion is the result of being bombarded with highly effective advertising done in signage, print, cyber, and over the television and radio networks.


Who doesn't recognize the gecko, or the Mayhem guy that hawk two brands of insurance?


In some cases, you are required by law or lenders, that you do indeed carry insurance before they will lend you money for a car or a piece of real estate - your residence for example, or allow you to get a business or drivers license, a license for your vehicle, or State inspect your vehicle to legally travel public streets and highways.


Whether it's a good idea to carry insurance on one's paid for real estate, is a whole other issue. To my knowledge, you are not required to insure paid for, non-lien holder property, but the owner of that property then needs to assess whether he is willing to risk up to total loss of the dwellings on that property, assorted legal liabilities, and the ramifications that follow.

When you carry insurance, you transfer the risk of loss to another to keep your asset whole.