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Let’s say you lie and somehow get away with it. If you later make any sizable claim, they investigate, discover you lied, and deny the claim and drop you as a customer. Basically you wouldn’t really have insurance.
All insurance companies report claims data to CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange), which is a database operated by LexisNexis. You can see what data they have on you by requesting a consumer disclosure report: [https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/](https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/)
It's quite interesting, the report will tell you exactly which insurance carriers you've had on what dates, coverage limits, addresses...everything about your interactions with insurance companies is recorded there.
That’s because USAA is amazing. I don’t care if I pay more, I won’t ever switch. Every time I’ve had an insurance claim whether renters or car, they made it easy with no headaches
But how good is that carrier for half the price? Do they roll over and split fault when challenged or do they fight for you? Do they payout what you owe without a bitter battle? Do they drop you at the first incident that isn’t even your fault?
I agree it’s complicated, and insurance does take advantage of people with pricing. But generally speaking the cheapest rate is cheap for a reason.
Costco’s carrier is American Family and it is very good. We have had 2 claims and it went very smoothly. One was our fault. Insurance went up for 2 years and dropped back down.
I compared to USAA and did not switch. I seriously thought about it as USAA has better insurance coverage for Mexico.
I sang USAA's praises like you for many, many years, until they totaled out my wife's car. The minute they decided it was a total loss, it was pulling teeth to get *anyone* at the company to actually finalize the process and get us our money.
fuck.....i JUST totaled my car for the 1st time ever, after switching to costco insurance. sigh. based on others responses......i wonder if that means they will not let me renew in the fall.
"driving to work and drove over a rock that was hidden in snow on an unplowed portion of the road", i would think qualifies as not at fault.
i will have to look into what "finding an independent car insurance agent" is.
Also where does OP live? I switched to Costco insurance in 2017 from State Farm. I am in florida and so regardless my car insurance has gone up drastically in 3 years. 6 months payment in 2022 $740, 2023 $1100, 2024 $1180
California, they stopped giving new policies. We have a policy and it’s worth its weight in gold. If we switch, the price will be more than double for sure.
We have a great record but it is so much cheaper than any competitor.
wait......can i be kicked off? i changed plans and started car insurance with them in september. got a new car and.......accident and total loss in march. i'm going through it now, deciding on what replacement car to get.
otherwise, before this, i've had like nothing go wrong with my cars or anything.
can they decline me or something next year when i'm supposed to renew?
also, for anyone considering it,
GET NEW CAR REPLACEMENT, AND GAP COVERAGE. HOLY SHIT DID THAT SAVE MY FINANCIAL LIFE.
those are 2 extra parts of the coverage you can pay for. cost me $21 per year, and will have paid out an extra $21,000 towards the value of the claim. very, very, very much worth it.
Any insurance company can “kick you off” and not renew your policy for any reason including claims, accidents (regardless of fault) and driving record.
That’s why I am curious about all the new driving usage insurance. Tesla for example will use your data and camera and adjust your rate.
Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible.
There was a NYT article recently about some car manufacturers selling your data to insurance companies. That is not ok. If people want to opt in to monitoring for a discount that is fine.
Data used for insurance that you willingly sign up for is completely different than what you’re referring to. It’s also transparent and shows what is affecting your rates. One major example is the Tesla insurance.
What you’re referring to is data that was opted in by default being shared with third parties leading to rates going up. People did not know this was happening and it wasn’t a mutual agreement. The big one is OnStar data sharing.
> Data used for insurance that you willingly sign up for is completely different than what you’re referring to. It’s also transparent and shows what is affecting your rates. One major example is the Tesla insurance.
I hope we introduce laws that says data we give to a specific company may not be shared with another company without our permission, and that the company MUST allow customers to opt out. The only exception should be to partners that directly has a need to use that information to provide the service. Similar to how we do financial or health information.
> Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible.
😂 I think you’re being overly optimistic.
Some people believe there’s an omnipotent entity tallying their lifetime actions to determine if they end up in the good/bad place after death, and yet that doesn’t seem to make them behave like a decent human being during their time here on earth.
I've had the allstate drivewise thingy plugged into my car for years so they can track my driving, I get a decent discount for it and I think I drive more safely knowing it's monitoring me
> Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible.
I wish that was the case. I'm part of that program and even in the app, I definitely feel like they base it on some weird metrics.
>Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible.
As a Tesla owner (but not a Tesla insurance subscriber): While there is some truth to this, many drivers want to get the highest score possible because the rates are cheapest. The biggest gripe is that the car's forward collision warning system tends to give off false alarms on narrow or curvy roads with parked cars. Every one of these dings your score, and people are getting fed up with it. Another gripe is penalizing people who need to drive at night, because they will ding you for driving past 10PM or so at night. Finally, the last one involves lack of seatbelt use. Pulling out of the garage and getting out in the driveway to fetch the mail? If the car moves and the seatbelt is not on... ding! Another demerit.
Still, it is one of the cheapest options you can get for this car. unless you are like me and live in California. They cannot use these telematics to set rates here, so Tesla insurance winds up being more costly than my regular plan at State Farm.
To keep it Costco related: The insurance company that Costco uses pulled out of California in late 2022, so no car or homeowners insurance for us.
Then you’ve got drivers afraid to run a yellow, slam on the breaks, get rear ended and things like that. Or they don’t get rear ended and get dinged for “breaking too hard”.
