I've always thought that insurance was a state approved scam. I mean, you pay them a bunch of money each month to, essentially, do nothing. Unless you need to actually use the insurance, then, for a moment, it's good to have. BUT, then they hike up your rates so high, you wind up paying for whatever it is they helped you out with, anyway. How does this make sense? You pay someone X dollars for a service, as long as you don't ever USE it. Then, if you DO use it, you have to pay more.  And you're required by law to have it!

The object of my current ire is Geico. I've been up and down about them for years. It started when I got my current car in '02. Since I was financing it, I had to get comprehensive coverage, so I just upgraded my existing Geico coverage. For the longest time, I seemed unable to receive mail from Geico. More than once my policy would be on the verge of cancellation because I never received their bills. They break down their payments into 4 monthly payments, then 2 months off, then 4 more on. So, if it was never as simple as "have I payed this month?", because 2 of every 6 months, I wouldn't have to pay, and wouldn't receive a bill. Several times I didn't receive the bill, then would get the "cancellation warning" letter in the bright pink envelope screaming at me for missing my payment. I would then make an instant on-line payment and everything was fine. Once, I received a bill in a normal envelope right before going on a road trip for a week. What I didn't know was that it was a cancellation warning and they just, for some reason, put it in a normal envelope this time. I thought to myself, "ah, insurance bill. It'll be due the first of the month, I'll take care of it when I get back, I'll have plenty of time." Granted, not opening it was a mistake on my behalf. So, naturally, while I was out on my trip, my policy was suspended. And, even more naturally, there was an incident while I was on the trip where a car in front of me on the freeway had it's window shatter, spraying my car with glass, ruining the finish. I made a claim, but it was denied because, lo and behold, my policy was suspended. The first time I've EVER filed a claim with a car insurance company in more than 13 years of driving and it was denied.

I decided right then that as soon as my car was paid off, I'd fire Geico and just get some cheap, minimum coverage so I didn't pay so much into the scam. Then, Geico did some things right by me. My comprehensive plan has a thing called "Mechanical Breakdown Coverage" which essentially acts like an extended warranty. On my Baseball Quest in 2006, my air conditioner went out, in 117 degree heat. I got it fixed in San Ramon, California while on the leg of the trip where we were staying with my brother up there. At the time I was unaware of/had forgotten about the mechanical breakdown coverage, so I ponied up the cash to get it fixed. Almost a year later, when I finally realized it should've been covered, I put in a claim with Geico. And they paid it! Reimbursing me $1200 after a year went a long way towards putting them on my good side. I thought, "maybe insurance isn't as much of a scam as I thought...".

Fast forward one year. After my car's tangle with the neighbor's garage, Geico stepped up to the plate again. They said I was fully covered, and there wouldn't even be a deductible. Then, after that policy's term expired, and my renewal papers came in, they had hiked up my premium to almost triple what it had been. Triple! I was going to cancel them on the spot, but seeing as how I had that 6000+ mile road-trip on the horizon, I thought that "mechanical breakdown coverage" would bring some real peace of mind on my trip. And it did.

3 days after returning from the trip, my car gets hit. Fortunately, it was completely not my fault. No stress at all for me...until Geico stepped in. I called to report the accident, of course. At the time, it wasn't certain that the guy that hit me would be found to be at fault, although it was pretty damn close to certain. The guy that hit me worked for the dealership where I bought my car, and where I have traditionally taken it for major repair work such as this. He said he could make us a deal to help us both out and that sounded fine to me. But the Geico representative pressured me to use their "designated repair station" because he could "guarantee their work" and they would "bump me to the front of the line to get me fixed faster". If I had known already that the other guy's insurance would be footing the bill, I would have said forget it and taken it to the dealer. But since that hadn't been decided yet, and I wanted to get someone started on the repairs right away, I went ahead and took it to Geico's "designated repair station". It was quick and easy enough getting it checked in. There was even a full time Geico representative on the premises. It was a Wednesday morning, and I had opted not to rent a car because its not covered in my plan, and I could do without the car until the following Monday. Then I found out it wouldn't be ready until Wednesday, which was a little surprising. So I went ahead and rented a car.  On Wednesday I called to see when I could pick up my car, and they said it wasn't ready, because Geico hadn't approved the purchase of a new tire. Get this, the truck that hit me did so on the wheel, damaging the wheel, destroying the hubcap, and damaging the suspension, alignment, power steering, you name it. How could Geico justify not covering the tire that was on the wheel that had to be replaced? The tire that took the brunt of the impact! That the repair man said was "clearly unsafe to drive on"? So, paperwork and red tape ensued, and finally a new tire was approved. So I call again on Thursday to see when I could pick up the car, and it still wasn't ready. The tire was "on order" and they wouldn't get it in until the next day. So, I called again on Friday. The tire would be in no later than 3:30pm. So I called at 4pm. They had put on the tire and had it aligned, but there was some noise coming from the front end that they would have to check out, it wouldn't be ready until at least Monday. At this point I exclaimed a bit about how long they had gone beyond when they had told me my car would be ready, and that I was paying for a rental car for 4 more days and that I could've bought my own tire and put it on myself for less. At this point the repair shop offered me the use of their loaner car, so I wouldn't have to keep the rental through the weekend. Kudos to them for that. My point is that Geico's "designated repair station" where they could "get it done quicker" had taken a week longer to repair my car than the dealership where I had wanted to take my car had taken when I took it there for much more extensive repair work a year ago.

I've already priced some other companies. None of them offer the Mechanical Breakdown Coverage, which is, admittedly, very nice, but It's not worth paying an extra $1800/year for. Geico can consider themselves fired.

Note: Post from April '07 extolling the virtues of Geico Here. To be fair.
Follow up to this article Here.