[C320-list] GEICO

[Doug Treff]

I bought my boat (1996 hull 350) 10 years ago and signed up for Boat/US insurance.  For the first 3 years, my premium was virtually unchanged, and I had no claims. in my third season, Geico took over the underwriting of the policies for Boat US. The following year, my premium went up by close to $200. That pattern continued each year. It seemed like they knew I would need to pay for an insurance survey to switch companies, and they increased my premium by slightly less than it would have cost to get a survey. After several years of steady increases, I decided to shop around and make the switch. I jumped to a new insurer last year and found a policy that was significantly less. The new premium was about 60% of the Geico renewal. Factoring in the cost of the survey, I broke even last year and started saving money this year. The new company renewal premium this year was only a $47 increase from last year. I'm now saving about $400 per year compared to what my last Geico quote was. The sent me a "we want you back" email this year and I clicked on it to see what the premium would be. Ridiculously high compared to my new coverage.

Much happier after escaping from the Lizard!

--
Doug Treff
doug at treff.us

On Thu, Aug 18, 2022, at 10:44 AM, pat reynolds wrote:
> After paying about $500 for the previous years premium I received a 
> bill for $1200 for the following year for $54000 coverage.  I spoke to 
> someone in India who had no idea why.  Since I didn't feel the boat was 
> actually worth that much I suggested dropping the coverage to $45000 
> and voila my premium went back down to $500.  Two years later I 
> received notice that my coverage was now $38000 with an increase in 
> premium.  As of today I am still seeing boats my age listing in the 
> upper 40,000 dollar range.   I think that little gecko has a devious 
> mind, maybe an offspring of Chuckie
>     On Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 05:01:22 PM CDT, Allan Field 
> <allanfield47 at gmail.com> wrote:  
> 
>  I have been with Boat/US insurance, now managed by the stars at GEICO,
> since 1988 with never a claim.  My policy just came up for renewal with the
> Agreed Value dropping by 10% from $125,000, as agreed to when this policy
> was taken out in 2016, to $112,500 . My understanding of Agreed Value is
> that this is an amount agreed upon between the insurer and the insured with
> depreciation not taken into consideration. I called GEICO and was told that
> underwriting was basing the new Agreed Value on what the boat would sell
> for now. I asked to talk with underwriting but was denied. I then brought
> up the fact that this change did not align with my understanding of the
> definition of Agreed Value. I told the agent that I could not buy this boat
> again for $112,500. So the agent went to her sources but could not find
> anything in her books for a 2006 Catalina 387!!! But underwriting could???
> The agent and I both went on-line and searched C387's for sale, found about
> 5 or 6, and all listed in excess of $135,000 with one close to $150,000. We
> then "agreed" that the Agreed Value of my renewal policy would be $135,000,
> the premium increase was about $67, and she sent me a revised Declaration
> Page.
>
> On a side note, I don't get GEICO's best premium rates because I pay cash
> for my cars, I don't have any other insurance with them, and I don't have
> any debt including revolving credit debt!!!
>
> The take home message is that if you are with GEICO, read the policy
> renewal declarations very carefully! I only focused on the math due to the
> adverse notice regarding not getting their best rates, something I had
> never noticed before.
>
> Allan S. Field
> Sea Shadow - C387, #103 (formerly C320, #808)
> Columbia, MD