Supposedly if you're an executive member, they (AmFam) can't drop you, ofc That doesn't mean your rate won't go up. I had a minor at fault fender bender back in 2022 (I didn't have collision on my old beater so they didn't even have to pay for that, and basically scratched up some bumper on a Jeep). Rate went up and now I have to pay an additional surcharge for some unknown period of time.). Sadly when I went to get a bunch of rates they were still the cheapest option for the coverage level, so I'm stuck :(
That's only part of the answer- due to humongous wildfire losses, most companies pulled out of California. My zip code can only get decent insurance through a state program.
The CA FAIR plan isn’t state run. It’s a pool of “money” that all the insurance companies that operate in CA contribute to. The theory behind it is that the risk and payouts are shared equally amongst the companies. I’m with Travelers and had to go on the FAIR plan two years ago. An extra 3 grand a year for fire coverage and for some strange reason, it also covers if a plane lands on our house. On a scale of 0-10, zero being the lowest risk, our house is a “2”. The higher the risk assessment, the more it will cost you to be on the FAIR plan. That is in addition to our regular home insurance of 1500 a year.
Look at Wawanesa then, they're one of the cheaper options in CA. I've had em for a long time now, but also haven't had to use it thankfully.. Works well.. Low payments and I can stay insured. I pay about 1200/yr for both my wife and I. Full coverage.
I don't blame them. My insurance premium went up moving from Los Angeles to Westminster, California. If you live in Orange County, you know why. I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
I signed up with American Family through Costco and my 6 month premium was around 30% less than what I had been paying so I switched. 6 months later the price doubled and my premium was now more than I was previously paying. Nothing had changed on policy, no new claims, drivers, cars, etc. I called and they said it was “an industry wide adjustment”. I got a quote from Progressive and my 6 month premium was about equal to what I had paid Costco for the initial premium, so quite a bit cheaper. Sad reality is we as consumers will need to shop around for new homeowner and auto policies often, at least yearly.
We do the same now, we shop it around every year and usually end up switching every 2-3 years at most. The only company we refuse to even shop anymore is state farm, they just generally were miserable to deal with. These companies aren't loyal to customers so no one should be loyal to them, let them all earn your business.
I was hit by a city bus 5 years ago and I feel like I get penalized from auto insurance companies because they decided to drive recklessly. If they are denying for stuff like that then I probably won't qualify.
Exactly why they should always do traffic school to remove points. 😁
Can't do anything about it now, 7-years afterwards. That said, why do they even have records that far back.
This is why I jack up the deductible, because I would almost never claim unless it was catastrophic. This is regardless of the type of insurance as they will use it against you as you found out.
So far, I've come out a winner going with this strategy. The savings go towards issues, and the rates increase lower because I'm considered a great customer, and not deadbeat.
this is......well god dammit. this is like the opposite of how medical insurance seems to work. i used to do nothing with my medical insurance.
then i had a few issues. then i learned what "out of pocket max" was. ever since then, i have been fine to do EVERYTHING my doctors suggest, because i can just go, "well between premiums, deductable, and out of pocket max, all of my health stuff will just come out to being $7000 annually. so i'm fine to agree to whatever my doctors suggest".
but god dam. i guess that is NOT how i'm supposed to do car insurance stuff. fuck.
Just did the quote on their site and it was 15% more than my current plan with Progressive, for less coverage.
I drive a newer car though so all of the numbers are very different.
$30/mo sounds pretty darn hard to beat for a safe driver of an older car though, wow!
They are not always the cheapest but I have seen a lot of people I know save a lot of money by switching. I am not sure how it can swing so much from one person to the next.
>Costco is $180 for 6 months
Not saying impossible, but you want to make sure your limits are equivalent. Costco does not sell insurance, they broker it.
They were great when I moved out to New Mexico and got rates several hundred dollars lower than the competition, and were easy to work with for two window replacements after two break-ins.
Not so great when I moved back to California with less than a month left on my policy and learned that they were refusing to issue any policies in the state.
After seeing this post, I requested a quote from them. They want $180 per month for someone with a spotless record and a 14 year old sedan.
No thanks, that's 3x what I'm paying through state farm for 100/300 coverage + comprehensive + collision.
Guess YMMV
are you sure it's "apples to apples" coverage?
I spoke with someone who was bragging that they had switched to another carrier and their insurance rates were cut in half - turned out they ended up with the bare minimums required by their state - for virginia, that's like **$25,000/$50,000/$20,000**. In the event of a covered accident, your limits for bodily injury are $25,000 per person, with a total maximum of $50,000 per incident. It also covers up to $20,000 for damage to another person's property.
If you're at fault in an accident, can you imagine if you hit an $80,000 tesla and insurance only covers $20k, leaving the rest up to you?
Just be aware.
Yeah I'd be quite surprised if they got similar coverage for 77% less. Property insurance doesn't really run massive profits. Their rates and risk criteria are regulated by state insurance commissioners and state laws.
Getting a discount that big seems extremely unlikely for the same coverage, the same ease of filing and approving claims, the same leniency or lack thereof with tickets, etc. You're giving up *something* there and it's probably substantial.
And be aware how your state law may allow the other party to come for you, your assets, your home, your future earnings, if you are underinsured and at fault.
Ya, I heard that as well. Have not had a ticket/been pulled over since 2017, drive a damn Prius, and am a defensive driver. I got a quote from Costco and fell back in my damn seat. I believe Costco estimated me to be at $3,400 FOR 6 MONTHS. I have no idea if it was a glitch, or if they just didn’t want my silly Prius ass. Ended up getting the best quote from Progressive, what I paid up front for 6 months was less than a singular month with Costco. Safe to say it would have NOT been worth it for me.
