What\'s up with State Farm

[northidahotim]

Showed up for appointment today and customer had State Farm. I thought they quit waiving the deductible but called the agent anyway just to see what they were up to . She waived his deductible and let me fix it telling me that Mar 1 their new policy takes effect.

[GlasWeldTech]

I was told here that it depended on when the insured renewed his policy this year that the change took effect.

[JAC]

Anytime an Insurance Company makes a rate change, there can be a few different dates for the change. The first date is for any new business written from that point on, Jan 1st for example. The second date could be for any business that is currently in force. If you are currently in force, but in the middle of a term, your rates and policy rules can not be changed. So, if you just renewed your policy for 6 months on December 1st, your changes would not be effective on your policy until May 1st, even though others within the same Company have already had the changes before that.

That is why I think it's generally a good idea to go with a year term on anything you can. You are then "locked in" for that rate and policy language for that 1 year, even if the company makes changes during that time. 95% of the time the company makes a change it is to benefit them, not the insured, so being locked in for that year is better for you. Very rarely, but it does happen sometimes, will the rates go down or the policy language will be expanded or changed to benefit the insured. In that case, you would have to wait until the end of your term to benefit. But in the long run, over dozens of years or many decades of being insurred, you will benefit from having longer terms. Take the year if your company offers it...

JAC

[trinsic]

I know that State Farm had started to phase it out in certain states, does anyone know which states? And if not, how can I get the news and up-dates from these insurance companies?

[northidahotim]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll jsut go case to case. I told the State Farm customer yesterday about the change and he was bothered by it. He's been a long term customer fo State Farm.

[J.T.Window]

Now or later, SF will pay for repairs or they won't. They got on-board big with repair when they thought it made them look good. When deductible-waived w/s repair started, SF acted like they invented paying for repairs. They’ve always been stingy on price.
I'd almost pay the Las Vegas buck to hear what their guy has to say about why they don't pay for repairs anymore, it’ll be some fancy spin. I think they're trying it out to see how many customers they'll lose.
Your SF customer is more likely to stay with SF than with you because of consumer inertia , but it can’t hurt to let him or her know that you’ll be around to do them good whatever their insurance situation may be.

[northidahotim]

Tried a State Farm customer today and was refused on the waiving of the deductible. State by state bassis. I gaurantee they lose business in this neck of the woods.

[GlasWeldTech]

I know in Loiusiana they are stopping this UNLESS the insured has "$0" deductible. I was told it was an experiment with 5 states and we were one of them.

[dingmedic]

We are in Nevada, and have NO problem, We have recieved Emails saying they plan to stop paying/waiving the deductables. But Have not had a problem as of yet....Anyone in the Western US have any problems? Dawn

[Coachb]

State Farm in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska no longer waive deductible. Is this something that they want to do long term or is it an experimental thing?