Bayleaf_01

This might be just a rant but I need to vent....

Why the hell did I pay over $400 dollars for the AIG policy???

So far, they completely messed up my car hire, couldn't offer me the cell phone deal I wanted - or any reasonable cell phone deal for that matter, were extortionately expensive for renter's insurance and now when my auto insurance is due for renewal, want to INCREASE the payments by almost $500!!

I thought with 6 months credit and US drivers licenses the price was supposed to come down?? Oh wait, it did with every other insurance company out there!!!

Thank you for reading - rant over (I feel a bit better now)

Weeze

Yep, we've left them now too. Something about using a different way of calculating costs or some such guff.

Sally Redux

They are no good, but at least it gets you started.

Mr Weeze

They were good for us for car insurance initially (in Tx) but I got comparable coverage after 2 years. They wanted to increase my renters policy by 300% due to a change in supplier. Well, actually, they flagged it as extortionate and asked if I wanted a quote from someone else. As I had the auto about as cheap I was able to go bundle with someone else.

Overall it was decent for auto cover, but now I am "normal" in the system there was no need. I didn't use them for anything other than auto or renters, so I can't comment on their helpfulness/idiocy on anything else. I did ask for an umbrella quote about a year ago and it was double what I had been paying with farmers from day 1.

Do they still give you the auto quote before you sign up?

Bayleaf_01

I had a quote before we arrived but didn't finalize it until after we got here. I took renters with State Farm after 8 weeks in US and it was half the price AIG quoted! I have just gone with State Farm for auto as well and it is $800 cheaper!!
Unbelievable, their response to being told they were expensive was, oh well if its cheaper somewhere else....

Mr Weeze

Maybe it's pricey in Texas, because they were still $80 cheaper than anything else I could get after 2 years here. We have no points, no crashes, nothing. They didn't have anything about trying to match a price though (and neither did anyone else).

yellowroom

I saved a fortune from moving from AIG to Geico for both my car and renters insurance - both went UP when due for renewal like the OP.

TBH, the AIG Inbound policy wasn't very good value for money for me. I'm glad my company bought it for me - if I'd paid out of my own pocket I might have been a bit annoyed. It helped having them sort out insurance when I was trying to do so many other things during the move process, but that's about it really.

Didn't use it for mobile phones or mortgage advice - I only used it for insurance, my company also hired a relocation company (Coppergate) who provided help in the form of face-to-face help - the person drove me round town helped me sort out driving license, SSN, Bank Account, set me up with a realtor etc.

GeoffM

I'm glad I didn't bother. If I had had a new car then perhaps it would have helped. But the second hand car dealer recommended an agent who got me comparable rates to natives in the local area with similar circumstances - even mature driver, no claims discounts etc. Recently, using the same agent, I got even lower rates for 10x the coverage limits and adding uninsured driver coverage.

As for renters insurance, I pay under $20 a month and that was direct with the insurance company - Liberty Mutual I think.

I had no problems getting a mobile, though I was on a PAYG initially. A couple of months later my wife and I joined a relative's family plan.

Karen68

Don't know who your State Farm agent is (but you seem quite close to us): we have State Farm for our house and car insurance and our agent is fab. We were involved in an accident at 13 mile and Lahser about a month ago. We were stationary and were the collateral damage when a Ford Explorer pulled out against the traffic and hit a pick up which careered into us. Wrote off our SUV, which was a big one, so a substantial impact. State Farm have been brilliant and gave us more than we were expecting for the write off value.

ian-mstm

We have State Farm for our house and 2 cars - and it's saving us about $600/year on what we used to be charged by Allstate for the same coverage. Okay... just my $0.02 worth here!

Ian