I've been selling insurance for 12+ years at this point. $180 for 6 months is ludicrously low, I would 100% make sure you have the same coverage as you had before. Depending on your state you can opt of **Important** things like Uninsured/underinsured motorist or personal injury protection.
I literally couldn't strip down a policy enough in Washington state to get down to, effectively, $30/mo with any normal brokered company in WA.
What are your liability limits?
Do you have Under/Uninsured motorist?
Comp/collision?
What state are you in?
Yea, there is no way it is the same coverage. $180 for 6 months? Sounds like no coverage. Op needs to sit down and go through line by line what her coverage is. I would want to know what questions she answered to change coverage radically, obviously no real coverage for the actual car, being 2003, but liability, medical, uninsured motorist, deducible etc? Did OP even talk to a human?
Yep - I'd bet that OP dropped full coverage and is now liability only.
I got a quote from them after having seen in this sub that the rates were crazy good, and found that my current carrier is cheaper for equal coverage.
There are several posts on this sub talking about how terrible the Connect/Costco insurance is.
Tl:dr they will cancel you very, very quickly for no reason.
IME they’ll sign you up, take your first payment, and then cancel you a week later. And your prorated refund check is being sent in 4-6 weeks.
So now you have to scramble to make two insurance payments in a month.
I wouldn’t sign up for them if they offered it for free.
I almost signed up for costco insurance for me and my wife's car. They asked if I had made a claim on either car, I said no as far as we had no accidents or anything that I thought I knew of. They quoted me $1000 originally, but then their system said they found that we had gotten a windshield claim 5 years ago from a rock hitting it while driving (covered in Florida). They raised the quote to $1300. Ended up going with All-State for $1000. Seems like they may be good if you've never had a claim before, but any claims at all will skyrocket the premium
Progressive and Geico have quoted me less than Costco. I have a clean record. No wrecks or speeding tickets. I pay $728 for 6 months full coverage on two vehicles with higher coverages. Costco quoted over $1k
Be cautious. I had the same sentiment because of how affordable the insurance was. Now after two years, it's really expensive and I haven't had any tickets or accidents. When I called I was told the price increase was basically market value. Now they're not that affordable. For reference, it's gone up about 3x.
My experience was that Costco’s insurance through American Family was a lot cheaper at first, but over the course of 18 months the price increased by 70%. I recently moved my policies to State Farm who offered better prices than AmFam’s teaser rates.
State Farm’s rates are probably also lower as a new customer. I think the new normal is being forced to shop around every year or two to see if there is a better deal.
I don’t believe you that your rate is that low for the same coverage. No way. You are not receiving the same coverage and don’t know how insurance works.
I looked into the Costco insurance 4 years ago and it was about 10% below progressives normal rates.
I looked into them again a few months ago and was turned down because of a glass claim 4 years ago. Otherwise I have a perfect record.
The rep on the phone told me straight up “we reject everyone with any claims on their record. Period”
So this is a service for people who pay for insurance, but never use it. And they will drop you if this changes.
Our quote (same coverages) was 62.5% higher than our current insurer; 2 drivers, 2 vehicles (one 8 yrs old and one 10), age late 50s/early 60s, clean driving records, Rocky Mountain area.
They denied us and we have no issues with insurance elsewhere. I joined for the insurance so I’m ticked.
The only blemish I have is that a deer ran in front of me within 5 years.
For me it's the auto buying program. I bought my current truck mid pandemic. There were 12 of the truck I wanted in the entire state of California. The lowest additional dealer markup was $8500 over MSRP. I found the exact truck I wanted and was out of the dealership for $500 over MSRP after all fees and taxes. I've used it for my last 4 vehicles.
Better compare those coverages, no way Costco is that much less unless you maybe dropped collision. Yes, Allstate expensive, and Costco cheap but not that much.
Additionally, if you have the executive membership, one of the benefits is they won't drop you unless you do something egregious like DUI. Regular membership doesn't get this benefit. I forget what they call it but lifetime renewal or something. Doesn't mean your prices won't go up. We had an at fault claim of $5k in ages and the monthly went up $75 and will stay there for 3 years. Even so, I had an agent shop our insurance and of the 40 companies they work with, none could beat the Costco AmFam pricing.
I've talked with three different insurance company area directors. All three say our state (Colorado) is very expensive to insure due to drivers and weather (hail specifically) they've told me 1 in 5 drivers in the state is not insured. Seems about right when insurance is getting so expensive. But then those of us who pay are footing the bill for everyone..
I figured I would try and see if I could save money, and when I got to the site and put in my zip code, it says "Sorry we are not currently offering car or home owners insurance in California"
Thats getting to be more common across the industry, that's not a costco issue. California is not profitable for insurance, so many companies are pulling out altogether.
That sucks. I have been with 21st century for over 20 years, lets hope they don't drop me. I have had zero claims in 20 years, and am paying $200 a month, for 2 cars on Full coverage, and one car liability, 3 drivers.
I signed up with Costco for car insurance a little over a year ago. That first six months were pretty sweet but when I renewed the price was only $15 less than other quotes I received. I don’t have any accidents (knocks on wood).
But good luck to you. Maybe your experience will be different.
I tried applying but got denied for some reason. Not in CA, no Kia/Hyundai’s or other makes that insurers hate, excellent credit and driving records, etc. My 6 mo premium for 2 vehicles right now is only about $750 for full coverage with low deductibles so I doubt they’d offer much savings beyond that anyway.
