Geico Shout Out

[Sour Masher]

I totaled my car Monday--my fault, was following too close, so when the car in front of my suddenly slammed on his breaks I hit him. I found essentially the same car 75 miles away--same make, model, but a year newer with 15k less mileage for pretty close to the very fair amount Geico already paid me in less than a week for my totaled car. I called to see how much my insurance was going to go up with the new car and the accident on my record, and my premium actually went down, because I drive less than what was on my file. I was shocked, but they said that since I've been incident free for over 20 years, they had added accident forgiveness to my policy automatically for free years ago, and I didn't know it. I feel kinda wrong. I always thought causing an accident damn near ruined your life, but I'm actually coming out even or maybe even ahead...seems wrong, but I'm not complaining.

I always thought insurance was a scam I had to put up with, where I was basically paying for gecko and cavemen ads. But I'm sure glad I had it, and I can't imagine I could have had a better experience with another insurance company.

[Hornsby]

Well, Geico is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, which is owned in large part by Warren Buffett. So I'm not really surprised that it's actually a pretty ethical company, given the views of it's major owner. Perhaps I should switch over...Hmmmm.

Good to hear that you came out of the situation whole and healthy.

[nullnor]

last week i was driving home and started looking at my teeth in the rear view mirror, and i've like never seen traffic backed up that far but when i looked back a few seconds later i realized it was stopped and i didn't have enough distance to stop. like a bad dream. i was in the fast lane and as i jammed on the brakes and kept getting closer at the last minute i noticed the guy on my right next to the car in front of me i am about to crash into didn't pull up all the way. at the last second i veered right between him and the car in front of him and ended up not hitting anybody. i stopped for a moment after like, i guess i can keep going since i didn't hit anyone. i have great reflexes i think, but that was close.

afterwards you kind of think, at least my front end isn't smashed and no-one got hurt. i should be more careful.

[onejayhawk]

I used to think that GEICO was General Electric Ins. Co. It's not. It's Government Employee Ins. Co. so I got a discount for working DoD. Not anymore but I still use them.

J

[Hornsby]

Right, but rear-ending someone in a car can be a completely different animal. Most states treat that as an avoidable accident, no matter the road conditions, and assign the majority of blame, if not all the blame to the driver of the car in the rear. So for a company to actually forgive the accident seems to be pretty good treatment. No that I want to test that theory with my insurance company.

I agree with you on property damage, I've had two new roofs put on due to hail damage, and they never blinked. Just came out, looked at the damage and issued a check on the spot. Technically, you don't even have to fix the damage, or you can do it yourself, but if it happens to the same area of the home again, you may be out of luck.

[Sour Masher]

Accident forgiveness is a contract provision, not a sign that an insurance company is giving someone good treatment.

I can't speak to personal injury, as thankfully that did not occur in my accident, and I can see where that is the real test of a company, because that is a much bigger liability. And I agree that accident forgiveness is a contract provision, but I was only aware of it as an option people paid for, not something they'd just give. I didn't choose to pay for it (although I suppose it may have been baked into my premium without my knowledge, instead of them giving me good driving discounts over the years). But given the general complacency of most policy owners, they could have not given me accident forgiveness, since it wasn't something I was aware I had, so for that, I was pleasantly surprised.

[Hornsby]

A car is property. The property damage that I was referring to was the damage to the car. Regardless of fault, insurance companies tend to pay those claims without much trouble. And what you're saying about rear ender accidents is not really how it works - what you're talking about is how an insurance company will treat an accident, not a state. Accident forgiveness is a contract provision, not a sign that an insurance company is giving someone good treatment.

Actually, writing that kind of provision into the contract IS a sign that the insurance company is giving a client good treatment. Not on an individual basis, but for any client who qualifies for the provision.

[Pogues]

Right, but rear-ending someone in a car can be a completely different animal. Most states treat that as an avoidable accident, no matter the road conditions, and assign the majority of blame, if not all the blame to the driver of the car in the rear. So for a company to actually forgive the accident seems to be pretty good treatment. No that I want to test that theory with my insurance company.

I agree with you on property damage, I've had two new roofs put on due to hail damage, and they never blinked. Just came out, looked at the damage and issued a check on the spot. Technically, you don't even have to fix the damage, or you can do it yourself, but if it happens to the same area of the home again, you may be out of luck.

My sister rear-ended someone a couple years back, and was given full blame. The road was wet, the driver in front of her dropped his cell phone, bent over to pick it up and hit the brakes pretty hard. His son even told the officer who showed up that is what his dad did, and the driver received a citation. She still she gets full blame.

Nuts.