Letting you in on info on auto insurance in California.

[IITravel]

Just wanted to save some of you Californians buying auto insurance some money. Most of you have heard of Survival Insurance brokerage (the largest auto insurance brokerage in CA according to them). Well if your are buying from them or renewing with them here is a little deal for you. This company is Scientology based and most of you probably don't know this "church / religion" is nicknamed the church of greed. Basically do whatever you can to get the sale and for how ever much you can get from the client, shades of Glen Gary Glen Ross and Boiler Room. I don't want to get into this too deep so here is the deal. The next time you buy from make sure your Broker Fee is no more than around $105. The broker will tell you a million different stories about how come you are paying $300 or $500 or $800 Broker Fee, it's all false. The Broker Fee is arbitrary and the minimum (at least last year it was) is $100 plus $5 to pull your DMV drivers record (which actually costs them around $2.50), most other brokerages have an even lower minimum fee. The broker makes most of his paycheck on the excess Broker Fees, so they will try to get you the least amount of insurance (they make very little on the actual insurace commission) and the largest amount from the Broker Fee. If the agent doesn't budge, they're bluffing and just walk to the next broker in the office and ask them to write you up at $105 BF, the next person will be happy to do it, especially if they are a new agent (though the original agent will probably try to pull the deal).

I know that most of you will find this a odd post, but this is actually probably one of the best deals for those buying auto insurance from a brokerage in California. If I just saved you $200 or more you should be very happy that you have this money to buy some more deals posted here.

 

[amnesiac]

Holy cow, I never knew that. That's a VERY nice piece of info there. Thank you SO much.. I've been needing to get a better insurance policy ever since my driving record went to hell...

 

[IITravel]

Glad to have helped, I was preparing to put on a pyrotechnics outfit for the Flaming, but this is a nice start. Now if there was an available hack to get into the FSC rating system then you could all price your own insurance and find the best deal, skip the broker (and the Broker Fee) and purchase straight through the insurance company.

 

[IITravel]

DP

 

[thai]

i dont understand.

i just bought a new honda accord and got insurance for it, but i didnt see any fee such as BF. im using state farm btw.

 

[broncomd]

You can skip the brokers all together by calling the insurance companies direct. Many of the larger companies have direct insurance available. They can be found on the net or in the yellow pages under Insurance.

 

[IITravel]

State Farm is a Insurance Company, you bought it straight from the Insurance Company. A brokerage is a company that carries a lot of different companies (mostly smaller companies) and just puts your info in the computer and finds the cheapest deal for you. About a half hour or so of work for the broker. If you don't have a good driving record and you go from a Big Insurance Co. like Farmers and shop it at a broker, they will find you insurance for maybe (this is just an example) $800 cheaper, but charge you a $400 broker fee. You think this is great for $400 savings, but actually you probably get a much inferior product (unless your just shopping for liability insurance) and this broker is happy he just made a fat deal. You wouldn't be so happy if you knew you could have walked out with $300 more in your pocket if you just asked for a smaller BF or went to the person at the next desk, Always avoid the Managers (there the ones making the good money because they are good at getting money out of the clients). Just try this, look at the monthly payments and add about 50%. This should be around your downpayment to the actual insurance company, the rest is usually Broker Fee. Hope that explains a little.

 

[jsmonet]

state farm is an agency, not a brokerage. when you walk in, you get state farm insurance. a brokerage looks around and sells you to another company. brokers suck.

thanks for the heads up-not that I myself needed it.

brokers suck, state farm rocks. I've had several losses related to my car (i'm a target I guess). within a week I had my check to cover the loss. killer company. they are getting pounded in the rates dept. cuz they aren't really the lowest cost by any standard.

my friend has mercury. he totalled a vehicle. it took them two months to even figure out what they wanted to do. took another month to get a check from them. in three months and hundreds of phone calls, my friend actually spoke to his agent twice. that's ridiculous.