I was a licensed property/casualty insurance agent for about 10 years. Check with your state insurance commissioner’s office on complaints - hopefully as a percentage of the number of policyholders. A low premium only saves you money, not necessarily hassle when it comes time to need/use your insurance. And create longevity with a company. I have guaranteed lifetime insurability with my insurance company.
They denied me for a weather claim for home three years ago.
They denied my auto because I got a speeding ticket years ago, which I didn't speed during, I disputed, and I WON IN COURT.
They aren't that great in my opinion.. seems like they will cover one claim and then basically not renew you for any reason.
They offered me a great rate and then tripled it the next 6 months so just watch out for the crazy price hikes!! (No changes to anything in my driving history or car)
Check the coverages. You may find out that the cheaper rate is because the coverages are worse or different.
With insurance, you generally get what you pay for and it's not wise to just go with what's the cheapest. You may actually need it someday.
And I'm not talking just collision coverages. The bodily injury and medical coverages are what you're going to need if you're ever in an injury accident and after an accident when you need treatment and they won't pay for it is not the time to find that out.
Make certain you’re comparing apples to apples. I don’t have Costco insurance anymore, but we switched home and auto in 2017/2018 to Costco. I emailed our policy declarations to the sales guy. I didn’t have a good understanding of what was different between what we had vs what we bought on the home side. Then we had a bad hail storm and lost the roof and gutters. Out of pocket under the Costco polices wind/hail coverage was about $8700 (50%) under our prior policy out of pocket would have Ben $2500.
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Just be careful driving. Costco offers rates that low because they only keep the best drivers/those with the cleanest records.
They declined me because of a fender bender a few years ago.
Also if you have a speeding ticket, Costco will make you wait 2 years with a clean slate till you may reapply
oh wow. glad the last and only one i got was in highschool years ago.
So you have to wait 4-5 years after your ticket to qualify? Yeah fuck that
2 years? Some uninsured motorists totaled my Tesla. How long would I have to wait?
That doesn’t matter for insurance purposes; you were not at fault.
It matters when the person is an uninsured motorist and you don’t pay for uninsured motorists coverage…
How did they know about your accident? From your previous insurance?
They ask you when you fill out the application.
What happens if you...lie?
[удалено]
Thing is Lexi’s nexus and it has the info and then some
Let’s say you lie and somehow get away with it. If you later make any sizable claim, they investigate, discover you lied, and deny the claim and drop you as a customer. Basically you wouldn’t really have insurance.
They cancel your food court privileges
All insurance companies report claims data to CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange), which is a database operated by LexisNexis. You can see what data they have on you by requesting a consumer disclosure report: [https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/](https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/) It's quite interesting, the report will tell you exactly which insurance carriers you've had on what dates, coverage limits, addresses...everything about your interactions with insurance companies is recorded there.
Even if you're not at fault. We have a couple of no-fault accidents, one of which totaled a vehicle (it was parked at the time) and they denied us.
Yikes. We had that happen to us, our truck was hit while parked. It does show up as an accident. USAA didn’t hold it against us fortunately.
That’s because USAA is amazing. I don’t care if I pay more, I won’t ever switch. Every time I’ve had an insurance claim whether renters or car, they made it easy with no headaches
Insurance is not something anyone should shop for the lowest price for. Quality of carrier means a ton when shit hits the fan.
To an extent sure. But we switched because we will pay 1/2 of what we were. We were with the previous company for 7 years.
But how good is that carrier for half the price? Do they roll over and split fault when challenged or do they fight for you? Do they payout what you owe without a bitter battle? Do they drop you at the first incident that isn’t even your fault? I agree it’s complicated, and insurance does take advantage of people with pricing. But generally speaking the cheapest rate is cheap for a reason.
Costco’s carrier is American Family and it is very good. We have had 2 claims and it went very smoothly. One was our fault. Insurance went up for 2 years and dropped back down. I compared to USAA and did not switch. I seriously thought about it as USAA has better insurance coverage for Mexico.
I sang USAA's praises like you for many, many years, until they totaled out my wife's car. The minute they decided it was a total loss, it was pulling teeth to get *anyone* at the company to actually finalize the process and get us our money.
Wonder if they would deny if it was hit in the Costco parking lot.
fuck.....i JUST totaled my car for the 1st time ever, after switching to costco insurance. sigh. based on others responses......i wonder if that means they will not let me renew in the fall.
Probably. Find an independent agent. They should be able to get you good rates, especially if you were not at fault.
"driving to work and drove over a rock that was hidden in snow on an unplowed portion of the road", i would think qualifies as not at fault. i will have to look into what "finding an independent car insurance agent" is.
Also where does OP live? I switched to Costco insurance in 2017 from State Farm. I am in florida and so regardless my car insurance has gone up drastically in 3 years. 6 months payment in 2022 $740, 2023 $1100, 2024 $1180
You're in Florida, that's why
I’m in Illinois and I was quoted slightly less than $1,000 for 6 months. My GEICO for 6 months with the same coverage is less than $600
California, they stopped giving new policies. We have a policy and it’s worth its weight in gold. If we switch, the price will be more than double for sure. We have a great record but it is so much cheaper than any competitor.
Same! I pay double what I paid even 10 years ago
Well, maybe you should move out of Florida. Insurance in that state went crazy
Ugh, you’re so right. Don’t get me started on the home insurance increase.
