Changing Insurance to State Farm, your input requested

Good to see that many of the loyal SF users take the time to shop around for better rates. My long term experience was much different. the wife was with SF from the day she left the nest, and her parents were with them for many decades before that. The auto rates were constantly climbing, and I got suspicious, since there were zero claims. I shopped, switched us to another major brand and lowered the rate by 40%. for significantly increased coverage. The next move was to shop homeowners. I stopped at another agent, asked for a quote based on NOT being a current SF policy holder, and got a bit of a surprise. He quoted me a dollar less per year for twice the coverage. When they were caught, they simply said, too bad. We will give those rates to a walk in prospect, but not to existing customers. As you might guess, I haven't done business with SF in many years.

fla-gypsy wrote:
I have been with SF since 1977 for cars, house, and later added RV. No issues whatsoever, they have always paid quickly for claims and I have never seen a rate increase due to a claim. I do not believe they are the cheapest in Florida but getting homeowners insurance here is a challenge and finding an insurer who covers everything in Florida is hard so I have stuck with them. My only RV claim (lightning strike) was handled quickly and completely to my satisfaction.

State Farm is a great company and they handled the one claim that we had against one of their insured quickly and completely to our satisfaction. That said, they are not even close to the lowest cost insurer in Florida. There is no need to combine all of your policies with one company to get the best rate. They expect you do to this and they advertise how it will save you money, but it is basically all just sales BS. To get the best rate on your Florida homeowner's insurance, register here: Homeowner's insurance
Then you want to contact Auto-Owners Insurance to get a quote on your RV and other vehicles if you wish.
You will be surprised at how much you will save over State Farm and still have excellent coverage.

Started with SF in the 70's. Switched to GEICO when I entered the Marines. Slightly cheaper and could do payroll deduct. (Sometimes I was sent to places that made mailing payment difficult.)

Switched back to SF in the Early/Mid 80's when I got married. Some fellow Marines were have trouble getting claims completed/settled w/ GEICO.

SF always gave best rest where ever I was home based. In the 90's after I left Active Duty I stayed w/ SF. Moved back to TX in 2000. SF in TX is a Lloyds. It was explained to me as a way to change rates without State Insurance Commission input. (IDK if this is true) Rates were much higher than any other state I had SF in. The important thing was I could get home owners insurance. At that time TX was difficult to get home owners insurance due to all of the MOLD claims folks were filing.

When I left active duty I needed to get my license in the state I was living. I surrendered my TXDL and did not get that states Motorcycle Endorsement. When I returned to TX I did not get the endorsement immediately.

I eventually took a MSF Motorcycle Safety Course and got my motorcycle endorsement again. Purchased a motorcycle and went to add it to my SF accounts.

They would not write a policy because I had my endorsement less than 1 yr. I gave them my old TXDL # so they could see that I had previously had a TX motorcycle endorsement for 20+ yrs. No dice. Hmmm

Went with an Independent Agent who set me up with Dairyland. Good policy and very fair rate.

Switched to Progressive after 5 yrs. OK rates and coverage. Never have had a motorcycle claim in my life.

After I had my license for 1 yr SF agents staff tried to talk wife into adding my motorcycle to the policy. She got a quote first and called me. The quote for six months was more than my annual with Dairyland and later when I was looking a Progressive the SF quotes were still more for 6 months than the others 1 yr quote.

I have had my current bike for 7 yrs and 100k miles with no claims, tickets, or accidents, etc and that is one area SF cannot compete in.

RV, Home, cars, trucks, and additional riders with SF and rates are reasonable for TX. I believe that SF is just wary of the risk with motorcycles in TX. I can understand with the traffic, the way people drive here, and the ability to ride year around here increases the odds of a claim.

My RV insurance coverage is excellent. Even includes any of my property within a 25 ft radius of my RV.

Thanks for all the input. Hearing from others makes changing easier. Have State Farm agent coming to the house today. If my Good Sam (National General / Homesite) homeowners insurance would have stuck with me, none of this would have been necessary. Time to move on.

I have been with SF since 1977 for cars, house, and later added RV. No issues whatsoever, they have always paid quickly for claims and I have never seen a rate increase due to a claim. I do not believe they are the cheapest in Florida but getting homeowners insurance here is a challenge and finding an insurer who covers everything in Florida is hard so I have stuck with them. My only RV claim (lightning strike) was handled quickly and completely to my satisfaction.

darsben wrote:
I switched fro GS to State Farm. What I like about them is that you can suspend your liability insurance while the unit is sitting still. IN New York you must turn in your plates to cancel or suspend insurance.

any state I have been in requires you to maintain the state minimum liability insurance so I would only drop it down to that level.
bumpy

BigSkyBob wrote:
I've had State Farm for over 40 years and have had several claims handled to my satisfaction. I've bundled the coach, the house, my pickup and daughters car under SF. I've checked several times over the years for cheaper rates but over all SF has been my best bet.

x2

30 years and counting. I am VERY happy with State Farm.

Beware with switching to "other" companies. They offer a lower rate but READ the policy first. The lower rate is only good for ONE YEAR and then they jack your rate up. AARP was during this to seniors to get them to switch and then after one year increased their policies to over what they were paying before they switched. And yup it was written right there in the policy. That no one really ever reads. :(

We've had State Farm Mutual, on everything for a number of years. had a few not at fault claims. all handled fast.
Claims Adjuster came to our home to look at the vehicle.
Have never gotten a dividend. Had a small increase in premium this year, about 1%.

DSDP Don wrote:
A good friend once told me....the insurance companies could care less about you, so never feel bad about routinely shopping for new insurance.

This I entirely agree with. I've never considered myself "loyal" to a bank or an insurance company.

In my case, SF provides me good service. If somebody else does it better, I'd switch quickly.

We had State Farm for many years (18+) for all of our insurance needs. Our agent was a close friend who did a great job of taking care of our policies. We had a couple of claims (house related) and they did an excellent job of handling the claims. About seven years ago I got a quote from The Hartford (through AARP) and was shocked at the huge difference in rates. The insurance on our vehicles and home, plus an umbrella liability policy were fairly close. But, the insurance on our DP was over $1100.00 a year less through the Hartford. When I discussed this with my friend the State Farm agent, he admitted that State Farm could not compete with many other insurers for motorhome coverage in the state of California. I switched to Hartford and even with three claims, our rates are now almost $1800.00 less per year for all of our policies then when we were with State Farm. I'm not saying that everyones' experience will be the same, but in our case, switching from State Farm has saved us a lot of money over the past seven years.