State Farm vs Progressive

State Farm is top notch. You won't go wrong. Allstate is horrible, ask any bodyshop. In my mind, State Farm is much better than Progressive...

 

State Farm pays claims pretty well. They also regularly change your coverage and raise the rates. I could not deal with it anymore after 12 years without a claim so I switched around for a couple years and now am with Allstate. I expect poor service if I ever have a claim, but I am playing the odds at this point.
BT

 

The bad thing about companies like Progressive and Geico, is the lack of local agents to help when you have problems. I have a local State Farm agent that will go to bat for me if a problem should arise.

 

Go to your body shop if you have a relationship with one and ask them to rate their experience with each. Then it becomes a matter of service on your end. For me I want a carrier that deals with claims well and a body shop is a good source of that info.

I have Progressive on the scooter and another carrier on the cars. Progressive was the best deal for motorcycle ins but they could not come close to my existing co for the cars. My car co was horrible for motorcycle ins.

 

I've used State Farm for 6 years now and have had only one claim which was taken care of quickly and without hassle.

 

I've been with State Farm for almost 20 years. I've had superb claims processing experience with State Farm (teen drivers ), so I've not been motivated to shop around. However, when someone posts the "how much insurance for a Ferrari" question, the rates I see go by are generally about the same or much higher than my rates.

 

A friend had pretty good experience with State Farm claims. I haven't had one with them yet (knock wood) but I use them when I'm in a state they cover. (E.g. not MA). I get a discount for having my cars and homeowners through the same agent.

Of course, in Northern VA, the rates are even higher than MA -- this is where MA sends Teddy to keep him off MA roads.

 

Where is FarmerDave to post his opinion? He of all people here has a lot of helpful information.

 

+1.
I have been with State Farm for years. A couple of no fault claims were handled well and quickly. My rates have gone down and not up. Knock on wood.

 

Agreed. Same experience here. Just call up a couple body shops and see which insurance company they say is the easiest to deal with.

Tim

 

I must have been insured by a difference State Farm than the rest of the people here.. had them for 10 years and my agent was the son of the agent who handled my parents' insurance for 12 years before that. So 22 years with State Farm, changing hands from the father to the son when he took over, long family history together, etc.. and all I got was hassles, unpaid claims, rude treatment from corporate, and ultimately bent over without lube. They threatened to drop me each time I filed a claim, none of which were my fault (rear ended, etc) and finally made good on their threats at one point...

I'm with Chubb now and oddly enough am not the least bit worried should anything happen to one of my cars...

-R

 

It's kind of like having to decide whether you would rather be ruled by Pol Pot or Hitler. Good Luck.

 

I had State Farm for many years and when I was looking to buy my car they would not give me a quote on a rate. And after I bought the car they said that they could not insure it becaues the car was very rare to own in my area. And it wasn't because of my driving record, I have had no points, accidents or tickets for the past ten years. And I got a run around when I checked with Nationwide so I went with Allstate.

 

Good luck if you have a claim. I "inherited" Allstate coverage from my parents, too, at first. After they insisted that a vinyl top was an adequate replacement for my canvas Alfa softtop --- and depreciated it on a three year scale, they wound up paying something like $10 on an $800 top. (The canvas tops are good for over 15 years.) I dumped them like yesterday's garbage.

But I think all the major insurance companies want to drop the DC metro area. (They already dropped Massachusetts, which is why everyone there wound up on State sponsored "Commerce Insurance".) State Farm will only write me a 6 month policy in the DC area. I didn't have that trouble with State Farm in VA Beach. The only hassle I had with my cars was trying to explain what an Alfa Romeo was: the agent had never heard of it.