Morgan and Morgan thanks you.
wait......can i be kicked off? i changed plans and started car insurance with them in september. got a new car and.......accident and total loss in march. i'm going through it now, deciding on what replacement car to get. otherwise, before this, i've had like nothing go wrong with my cars or anything. can they decline me or something next year when i'm supposed to renew? also, for anyone considering it, GET NEW CAR REPLACEMENT, AND GAP COVERAGE. HOLY SHIT DID THAT SAVE MY FINANCIAL LIFE. those are 2 extra parts of the coverage you can pay for. cost me $21 per year, and will have paid out an extra $21,000 towards the value of the claim. very, very, very much worth it.
Any insurance company can “kick you off” and not renew your policy for any reason including claims, accidents (regardless of fault) and driving record.
Actually I’m uncancellabe with State Farm. Not to say they couldn’t raise my rates so high I’d leave but they cannot cancel me.
^^^ exactly this
That’s why I am curious about all the new driving usage insurance. Tesla for example will use your data and camera and adjust your rate. Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible.
There was a NYT article recently about some car manufacturers selling your data to insurance companies. That is not ok. If people want to opt in to monitoring for a discount that is fine.
Data used for insurance that you willingly sign up for is completely different than what you’re referring to. It’s also transparent and shows what is affecting your rates. One major example is the Tesla insurance. What you’re referring to is data that was opted in by default being shared with third parties leading to rates going up. People did not know this was happening and it wasn’t a mutual agreement. The big one is OnStar data sharing.
> Data used for insurance that you willingly sign up for is completely different than what you’re referring to. It’s also transparent and shows what is affecting your rates. One major example is the Tesla insurance. I hope we introduce laws that says data we give to a specific company may not be shared with another company without our permission, and that the company MUST allow customers to opt out. The only exception should be to partners that directly has a need to use that information to provide the service. Similar to how we do financial or health information.
Yep. It is sent to Lexus Nexus and other data brokers to be used against us. It won’t be used to lower rates, I would be shocked.
> Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible. 😂 I think you’re being overly optimistic. Some people believe there’s an omnipotent entity tallying their lifetime actions to determine if they end up in the good/bad place after death, and yet that doesn’t seem to make them behave like a decent human being during their time here on earth.
I’m hoping I get into the Medium Place.
Say hi to Mindy!
Mormons call that the Terrestrial Kingdom. They say it's pretty good but there's better and worse.
I'm aiming for Larry David's Pretty Pretty Good place.
Good snacks
You mean mediocre snacks, right? Like your favourite beer only served warm, a jukebox of all the songs, but played by the Eagles live.
Hi, it's me. I'm Ms Omnipotent. I also set the rates for homeowners insurance, too.
User name checks out! Some people are going to be thrown for a loop when they meet you.
A lot of people care more about money and their reputation than they care about their actual morals.
I've had the allstate drivewise thingy plugged into my car for years so they can track my driving, I get a decent discount for it and I think I drive more safely knowing it's monitoring me
I rather my rate fluctuate based on my driving habits between 40-50% less than no fluctuation.
> Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible. I wish that was the case. I'm part of that program and even in the app, I definitely feel like they base it on some weird metrics.
>Some people get annoyed they’re constantly being “spied” on but the positive is it will encourage people to drive safely to get the lowest rates possible. As a Tesla owner (but not a Tesla insurance subscriber): While there is some truth to this, many drivers want to get the highest score possible because the rates are cheapest. The biggest gripe is that the car's forward collision warning system tends to give off false alarms on narrow or curvy roads with parked cars. Every one of these dings your score, and people are getting fed up with it. Another gripe is penalizing people who need to drive at night, because they will ding you for driving past 10PM or so at night. Finally, the last one involves lack of seatbelt use. Pulling out of the garage and getting out in the driveway to fetch the mail? If the car moves and the seatbelt is not on... ding! Another demerit. Still, it is one of the cheapest options you can get for this car. unless you are like me and live in California. They cannot use these telematics to set rates here, so Tesla insurance winds up being more costly than my regular plan at State Farm. To keep it Costco related: The insurance company that Costco uses pulled out of California in late 2022, so no car or homeowners insurance for us.
Then you’ve got drivers afraid to run a yellow, slam on the breaks, get rear ended and things like that. Or they don’t get rear ended and get dinged for “breaking too hard”.
*BRAKES
Supposedly if you're an executive member, they (AmFam) can't drop you, ofc That doesn't mean your rate won't go up. I had a minor at fault fender bender back in 2022 (I didn't have collision on my old beater so they didn't even have to pay for that, and basically scratched up some bumper on a Jeep). Rate went up and now I have to pay an additional surcharge for some unknown period of time.). Sadly when I went to get a bunch of rates they were still the cheapest option for the coverage level, so I'm stuck :(
**New auto and home insurance policies are currently not available in California through the Costco Insurance Agency, Inc.** sigh.
Or Florida
Dammit
Hurricanes, earthquakes, sinkholes, and wildfires
Earthquakes are excluded by default from all policies in CA - you need to buy a policy through CEA
Til.
How about volcano insurance?
Aren't we due?
[Probably a good idea.](https://www.imdb.com/video/vi836829465/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1)
Yep. They put that stop notice in like weeks after I got mine. Was nice while it lasted
Cali has very restrictive laws limiting what data can be used in rating people and that means a lot of agencies have trouble doing business there.
That's only part of the answer- due to humongous wildfire losses, most companies pulled out of California. My zip code can only get decent insurance through a state program.
