Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg

Has anybody used this company?

www.aig-is.com

Seems like excellent value particularly in regards to the promised savings on auto insurance, not to mention the other services. I have had some initial quotes on Auto insurance in the US as a non national and they are horrific… feels like being 17 again ;-)

Would value the opinions of any other forum members regarding AIG's inbound USA services, or similar?

Relocating next month to Northern CA on an L1A.

Sir Denis

jumping doris

We use them.
Insurance is good and we have had discounts on hire cars through them.
To be honest we probably don't use some of the benefits as much as we could.

MsElui

same here. we used them since we arrived in october. We had to pay something like $400 fees up front for some package - but we saved that in auto insurance straight away. we have also used them for renters insurance and will be using them for the new house insurance too.

only (very minor) moan would be - they send you the renewal docs 2 months before the 6 months expires. this pack contains all you need so they dont send an acknowedgement when you pay - so i feel i have to ring up to make sure its all sorted and i am not uninsured. (in the uk you would be usually sent a confirmation that money was recieved okay etc). certainly not a deal breaker tho lol.

lj2

Snap. Thoroughly recommend.

dh010447

Yes - same for me... Saved me in car insurance more than it cost me for the membership fee.

They also phoned my wife at work in the UK to give her information on how to send out cats over to the US.

They arranged a Credit Card for me through HSBC - $7,500 limit.

They put me in touch with a T-Mobile authorised retailer to get a phone without deposit. (phones were too expensive - so didn't bother).

They put me in tough with Wells Fargo as they do a Relocation Mortgage which is good for people with low / no credit history.

It is very much worth the $400 - don't let the crappy appearance of their website put you off...

dh010447

Make sure you check the rules for CA as far as purchasing a car. Out here in GA you are not able to buy a car without a US driving license. To get the license, you need to have a Social Security Number - or can prove that you are not entitled to one.

You'll also have to wait a while (I think its a couple of weeks) after entering the country before going to get your Social Security no as it takes time for your entry to 'appear' in their system. The same is true for your DL application.

I ended up having to use a rental car for a while.

Don't forget though, you will only have a short amount of time (1 month after becoming a resident or so) where you are allowed to drive on your UK license.

MsElui

we arranged our lease car to arrive 5-6 weeks after us - so we could get ssn's, and driving licences all sorted out before we needed to tke out the insurance.

rebs

Can I ask what you did for the first few weeks? Did you hire a car using your UK licenses and UK credit cards?

I'm just trying to plan our first few days/weeks....

jumping doris

We arranged car hire while we were still in the UK. We used our UK licences etc.

The Horticulturalist

Did many of you take take out the credit card option with them? If yes, was it relatively easy to get it?

We have our UK credit cards which I guess will do for a while but we'll have little or no ££'s to leave in our account here and it would mean transferring currency to pay them off.

big_fish

Agree with the other posts. My company paid for a year subscription as part of my relocation. We use them for car insurance and used to use for renters insurance. They also gave us the introduction to Wells Fargo to get a reasonable mortgage rate (not sure whether we really needed AIG for this) plus a HSBC credit card with reasonable limit (ie $k's rather than $500).

well worth it

jumping doris

Our relocation company helped us get a mortgage with Wells Fargo and then Wells Fargo offered us a credit card.
We also bought our cars through International Auto Source and arranged to have finance on one of them. The loan company was M & T Bank and after we had paid about 6 months worth of car payments they offered us a credit card.

dh010447

Yes - very easy.

They emailed me the application, i filled it out and faxed it back to them. Then they phoned me an hour or so later to tel me I had been approved.

dh010447

Yes - rented with UK License and paid for using a UK credit card.

When you book it, make sure you say your residence is in the UK as insurance will be included in the quote and will cost you less.

rebs

That's useful to know, thanks for the tip

We're due to move out on 5th July - it seems so near now, just trying to get all the last few bits and pieces sorted out...