Geico = bad?

This kind of crap (if it's true) almost makes me want to get my insurance with a carrier other than Geico: class and education used to discriminate for insurance premium rates.

I thought Geico was such an awesome deal - maybe it was just so cheap because I'm in high academia...

Have I become the Man?

Comments

Anonymous said…
ALL insurance carriers use fishing methods for determining rates. My guess is that they've found people with higher degrees tend to be smarter about driving.

Face it: Your insurance when you were 18 was more than a female 18 year old driver, regardless of YOUR record. Why? Because other guys our age were getting more tickets and in more accidents. That isn't YOUR fault, but your insurance company applied it to you anyway. This "discrimation" seems to be the same thing. They are using a pidgeon-hole method to determine who gets what rates; using your education is no different than using your age.

The real problem is how they dole out insurance rates in the first place. You can screw up once in five years (in other words, on one day of 1800+, you record shows you were a bad driver) and that's all they care about.

Honestly, if you want to see something like this change, first thing you need to do is look at government. The legislature continues to pander to insurance companies on a yearly basis while those same companies take our money and try, in many cases, to do everything they can to keep us from cashing in on our investment when necessary.
12:53 PM
Big Chris said…
I suppose I was thinking that if there is statistical evidence that (for example) education levels affect cost to the insurance company, they'd be justified in charging more, just as they do for young men, people in counties with lots of uninsured motorists (San Antonio, Houston, Dallas), etc...

But you don't see other insurance groups doing this, which they certainly would be doing.

I dunno - that's just a thought. You're right, of course, about the general categorizations that insurance carriers use to classify their clients as being unfortunate for a few, but overall I think they server their purpose well enough.

I'm not aware of pandering by the gov't to insurance companies.
1:15 PM
Anonymous said…
Eh, not going to get into then cause you'll demand links :). Suffice it to say, I hardly feel the gov't is on the insuree's side overall.
2:23 PM
Big Chris said…
Hehe maybe. I am contentious sometimes, I admit, although I do consider myself in opposition to what is loosely referred to the "Big Business" Republic Party-age so we'd probably have somewhat large amounts of common ground to discover. Hell, after doing nothing but butting heads the last year on my blog, maybe we should purposefully try to discuss something we know we'll agree on. :)
5:44 PM
Anonymous said…
Hehe

I don't wish to sound like I'm purely trying to pull off this anti-Big Business hippy crap you'll hear some people spew out. While I do have problem with the amount of power lobbyist seem to have in gov't, it is hardly the only thing that has effect on what goes on in the legislature.

In terms of insurance companies I just have some bad taste for the way things go. :)

Yeah, we seem to butt heads on your journal, but hopefully it is more for the sake of discourse than jackassery :D.
1:33 AM
Big Chris said…
I'm sure it's both.
5:54 AM
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