For almost 20 years I've had USAA insurance. I had a month of bad luck where my 4 year old daughter let her door open wide and hit one of those new Lexus sport coupes - right in front of the owner. I also had a "tire rub" incident with a middle eastern couple that claim my tires rubbed the corner of their bumper. Two payouts - $550 and $230.
I get a note from them telling them I am being switched to one of their "high risk" policies and that my premiums are going from around $1200 a year to $4000 a year!
choke*
Obviously, I am at a disadvantage with USAA becuase of these two small claims. Neither claim resulted in a police report and/or conviction.
My question is - if I shop around for alternative quotes, do I have to tell them about those two incidents if there was no police report? The person I spoke to suggested that the insurance companies had a national system for claim reports which indicated any claims made by a person and that they would show up with any company I went to - is this true?
My other question is - am I better off signing up for insurance under my wifes name who has no record and being added on to hers?
I just went through the same thing with USAA. Was with them for 6 years without incident, got into 1 accident and was immediatley dropped. Their "high risk policy" was attrocious (through Progressive) and I went elsewhere for insurance. The way another insurance companies find out about you previous claims is when they start your new policy, they contact your former insurer and ask for your claim record. If you don't give them permission to get that file, they will not give you a policy. It's fucking bullshit and it sucks, most comanies rate you on your previous three years (USAA rates you on your previous 5). Good luck, I had to get a shit insurance policy through Mercury just to get an SR-22 so I could get my license back. California suspended it for 30 days for "point accumulation" from that 1 accident. Being on "high risk" tripled my premiums. Search around, they was a huge difference in the prices I was getting from people. An insurance broker (AIS) can give you the best quotes from 30 or so different companies. I called several of them just to have a broader range of options. 21st Century seemed to be a pretty good company and might be able to hook you up.
I've found AIG to be really good. I had a fender bender that cost about $2,000 and they hiked my rate up with $200 for 6 months before they let me back into the good cheap rate again. I was very happy, because i couldn't find anything else that gave me a good rate for the viper and my daily driver. I've been with them for 5 years i think they are a class-act.
I did call a couple - Geicoa and AllState - for quotes. And I told them everything about my history. My quotes were around $1500 (Geoico wanted the premium paid up front - the lady went from nice to nasty when I balked at giving her a $700 deposit!)
I think I will try the insurance broker route to see what they say.
Well, I had to take responsibility for my daughter opening her door to the car next to her. The other one the insurance company balked at paying her, but after 8 months paid her the $230.
I assume they consider those claims to be my fault.
When my husband was added to my insurance when we got married they dropped me cause of his bad driving record. It has since cleared up, but we have Travelers now. Even if your wife has a clean record, your record will transfer over. No way to avoid it.
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