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Old 10-14-2021, 08:39 PM   #1
wiredgeorge
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Good Sam RV Insurance anyone?

Got yet another note from Camping World telling me I could save $321 vs my current insurance. They have an info gathering survey which ends with you giving them you phone number and email. They mentioned you WOULD be contacted. Anyone use Good Sam insurance? Can one really expect to save $321 over your last insurance? I have the Good Sam Roadside right now and I know they already have shared my email with MANY of their friends so am hesitant to give my phone number as well.
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Old 10-15-2021, 04:07 AM   #2
gearhead
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After our tire blowout and the damage that caused, State Farm cancelled our coverage. My agent suggested calling Good Sam. They were double the State Farm rate. I ended up with GEICO which was the same rate as State Farm.
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Old 10-15-2021, 04:22 AM   #3
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After our tire blowout and the damage that caused, State Farm cancelled our coverage. My agent suggested calling Good Sam. They were double the State Farm rate. I ended up with GEICO which was the same rate as State Farm.

Wow. State Farm is a well known insurance company; hard to believe that a single accident would get a policy holder canceled. Did they give you a reason?
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Old 10-15-2021, 04:54 AM   #4
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I've had State Farm for about 30 years now. Have made several claims on the trailer, house, and vehichles and they have never even raised my rates other than the "normal minor adjustments" over the years. Don't know about GS insurance other than I have thrown away forest worth of paper over the years of them promoting one form of insurance or another. As for the "we'll save you $xxx dollars "? Well I think they use the same accountants that calculate truck towing capacity and trailer tongue weights. JMHO
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Old 10-15-2021, 06:43 AM   #5
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Good Sam is underwritten by Progressive in Michigan. I'm not sure who underwrites Good Sam in Texas. That will make a significant difference in rates between Texas and any other state, since insurance is "price determined by coverage" and every state insurance commission establishes specific coverage minimums for their state.

IMO, Good Sam is going to make a profit on any policy you buy through them, and if the insurance is provided by Progressive, it's likely that Progressive could provide you with similar coverage without the "middleman cut" taken by Good Sam....

In short, have you considered shopping around for coverage from other insurance underwriters ??? Our Progressive insurance is around $300 a year and State Farm wanted over $600 for similar coverage. Good Sam wanted roughly $450 for the same "Progressive coverage"....

That said, the GS quote was for a "first year policy" and there is supposedly a renewal discount every year until the premium reaches a certain level. So, while it's $150 more the first year, it might be closer to the Progressive annual premium in later years.

And, yes, Good Sam is very good at mass mailings, tele-marketing reminders and just having the annoying habit of calling every day, right at supper time.....
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Old 10-15-2021, 07:53 AM   #6
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For a few years I bounced pricing off Good Sam to see if they might be competitive. In every instance (all) they were not. I think it's like John said; the use a company to underwrite their policy and that company is going to make money then Good Sam piggybacks on that and they are going to make money too so it just gets higher.

I've used Geico for many years and it's just hard to beat their pricing. It may be because I carry all my vehicles with them so it makes the RV cheaper but I've not even looked at vehicle/RV insurance pricing the last couple of years because it was a waste of time (and a lot of aggravation sitting on hold or answering 100 questions).
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Old 10-15-2021, 09:28 AM   #7
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Good Sam is underwritten by Progressive in Michigan. I'm not sure who underwrites Good Sam in Texas. That will make a significant difference in rates between Texas and any other state, since insurance is "price determined by coverage" and every state insurance commission establishes specific coverage minimums for their state.

IMO, Good Sam is going to make a profit on any policy you buy through them, and if the insurance is provided by Progressive, it's likely that Progressive could provide you with similar coverage without the "middleman cut" taken by Good Sam....

In short, have you considered shopping around for coverage from other insurance underwriters ??? Our Progressive insurance is around $300 a year and State Farm wanted over $600 for similar coverage. Good Sam wanted roughly $450 for the same "Progressive coverage"....

That said, the GS quote was for a "first year policy" and there is supposedly a renewal discount every year until the premium reaches a certain level. So, while it's $150 more the first year, it might be closer to the Progressive annual premium in later years.

And, yes, Good Sam is very good at mass mailings, tele-marketing reminders and just having the annoying habit of calling every day, right at supper time.....
John, They mentioned which company actually writes the policy here in Texas and it wasn't Progressive. I had never heard of the company... was National something or other. I had Progressive with a fairly low deductible previously and bundled with my trike's insurance. Many companies were dropping insurance rates on RVs a tad since they coiuldn't really be used for awhile during the pandemic's early restrictions, Progressive raised my rates. Called them and they told me they raised rates on all customer (at least in Texas) across the board. When I asked why, their agent said the edict came from "on high". Our vehicles (wife's car and my truck) are insured through the Hartford and we have had good service. The Hartford doesn't have specific RV insurance here in Texas but can add an RV onto the auto policy. It is very inexpensive but not sure how things would work out if there was an actual claim. I have been considering going back with Progressive as they were very responsive when I ripped the roof on my fifth wheel on a tree limb and I now have a life time fully transferable RV-Armor roof as a result and they didn't raise my premium for that claim. They paid for the roof less my deductible.
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Old 10-15-2021, 09:31 AM   #8
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For a few years I bounced pricing off Good Sam to see if they might be competitive. In every instance (all) they were not. I think it's like John said; the use a company to underwrite their policy and that company is going to make money then Good Sam piggybacks on that and they are going to make money too so it just gets higher.