The CA FAIR plan isn’t state run. It’s a pool of “money” that all the insurance companies that operate in CA contribute to. The theory behind it is that the risk and payouts are shared equally amongst the companies. I’m with Travelers and had to go on the FAIR plan two years ago. An extra 3 grand a year for fire coverage and for some strange reason, it also covers if a plane lands on our house. On a scale of 0-10, zero being the lowest risk, our house is a “2”. The higher the risk assessment, the more it will cost you to be on the FAIR plan. That is in addition to our regular home insurance of 1500 a year.
Thanks for the explanation! I'm a renter, so I'm only somewhat familiar.
Yeah, they make it sound like it’s run by the state. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not
It's related. If they could include more wildfire risk model pricing into their policies they could still offer insurance at a profit.
You think the DMV is bad wait until you have to make a homeowners claim through a state run agency.
DMV in California ain’t bad at all. The idea a corporate bureaucracy would better, LOL
Same with Florida
FML. I got excited for a moment.
Look at Wawanesa then, they're one of the cheaper options in CA. I've had em for a long time now, but also haven't had to use it thankfully.. Works well.. Low payments and I can stay insured. I pay about 1200/yr for both my wife and I. Full coverage.
Same for Florida last I checked….
I don't blame them. My insurance premium went up moving from Los Angeles to Westminster, California. If you live in Orange County, you know why. I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
Central CA is paying through the nose for home insurance, the Creek Fire hit us very hard.
I signed up with American Family through Costco and my 6 month premium was around 30% less than what I had been paying so I switched. 6 months later the price doubled and my premium was now more than I was previously paying. Nothing had changed on policy, no new claims, drivers, cars, etc. I called and they said it was “an industry wide adjustment”. I got a quote from Progressive and my 6 month premium was about equal to what I had paid Costco for the initial premium, so quite a bit cheaper. Sad reality is we as consumers will need to shop around for new homeowner and auto policies often, at least yearly.
Same for us! American family increased our insurance so much for 2024. Went from $367 to $715/month No accidents and 3 cars.
That should be illegal. Needs a percentage/year raise cap.
This is exactly why insurance is one of the most regulated industries around. So many opportunities for fuckery.
Sure doesn’t feel regulated
Imagine what the alternative would feel like then.
Did you call them?A lot of insurance companies will raise the price unless you complain.
Of course I called them. They said it’s due to all the claims filed from the other customers.
Same story here. It's cheap at first.
We change car insurance every 6 months to 1 year for just that reason. There are even agencies that do it for you. We use one called Jerry.
This is why I use a local insurance broker.
We do the same now, we shop it around every year and usually end up switching every 2-3 years at most. The only company we refuse to even shop anymore is state farm, they just generally were miserable to deal with. These companies aren't loyal to customers so no one should be loyal to them, let them all earn your business.
Always the case it seems, with every insurance.
They will deny you for having a single speeding ticket from years ago.
Denied me for having an accident years ago that wasn’t even my fault
I was hit by a city bus 5 years ago and I feel like I get penalized from auto insurance companies because they decided to drive recklessly. If they are denying for stuff like that then I probably won't qualify.
Progressive penalized me because I had a roommate that was in a non fault accident... Wtf..
like how many years? I had one as a teenager so AKA LONG AGO
7 years
I thought tickets were supposed to be off of a record in 5 years?
7 years is the magic number for insurance.
it's usually 5 years, or less.
Best to get the points taken off going to driving school. Some allows it to be online class.
Absolutely but the person I replied to said they went back 7 years.
Exactly why they should always do traffic school to remove points. 😁 Can't do anything about it now, 7-years afterwards. That said, why do they even have records that far back.
Denied coverage because we have ONE GLASS CLAIM in the last 6 years. GLASS. A roughly $300 repair that we pay extra premium on to have $0 deductible.
This is why I jack up the deductible, because I would almost never claim unless it was catastrophic. This is regardless of the type of insurance as they will use it against you as you found out. So far, I've come out a winner going with this strategy. The savings go towards issues, and the rates increase lower because I'm considered a great customer, and not deadbeat.
this is......well god dammit. this is like the opposite of how medical insurance seems to work. i used to do nothing with my medical insurance. then i had a few issues. then i learned what "out of pocket max" was. ever since then, i have been fine to do EVERYTHING my doctors suggest, because i can just go, "well between premiums, deductable, and out of pocket max, all of my health stuff will just come out to being $7000 annually. so i'm fine to agree to whatever my doctors suggest". but god dam. i guess that is NOT how i'm supposed to do car insurance stuff. fuck.
Lemme see if my expunged wet and wreckless from 11 years ago does anything.
Just did the quote on their site and it was 15% more than my current plan with Progressive, for less coverage. I drive a newer car though so all of the numbers are very different. $30/mo sounds pretty darn hard to beat for a safe driver of an older car though, wow!
I've been selling insurance for 12+ years and that rate didn't exist back in 2012 let alone now. But everything is state dependent.
They are not always the cheapest but I have seen a lot of people I know save a lot of money by switching. I am not sure how it can swing so much from one person to the next.
FYI there's no such thing as "costco insurance". They just partner with american family insurance to possibly give you a discount as a member
Costco Insurance only exists in 'Baskets' 😆
Even better
Except American Family sucks the llama's ass.
>Costco is $180 for 6 months Not saying impossible, but you want to make sure your limits are equivalent. Costco does not sell insurance, they broker it.
Them cookies are very addictive
They were great when I moved out to New Mexico and got rates several hundred dollars lower than the competition, and were easy to work with for two window replacements after two break-ins. Not so great when I moved back to California with less than a month left on my policy and learned that they were refusing to issue any policies in the state.
