Homeowners Insurance: USAA vs Farmers

[CurtOFD78]

USAA is now writing new homeowners policies in the GOAT (Florida of course!) and they are offering a monthly price about $65 MORE per month than Farmers for the same coverage. USAA (when I had it before) was awesome after Hurricanes Charlie/Frances/Jeane in 2004, and I tend to prefer them but Farmers gets very good ratings. I would appreciate any feedback from the board on pros/cons of Farmers and any experiences you've had. Thank you.

 

[shiv]

USAA is so overrated. All my rentals are through Farmers and they have been great

 

[grimm515]

USAA did $17K with of roof repair when I had hail damage and paid out when a guy with no insurance hit me. They've always been good to me.

 

[AmericanViking]

Check out Amica. I switched from USAA to them

 

[cktraider]

Customer service aside, USAA's homeowner policy definitely isn't worth paying more for. I would reach out to a local Safeco and Travelers agent for quotes as well. Im an independent agent and Safeco and Travelers are my personal favorites. Amica has some really low rates here in Texas I just don't know much about the company. During a disaster (hurricane etc) the larger carriers will usually be much faster/better to deal with, send in catastrophe teams etc.
Safeco will most likely be on the higher end for the home but the Auto rates are usually quite a bit lower than most.

 

[CurtOFD78]

Thanks for the info everyone.

 

[imprimis]

Last time I checked on both of those companies they each wanted me to agree to a 2% deductible. Made each cost prohibitive. I would rather pay more each month or year than be saddled with 2% in the event of a claim. $200 - $300 more per year is better that $3,000 additional deductible if there is a claim.

 

[tiderollsonu]

It's really about coverages and deductibles... For instance my homeowners has 1k deductibles for anything except a named storm then it $5900 or a percentage to fully rebuild. Think it's either 3 or 5%

Just switched to this company after Sally my old one was a flat 7500 across the board. Sally damage was almost 20k and I was able to work it so most of my deductibles was covered

 

[JerBearr]

Travelers FU**** me a few years back when I got into a car accident. The other driver was given a traffic citation for performing an illegal maneuver and Travelers still essentially gave up on me. Within 1 day of receiving all of the information they needed, they agreed to a 70/30 split of at fault....of course giving me the most at fault. When I asked for a new case agent to look over it, they were adamant about not giving me a new agent. I got wholly screwed. I don't want to say I should have had 0% at fault, but it should have been much closer to 30/70 (me/other driver).

And here I am...1 month ago I swapped back with travelers for my car and home owners insurance because it was cheapest........