My name is Wilson and I had been insured with an agent by the name of Jerome Thomas working with Pathway Insurance. When Jerome died I decided to get an insurance quote from GEICO.

The rate was a little cheaper than what I was paying with Pathway Insurance so I thought I made a good decision by saving some money.

Everything was ok until I had a minor accident. I called GEICO to discuss the situation and a claims adjustor was assigned to access the damages. He noticed minor damage from another accident that was caused by a hit and run driver. The claims adjustor encouraged me to have that claim taken care of as well and it sounded reasonable to me.

Several months later GEICO sent my renewal bill to me and as I opened the statement I was shocked to learn that my premium rates had been raised by more than $400 per year! Naturally I was disturbed by that so I called GEICO and learned that my rates had been increased because of the two accidents that I had turned in!

Since I had changed to GEICO to save money on my insurance I found myself six months later paying much more money than what I did before I switched to GEICO! I was particularly disturbed by these turn of events and I called my previous agency Pathway Insurance to see if they could now find a better rate than what GEICO wanted to charge me.

I spoke with Jack Thomas and as he was preparing my quotes he mentioned that the surcharge I received from GEICO is typical among most insurance companies. “If you have an accident your premium rating factor changes and so the insurance company will charge you more money,” Jack indicated.

I was worried that GEICO was penalizing me unnecessarily, but that was not the case.

Jack then asked if any of the representatives at GEICO had given him any claims advice before he turned the claim in.

I indicated they had not. The GEICO representatives encouraged me to turn in the claim without counseling me on what impact accidents would have on my future premium rates. Because I had never in my life had an accident I did not understand that insurance companies might raise my rates after turning in a claim.

After reviewing my situation Jack mentioned: “Because both accidents were relatively minor and there were no injuries it may have been more sensible to cover at least one of those claims out of pocket because it appears the surcharge GEICO is now accessing your policy is more than what they paid on the actual claim. Unfortunately if you happened to have one more accident your rates could double or even triple with three accidents on your record.”

“If we at Pathway Insurance had been taking care of your insurance at the time of the accident we would have advised you on what impact these accidents would have on your premium rates prior to turning the claim in so that you could make a logical decision on what steps to take,” Jack explained.

Now I wish I had paid one of the claims out of my pocket but I didn’t know what to do and I did not get any advice on how the accident I initially called about would affect my premiums. Fortunately despite two accidents on my record Pathway Insurance did find a much lower insurance rate than what GEICO was going to charge me so I switched my insurance back to Pathway Insurance immediately.

I would highly recommend Pathway Insurance to anyone looking for a good agency to handle their insurance needs. Good advice is sometime more important than a few dollars that you might save as I learned the hard way.

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Keep in mind that the poor experience Wilson had with GEICO may not reflect your actual experience if you bought a policy directly with GEICO.