 

[IITravel]

Here's another tip, call the brokers a few times. You will usually get different agents each time you call. See how the rates from the same place very. And don't trust all those rates, a lot of times you will get "low balled" which is a rate lower that it should be to get you in the door. That's when the sales training kicks in and you usually end up paying more because most people seem too lazy to just get up and walk out.

 

[BadMuleS]

i love ohio

 

[The_Dude8]

which of the following insurance companies have the best in form of claim, customer service,time u get your claim, hassle free etc... Farmers, state farm, gecko, 21th century???

 

[IITravel]

21st Century - No
State Farm - Very Good
AAA - Good
Wawaneesa - Best
U.S.A.A. - Very Very Good
Farmers - OK
Geiko - Good

IMHO

 

[WoundedWallet]

Nice tip. But the best tip is to be a carefull driver and avoid the agio.

On a side note, where are you located that you can recieve SprintION?

 

[IITravel]

LA area, funny that Sprint ION works with Earthlink (so I have to use Earthlink if I want Sprint ION, I would not use them if I didn't have to), the other big Scientology based company I know of. Members say "we're not a religion", but name it "the Church of Scientology" LRH (that's right the buy who wrote the SciFi books like Battlefield Earth) is the founder, is quoted once as saying the best way to make money (paraphrasing) is to start your own church, and wah La, he did. You got to love Steve Martin (or who ever wrote the Scientology jokes) in Bowfinger and the Triangle head stuff, that's some funny S***. The jokes were probably more realized in the So. Cal. "Hollywood" area though.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Not sure this qualifies as a hot deal..

I know someone that charged a $25,000 broker fee once (ahem)...
(for a repossession company) They were only insurable from "off shore carriers" that were "white papered" to do business in Calif.. Quackeybush.... got a piece of that action (hear he was last spotted in Hawaii last month). All the off shore carriers had to do was put up $1,000,000 in a CD account (and grease the Insurance Commissioners palms with lots of dirty $$), they never paid for the claims made.... and would file bankruptcy usually every (2) years and come back into Calif., under a new company name (same five guys owning the companies). I got to keep my fees. I also got to know these bad guys on a very good basis. These crooks made millions... and they still are. The insureds fully aware that the policies were not worth the paper they were written on. But that was the cost of "doing business", they had to have proof of insurance to show the banks, dept. of transportation, and the police department.

These offshore carriers were/are formulated in the Turks and Cacos Islands, and usually popped up out of Texas and Florida (although the Insurance commissioner in Wyoming was found later to have been getting lots of kickback $$ for letting the offshore carriers come in and rape the population there), so it just goes to show the corruption is widespread.

There used to be a 7.5% acceptable rate for a broker fee (although I have seen as high as 25%-40%. I would not ever pay a broker fee over 10%. And I would never pay ANY broker fee unless I had a very bad driving record .... or was virtually uninsurable for some other reason. As others have mentioned.... you can now go direct to many of the insurance carriers that in the past were only accessible via an Independent broker.

Another thing to watch out for... we used to get 1 or 2 (some times lots more) points on financing policies (you know..... so you could make those payments). The money used to finance the premiums was said/known to be "dirty" $$ coming out of Florida (nice way to launder it .... eh?), and pushed through "premium finance companies" .... brokers collected on that as well. Nice extra $$ that really adds up (believe me). All supposedly legal, unless someone ever really gets in and uncovers the bullshist that is going on. I am certain the same crap is going on today.

California caught on about (7) years ago... and there was a nice article in the LA Times that uncovered the fact the 80-90% of ALL trucking firms in California ... were/are virtually uninsured (off shore carriers).

Sorry to bore you guys with the above. I eventually got a conscience, and even though it was legal..... it just bothered me that inoccent people were getting hurt, and no one was paying up on the losses. And all the corruption was pretty overwhelming.

Most of you dealing in "mom & pop" lines of insurance will not see this kind of stuff.... but... indeed watch out for the broker(s) fee charged and also THAT finance charge/fee! Not all brokers are crooks. Its just the business they are in.

