I was a Geico customer before switching to Costco Ameriprise. When I had Geico, I bundled Auto, Home, and Umbrella policies through them. If you are thinking about switching your insurance provides, please keep reading to see why I like Costco Ameriprise better than anybody else. To be fair, I also had Liberty Mutual, AIG, Progressive, Unitrin Direct in the past and I hated them all for keep raising my rates despite clean accident-free driving record and for still coming up short on customer service. AIG even cancelled my Auto-policy without telling me and thus leaving me uninsured for a few days.
When I had Geico, following is break-down of my insurance premiums when I exited:
Auto: Liability-only coverage on 2004 Toyota Corolla (Premium: $325/6-months)
Home: $2500 deductible (Premium: $800/year)
Umbrella: $1 million policy (Premium: $200/year)
AAA Coverage: I bought this for peace of mind ($60/year)
When I switched to Costco Ameriprise, here is my initial premium:
Auto: Liability-only coverage on 2004 Toyota Corolla (Premium: $192/6-months)
Home: $2500 deductible (Premium: $450/year)
AAA Coverage: Not needed.
When you are a Costco Executive member, roadside assistance is provided for free of cost. Another benefit of Executive membership is that if your home needs windows replaced due to break-ins or theft, deductible does not apply when you replace them. Plus, if you ever get locked out of your house, they provide free coverage to open your locks. This saves you money. Read more about Costco Membership Benefits.
After 1 year of staying with Costco Ameriprise, my rates declined even further:
Auto: Liability-only coverage on 2004 Toyota Corolla (Premium: $160/6-months)
Home: $2500 deductible (Premium: $413/year)
Umbrella: $1 million policy (Premium: $140/year)
NOTE: I added Umbrella policy that provided me further multi-policy discount of $17 on the Auto policy, thus lowering it down to $143. Read about benefits of Umbrella Policy.
Due to an accident, I replaced Toyota Corolla with Toyota Rav4. Here is my latest break-down on payments.
Auto: Comprehensive coverage, $1000 deductible, 2012 Toyota Rav4 (Premium: $310/6-months)
Home: $2500 deductible (Premium: $450/year)
Umbrella: $1 million policy (Premium: $140/year)
Update 1/22/2013
Costco Ameriprise keeps lowering my rates. I recently bought a second car for my wife. Here is the total breakdown.
2012 Toyota Rav4: Comprehensive coverage, $1000 deductible(Premium: $260/6-months)
2009 Honda Accord: Comprehensive coverage, $1000 deductible(Premium: $220/6-months)
Home: $2500 deductible (Premium: $412/year)
Umbrella: $1 million policy (Premium: $140/year)
A word about Costco Amerprise Customer Service
Ameriprise is owned by American Express. American Express is a sound financial company. They provide AMEX credit cards among other things. Every time I have called Ameriprise, I have spoken with good customer service representatives. I had similar stellar experience when calling the AMEX customer service on my coroporate card.
Also, when I had the accident, I simply informed Amerprise about it. Technically, I was ONLY supposed to make a claim against the guilty party's insurance company because I only had liability-only coverage with Ameriprise. When I spoke with Ameriprise person who handles Auto-insurance claims, she told me the other party's insurance would be paying. They even went one step further and made a claim against the other party's insurance. Once the claim was made, I dealt with the other party's insurance at that point. Also, during this process, Ameriprise called me to ask how I was doing and if the claim process was working smoothly with the other party's insurance. This was not needed at all, but this goes to prove that Ameriprise provides good customer service. Read more here about my accident and the claim process.
Ameriprise is able to charge lower premiums because they do not pay on their claims. I am a lawyer, and on every single claim that i have made on my clients' behalves, Ameriprise has fought them tooth and nail. Ameriprise clogs the courts by forcing every claim into litigation. I have worked for several insurance companies (defending their insureds in car accident cases) and submitted claims to literally every carrier writing policies in the State of California. Ameriprise is by far the worst. Ameriprise uniformly puts their profit margins ahead of their insureds' interest. The people running Ameriprise should be imprisoned for the way they are running it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I have not filed a claim against Ameriprise, so do not know how good or bad they are.
ReplyDeleteI once filed a claim against the AMEX card through my company for a car accident. I received excellent service on that claim.
I can't confirm or deny if Ameriprise is the best or the worst of all insurance companies. I will let readers form their own opinions. Thank you again for providing perspective from the attorney side.
I had Ameriprise then switched to Geico. Ameriprise was charging me $1700 for my annual premium and Geico was only charging me $980.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me I had the opposite experience than you. Ameriprise's customer service doesn't seem as good as Geico's either. Claims using Ameriprise was slow and I had to constantly keep calling them for updates and to push them to do things faster.
That's a big savings in premium with Geico. I guess, we all have good and bad experiences with companies. All companies operate similarly at the end of the day because insurance is a commodity. Glad that you had a positive experience with Geico over Ameriprise. Make the best use of the savings you've got.
ReplyDeleteAmeriprise has not been owned by American Express for over a decade. They were spun off as an independent company. Lately, they've also been sucking pretty badly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. My experience has been very positive with Ameriprise so far. It may be because I'm a Costco Executive member or it could be pure luck/chance.
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ReplyDeleteSwitched from Geico to Ameriprise through Costco. STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! They low ball you then increase your rates with every renewal! I have never made a claim with them, yet every renewal they increase my premiums. When I call and ask why.. always a different excuse. The latest " we've realigned our rates for your area because of claims we've had". WTF, none of those claims were by me. God forbid I make a claim, what would my premiums do then. Later losers, I'm insurance shopping again!
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