I've used Geico for many years and it's just hard to beat their pricing. It may be because I carry all my vehicles with them so it makes the RV cheaper but I've not even looked at vehicle/RV insurance pricing the last couple of years because it was a waste of time (and a lot of aggravation sitting on hold or answering 100 questions).
They also run credit score checks which can affect your credit rating. I probably won't do anything with insurance till funds start accumulating a bit as I had to have a new submersible well pump put in this past week and that little item set me back over $3k.
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Old 10-15-2021, 04:54 PM   #9
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George,

Something to consider with Progressive, if the policy rules are the same as in Michigan...

Here, Progressive has a "forgiving deductible program". The first year with no claim, following year is 75% of the deductible. Second year, no claim, deductible goes to 50%, 3rd year it goes to 25% and in the 4th year, the deductible is "forgiven for the first claim" and then goes back to the full deductible...

What that means, in my situation (6 or 7 years with no claim) is my deductible is $0. We had a policy deductible of $100. That costs a bunch more than a higher deductible. Since I don't have to pay the deductible for a "first claim" and since we've not had a claim in so long, for us, chances of using the deductible twice is pretty slim. So we increased our deductible from $100 to $500. The policy premium went down almost $200 with that change. So, what was costing us around $450 a year now costs us about $250 and even though the policy deductible is $500, for us, it's $0 for the first claim.... Seemed like a "no brainer" to me. If we don't have a claim for 2 years, that puts us "even money" on the policy, even if we have a second claim....

Sounds complicated, but in reality, Progressive (at least in Michigan) the reducing deductible can make a lot of difference by increasing the deductible which reduces the premium annually.

I'm not sure if Texas has anything even remotely close to that kind of program, but it's a money saver for us.

Oh, and, I believe National General Insurance parent company is Allstate, but not sure which states which company is allowed to sell vehicle insurance.

You can do a "google search" by asking "Who owns National General Insurance". change the insurance company to check on any policy underwriter....
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Old 10-15-2021, 05:31 PM   #10
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We have our camper insured through Good Sam with National General insurance. I can’t say much, except they were one of the few places I found that had full replacement for the camper. State Farm doesn’t offer that, at least in MN. The other company I priced out for full replacement was Farmers (or something like that). A 6 month policy from them would have been $2000 to get the full replacement. The National General full replacement is less than $700. I have never had to try to file a claim through them, since we’ve only had them as insurance for as long as we’ve had the new camper.
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Old 10-15-2021, 05:37 PM   #11
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They also run credit score checks which can affect your credit rating. I probably won't do anything with insurance till funds start accumulating a bit as I had to have a new submersible well pump put in this past week and that little item set me back over $3k.


I don't know about the credit checks. I've changed and modified my policies many times and never had a credit check. As I went through assessing new providers and talked to several late last year none ever ran a check to give me a quote so don't know....and I push pretty hard.
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Old 10-15-2021, 08:52 PM   #12
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Last year I priced auto insurance with Gieco, Progressive, Liberty Mutual to find that none could come close to what I'm paying with State Farm whom we've had for 40 years.
Prior to SF we had Allstate, had 2 minor claims totalling $1000+/- Allstate paid out then came renewal time, our premiums tripled as we were deemed high risk policy holders. So when they say they have "accident forgiveness" I'd agree they may "forgive " your accident but at renewal time they damn sure won't "forget" them.
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Old 10-16-2021, 04:21 AM   #13
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Wow. State Farm is a well known insurance company; hard to believe that a single accident would get a policy holder canceled. Did they give you a reason?
State Farm is the only insurance company we have had, almost 50 years. A couple of auto claims back in the 1970's. Nothing big...not totalled, no citations. I can't remember the last speeding ticket I had. Betty has had none. Our credit score is 700+. We had a hail damaged roof replaced about 10 years ago after we noticed several neighbors replacing. We were told by SF we should let their inspector check it because if we had a leak later it wouldn't be covered. I think that was $10,000+. I had 2 small claims on my truck, replaced rear bumper and a small ding from a jack knifed utility trailer. Then we had a water issue in the house. I saw water next to the wall in the attached garage. I couldn't find the source. Called SF and they wanted to send their adjuster out to look. He recommended a plumbing company that specialized in leak detection. They thought it may have been leaking under the kitchen island. Would have to tunnel under the foundation to get to it. He practically forced a $5,000 check in my hand for the future tunneling damage. Long story short...after paying the leak detectors $900 for 2 trips, we still had a leak. Called my local plumber and we found the plastic water tubing cracked on the back of the refrigerator. Then the blow out on the 5th.
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Old 10-16-2021, 04:57 AM   #14
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Last year I priced auto insurance with Gieco, Progressive, Liberty Mutual to find that none could come close to what I'm paying with State Farm whom we've had for 40 years.
Prior to SF we had Allstate, had 2 minor claims totalling $1000+/- Allstate paid out then came renewal time, our premiums tripled as we were deemed high risk policy holders. So when they say they have "accident forgiveness" I'd agree they may "forgive " your accident but at renewal time they damn sure won't "forget" them.
Danny that sounds similar to our experience with Liberty Mutual. Had everyting insured with them for over 20 years. Our oldest daughter got t-boned and the cop said it was her fualt. Went to court and the cop got chewed out by the judge and she was found not gilty of failure to yeild.