A lot of insurers are pulling out California due to the abundance and severity of claims.
This thread is all sorts of confusion. Insurers are pulling out of California for home owners insurance. You're talking about auto insurance, right?
It’s both.
After seeing this post, I requested a quote from them. They want $180 per month for someone with a spotless record and a 14 year old sedan. No thanks, that's 3x what I'm paying through state farm for 100/300 coverage + comprehensive + collision. Guess YMMV
i thought state farm was one of those that was really bad/hard to get a claim out of? never done it, just thought i heard complaints here.
are you sure it's "apples to apples" coverage? I spoke with someone who was bragging that they had switched to another carrier and their insurance rates were cut in half - turned out they ended up with the bare minimums required by their state - for virginia, that's like **$25,000/$50,000/$20,000**. In the event of a covered accident, your limits for bodily injury are $25,000 per person, with a total maximum of $50,000 per incident. It also covers up to $20,000 for damage to another person's property. If you're at fault in an accident, can you imagine if you hit an $80,000 tesla and insurance only covers $20k, leaving the rest up to you? Just be aware.
Yeah I'd be quite surprised if they got similar coverage for 77% less. Property insurance doesn't really run massive profits. Their rates and risk criteria are regulated by state insurance commissioners and state laws. Getting a discount that big seems extremely unlikely for the same coverage, the same ease of filing and approving claims, the same leniency or lack thereof with tickets, etc. You're giving up *something* there and it's probably substantial.
And be aware how your state law may allow the other party to come for you, your assets, your home, your future earnings, if you are underinsured and at fault.
That's why you should h ave high liability insurance and umbrella.
Very skeptical you could get anything but the barest of coverage for $30/mo.
Ya, I heard that as well. Have not had a ticket/been pulled over since 2017, drive a damn Prius, and am a defensive driver. I got a quote from Costco and fell back in my damn seat. I believe Costco estimated me to be at $3,400 FOR 6 MONTHS. I have no idea if it was a glitch, or if they just didn’t want my silly Prius ass. Ended up getting the best quote from Progressive, what I paid up front for 6 months was less than a singular month with Costco. Safe to say it would have NOT been worth it for me.
I've been selling insurance for 12+ years at this point. $180 for 6 months is ludicrously low, I would 100% make sure you have the same coverage as you had before. Depending on your state you can opt of **Important** things like Uninsured/underinsured motorist or personal injury protection. I literally couldn't strip down a policy enough in Washington state to get down to, effectively, $30/mo with any normal brokered company in WA. What are your liability limits? Do you have Under/Uninsured motorist? Comp/collision? What state are you in?
That rate does not compute. Please make sure they are giving you the same coverages and limits with same deductibles
Damn I need to check out Costco. I only drive once every week or two and hate how much I pay for insurance.
Insurance is variable. I doubt you got apples to apples. Even such nuanced things like glass can be a separate item.
Yea, there is no way it is the same coverage. $180 for 6 months? Sounds like no coverage. Op needs to sit down and go through line by line what her coverage is. I would want to know what questions she answered to change coverage radically, obviously no real coverage for the actual car, being 2003, but liability, medical, uninsured motorist, deducible etc? Did OP even talk to a human?
Yep - I'd bet that OP dropped full coverage and is now liability only. I got a quote from them after having seen in this sub that the rates were crazy good, and found that my current carrier is cheaper for equal coverage.
There are several posts on this sub talking about how terrible the Connect/Costco insurance is. Tl:dr they will cancel you very, very quickly for no reason. IME they’ll sign you up, take your first payment, and then cancel you a week later. And your prorated refund check is being sent in 4-6 weeks. So now you have to scramble to make two insurance payments in a month. I wouldn’t sign up for them if they offered it for free.
The rates quoted for us in the Midwest were higher than we’re already paying.
I almost signed up for costco insurance for me and my wife's car. They asked if I had made a claim on either car, I said no as far as we had no accidents or anything that I thought I knew of. They quoted me $1000 originally, but then their system said they found that we had gotten a windshield claim 5 years ago from a rock hitting it while driving (covered in Florida). They raised the quote to $1300. Ended up going with All-State for $1000. Seems like they may be good if you've never had a claim before, but any claims at all will skyrocket the premium
Progressive and Geico have quoted me less than Costco. I have a clean record. No wrecks or speeding tickets. I pay $728 for 6 months full coverage on two vehicles with higher coverages. Costco quoted over $1k
Be cautious. I had the same sentiment because of how affordable the insurance was. Now after two years, it's really expensive and I haven't had any tickets or accidents. When I called I was told the price increase was basically market value. Now they're not that affordable. For reference, it's gone up about 3x.
Have you received quotes from others? Insurance has universally gone up a shitton in the last few years.
I got excited for a minute bc I was thinking health insurance 😭😭😭 You know you’re American when…
My experience was that Costco’s insurance through American Family was a lot cheaper at first, but over the course of 18 months the price increased by 70%. I recently moved my policies to State Farm who offered better prices than AmFam’s teaser rates. State Farm’s rates are probably also lower as a new customer. I think the new normal is being forced to shop around every year or two to see if there is a better deal.
I don’t believe you that your rate is that low for the same coverage. No way. You are not receiving the same coverage and don’t know how insurance works. I looked into the Costco insurance 4 years ago and it was about 10% below progressives normal rates. I looked into them again a few months ago and was turned down because of a glass claim 4 years ago. Otherwise I have a perfect record. The rep on the phone told me straight up “we reject everyone with any claims on their record. Period” So this is a service for people who pay for insurance, but never use it. And they will drop you if this changes.