 

[IITravel]

OK, here another point you bring up, Survival owns part of Infinity Fianance Corp. All policies are financed through them, you are either given the option to pay in full or fianance, (almost never allowed to offer direct bill). You should see the interest rate on these policies, you would die, and it still goes on today. Survival was in the papers last year for being investigated for illegal activities. Well is seems that the Dept. of Insurance (the head investigator's name is/was Dee Dugan, please call her and ask what happened with the investigation -I should post their phone number here) supposedly skrewed up and searched the offices without the proper warrent (heard this second hand). All the evidence collected was thrown out by Survivals lawyers, most of the charges where dropped and that's why you didn't hear anything about the investigation after the initial news reports. How's that for our tax dollars at work. And the guy you see in all the Survival commercials (Richie Acunto and his girlfriend) is the owner.

And another thing to watch out for, don't bother with the motorist protection plan that is just giving them money. Get AAA. The motorist Protection Plan, Survival sells is junk and a pure revinue turner. They will tell you you must purchase it with the insurance. If you say no, they have to do extra work and write up a special e-mail, so most don't bother to even tell you it's included in your policy. Watch out for it and refuse it.

You would think the news would be all over this, since almost everybody in Cal. needs auto insurance to drive a car, and you would think that saving tens of thousands of viewers hundreds of dollars each year would be important, but all this info was given to Philip Palmer and Ric Romero of ABC news and nothing ever appeared on this.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Hee hee...

Yep.... its all BS. I have only known one broker that did time. Two years... and he made millions. When he and I first met.... he nicknamed me "Billy Kid". He had high hopes for me. I was young, dumb and full of cuum. I eventually went around him... and got hooked direct with the bad guys. Learned some leasons.

Hey... its the business.

 

[KillaBee]

I love generic car insurance commercials. The best ones are on during Jerry Springer(the golden years when they bashed heads). My favorite was Dashers...Dashers...Se habla espanol...evvvree day!

Then there's Eastwooooood....Stranger???

All of you who've seen it know what I'm talking about.

Actually the most disturbing yet amusing commercial was the "If she's not 18 then it's illegal!" and they showed some dude behind bars. I was busting up. Saw it once and I don't think they ever showed it again. It was more of a public service announcement than a commercial.

 

[ppaik]

"I CAN"T TaKE THAT BET!!!" or "GOT INSURANCE???"

I hafta admit that they have some good commercials.

 

[poolshark]

see link
http://allstateinsurancesucks.com/

 

[RoadRuner]

progressive is the best for high risk, and top notch customer service..

state farm and geico have the best rates for perfect low risk drivers, and great customer service.

I remember a state farm dude, clipped the bumper-cover of my taurus SHO.. He called them up, said it was his fault (it was he ran a red). Took it to state farm the next day, they said , hmm.. $4200 damage.. I said, hmm why dont you give me the check and i'll fix it myself. They were like sure, we'll throw in a weeks worth of car rental too. Here you go


Progressive is pimp too, they will come to the car in their cool progressive SUV's and hook up a laptop with a satellite uplink, and print out a check for damages and a parts list where ever the car is (even at your work).


Price isn't everything..

 

[dkcs]

ekemper for the best insurance rates in California that I have found, no one else has come even close for me! They have no broker fee and let you spread your payments over 10 months without any kind of finance charge or billing fee....

They also have online instant quotes.

 

[dealgod]

USAA is the best insurance/banking/etc company their is...but you have to be in the military, or your father/mother does.

 

[Dantzig]

USAA is the best. I was recently involved in an accident where I was at fault (although I didn't violate any traffic laws and the other drivers did!). I just called them up and they took care of arranging the tow of my car to the body shop. When I picked my car up from the body shop, I just wrote the body shop a check for $300 and that was that. Even with the accident, my rates aren't too horrible considering my age and the vehicle I drive

 

[fornax]

Hm, I paid $65 brokerage fee and I thought that was too much!