Renewal time came and our premiums went up by nearly 150%. We called and argued that she was found not guilty to no avail. That's when we went to State Farm. We sat down with the agent who owns an office just a few miles away. That was a good experience as Liberty Mutual had no agents and "dealing direct" meant rolling the djce on who answered the phone. When the SF looked up our insurance records he could see where Liberty Mutal paid out the claim, then got their money back after her court verdict.

I cannot express my displeasureenough in how we were treated then, and jow great we have been treated since to going with SF. That's been our experience. The thing with trying ti cokpare insurance is there's too many variables across individuals as their actuarials set up the rates on things like age, income, credit scores, etc. Then there's the "environmental" factors like if you live in tornadom or hurricane, or flood plains. Add in the uniform crime reports for a given location and the state's insurance laws and the list grows.

So while you can get anecdotal stories on insurance companies in the end the only way to truley compare rates is to invest the time to shop and get quotes. As for hitting your credit report it shouldn't as long as you're not asking for money. Whenever I soeak to any icompany, whether it be insurance, bank (not loans), even the contractors that replaced our roof or the one that gave us a quote on adding solar I state uo front that "I do not authorize acess to my credit that will show up as a "hit". I monitor my credit report monthly and get notified imediatly of any inquiries or changes.

The following is just a general statement and not directed or in response to anyone here.
I'd recommend some form of credit monitoring to anyone with a bank account. At a min. get a "free" one from on-line services or your bank. Not mojitoring your credit exposes your assets worse than not locking your car and leaving the keys in ghe ignition.

JMHO, YMMV
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Old 10-16-2021, 04:20 PM   #15
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^^Our SF agent is just around the corner and she's easy to talk to. We have had several talks recently about our ever increasing home evaluation and thus higher premiums. It seems to get worse every year. I'll stick with SF until it gets stupid expensive.
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Old 10-16-2021, 04:44 PM   #16
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^^Our SF agent is just around the corner and she's easy to talk to. We have had several talks recently about our ever increasing home evaluation and thus higher premiums. It seems to get worse every year. I'll stick with SF until it gets stupid expensive.

Or until he comes to your house about 9pm, sits down "visiting" and then asks you to borrow 15k..... Then apparently finds someone to give it to him, leaves town with the money, gets sued and goes to jail.... Not SFs fault but their exclusions did them in for me, you've got to watch them.
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Old 10-21-2021, 08:27 AM   #17
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Smile Insurance savings

I checked into the so called savings and all it turned out to be was a higher deductable and less coverage. Any insurance can give you a savings that way.
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Old 10-21-2021, 09:00 AM   #18
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The numbers for conventional insurance with GS never worked out for us. But we do take advantage of some of their specialty coverages for time to time, such as tire and wheel, travel medical, and warranty service extensions. The nice thing about those is that you can suspend or cancel policies when your rig is going to be in storage for a season or more, so you're not paying for tire coverage or travel medical while your rig is in your driveway.
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Old 10-21-2021, 12:01 PM   #19
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RV insurance started with GS. Progressive offered same/better for much less: changed.
I left SF years ago after 30 years of on time payments, no claims= severe rate increases.
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Old 10-21-2021, 04:16 PM   #20
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I have safeco insurance through good sam. I pay an average of $125 / year. I have 4 rvs insured at about $520/ years total. I have never had a major claim, so I can't say how good they are at paying, but Progressive sucks, pardon my language. I had a comprehensive claim when a tree fell on my Jeep wrangler in June and they still haven't paid. Finally in September they paid out their estimated amount of $1500, but the repair shop wrote another $1600 supplemental estimate and no one will even return their calls. I think their strategy is if they ignor you long enough you will go away. I don't even know what to do next.
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