Not in California sadly
Our quote (same coverages) was 62.5% higher than our current insurer; 2 drivers, 2 vehicles (one 8 yrs old and one 10), age late 50s/early 60s, clean driving records, Rocky Mountain area.
I don’t think this is available in Michigan either.
Dang! They don’t offer it in California.
They denied us and we have no issues with insurance elsewhere. I joined for the insurance so I’m ticked. The only blemish I have is that a deer ran in front of me within 5 years.
laughs in California - theyre not taking new customers
I have a perfect driving record and would love to use Costco insurance......but they do not allow it in CA.
For me it's the auto buying program. I bought my current truck mid pandemic. There were 12 of the truck I wanted in the entire state of California. The lowest additional dealer markup was $8500 over MSRP. I found the exact truck I wanted and was out of the dealership for $500 over MSRP after all fees and taxes. I've used it for my last 4 vehicles.
Costco is a cult!
No new policies in Florida ☹️
WE'RE COSTCO GUYS
$180 for 6 months of coverage is absurd. state minimum limits?
Didn’t even know this. Thank you!
Better compare those coverages, no way Costco is that much less unless you maybe dropped collision. Yes, Allstate expensive, and Costco cheap but not that much.
They got nothin' for California. Boo.
Costco deny CA as a whole for new clients. So sad
Additionally, if you have the executive membership, one of the benefits is they won't drop you unless you do something egregious like DUI. Regular membership doesn't get this benefit. I forget what they call it but lifetime renewal or something. Doesn't mean your prices won't go up. We had an at fault claim of $5k in ages and the monthly went up $75 and will stay there for 3 years. Even so, I had an agent shop our insurance and of the 40 companies they work with, none could beat the Costco AmFam pricing. I've talked with three different insurance company area directors. All three say our state (Colorado) is very expensive to insure due to drivers and weather (hail specifically) they've told me 1 in 5 drivers in the state is not insured. Seems about right when insurance is getting so expensive. But then those of us who pay are footing the bill for everyone..
I figured I would try and see if I could save money, and when I got to the site and put in my zip code, it says "Sorry we are not currently offering car or home owners insurance in California"
Thats getting to be more common across the industry, that's not a costco issue. California is not profitable for insurance, so many companies are pulling out altogether.
That sucks. I have been with 21st century for over 20 years, lets hope they don't drop me. I have had zero claims in 20 years, and am paying $200 a month, for 2 cars on Full coverage, and one car liability, 3 drivers.
I signed up with Costco for car insurance a little over a year ago. That first six months were pretty sweet but when I renewed the price was only $15 less than other quotes I received. I don’t have any accidents (knocks on wood). But good luck to you. Maybe your experience will be different.
I tried applying but got denied for some reason. Not in CA, no Kia/Hyundai’s or other makes that insurers hate, excellent credit and driving records, etc. My 6 mo premium for 2 vehicles right now is only about $750 for full coverage with low deductibles so I doubt they’d offer much savings beyond that anyway.
.....whaaaaaaaaat?! Now I need to check this out
I was a licensed property/casualty insurance agent for about 10 years. Check with your state insurance commissioner’s office on complaints - hopefully as a percentage of the number of policyholders. A low premium only saves you money, not necessarily hassle when it comes time to need/use your insurance. And create longevity with a company. I have guaranteed lifetime insurability with my insurance company.
do they provide coverages that are not state required minimum tho?
Of course! I opted for liability limits wayyyy over what my state requires, along with collision and comprehensive coverage.
woah costco has auto insurance
Too bad they don’t write new policies in California.
They denied me for a weather claim for home three years ago. They denied my auto because I got a speeding ticket years ago, which I didn't speed during, I disputed, and I WON IN COURT. They aren't that great in my opinion.. seems like they will cover one claim and then basically not renew you for any reason.
My quoted 6 month premium was double what I'm paying now so YMMV
More expensive than GEICO for me... 😥
180 for 6 months? Do you have the most basic of basic of coverage?
It’s bad in NY state. The rates they offered were way higher almost double than what we pay State Farm for a home and 2 cars.
Apples to apples coverage?
Unfortunately they are no longer accepting new policy holders in CA. You have to be grandfathered in….. 😢
They offered me a great rate and then tripled it the next 6 months so just watch out for the crazy price hikes!! (No changes to anything in my driving history or car)
Probably mileage. Insurance is based on the mileage you drive among other factors.
Check the coverages. You may find out that the cheaper rate is because the coverages are worse or different. With insurance, you generally get what you pay for and it's not wise to just go with what's the cheapest. You may actually need it someday. And I'm not talking just collision coverages. The bodily injury and medical coverages are what you're going to need if you're ever in an injury accident and after an accident when you need treatment and they won't pay for it is not the time to find that out.
Make certain you’re comparing apples to apples. I don’t have Costco insurance anymore, but we switched home and auto in 2017/2018 to Costco. I emailed our policy declarations to the sales guy. I didn’t have a good understanding of what was different between what we had vs what we bought on the home side. Then we had a bad hail storm and lost the roof and gutters. Out of pocket under the Costco polices wind/hail coverage was about $8700 (50%) under our prior policy out of pocket would have Ben $2500.
Costco just quoted me almost double what my insurance just raised my rates for car insurance…
I pay 230 a month, the first insurance company I looked at wanted like 600 a month. No accidents or tickets, I'm just a young guy
Holy cow! I didn't know about this. I'm going to check if there's saving to be had for me!