American Modern Insurance - Warning

weschmann said:

My car and home owners insurance has been with Farmers for over 20 years now, because my agent continually contacts me every once in a while to suggest changes that keeps my costs reasonable. Unfortunately Farmers has never been interested in providing motorcycle insurance so I've gone to the typical vendors like Progressive or Gieco ...

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Since things vary so much by state it is hard to generalize. But here in Texas at least Farmers has a subsidiary company named Foremost. Our house and cars are with Farmers. The motorcycles are with Foremost. State Farm does the same thing in other states but less obviously. If I recall the details the mothership is State Farm Mutual Insurance Company and the "higher risk" things are insured by State Farm Insurance which is a stock company. I suspect lots of insurers do similar things. I have heard that USAA steers motorcycles to Progressive, or at least some of their agents do.

PGlaves said:

Since things vary so much by state it is hard to generalize. But here in Texas at least Farmers has a subsidiary company named Foremost. Our house and cars are with Farmers. The motorcycles are with Foremost. State Farm does the same thing in other states but less obviously. If I recall the details the mothership is State Farm Mutual Insurance Company and the "higher risk" things are insured by State Farm Insurance which is a stock company. I suspect lots of insurers do similar things. I have heard that USAA steers motorcycles to Progressive, or at least some of their agents do.

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That's correct Paul. I've been a USAA member for 30+ years; they don't insure motorcycles but instead partner with Progressive.

Subman said:

That's correct Paul. I've been a USAA member for 30+ years; they don't insure motorcycles but instead partner with Progressive.

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And Foremost also.

Geico all the way

I got Geico for my K1200S a year ago, after 1 month the bike was totaled.
They covered that. And did not raise my rates for my next bike
I now have 3 bmws covered for $68 a month
I switched my 3 cars as well , saved me 250 a month over Mercury.
Mercury had saved me 350 over liberty mutual.
The Geico app is awesome.

I apologize for getting this American Insurance Premium thread somewhat off track. Back in late March or early April I took the insurance off my R1100, informing the company that with COVID I wouldn't be riding much this season and would like to save some money. Finally got around to looking at my bike policy a couple of weeks ago and to my horror I discovered that the insurance for my small one wheel trailer and my K100 was in fact, $200 a year more in monthly premiums than if I had kept the two bikes on the policy! Riding and licensed since '72 with never an accident or a claim. One bike is costing more than our car to insure. (I will be shopping around for a new insurance company this winter.)

I should mention that those of us riding in Canada really envy your rates as compared to the outrageous fees for insuring our bikes.

Paul_F said:

... to my horror I discovered that the insurance for my small one wheel trailer and my K100 was in fact, $200 a month more in monthly premiums ...)

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I’m having trouble understanding this statement. It reads like you are making monthly insurance premium payments of over $200 (maybe far over?) That can’t be right. The ANNUAL premium on my F700GS is <$300, and I probably have more coverage than I should.

I must be reading this wrong.

Almost hate to jump in here on this. First, I know the original thread start was about collectable insurance and I'm not sure if I'm talking apples/oranges here or apples/apples. Anyway, here goes: I'd been working on a Café bike project for years and work and life and etc kept getting in the way of getting it back on the road. I finally finished it and registered and insured it. I hadn't had MC insurance for a while so I did some investigating and decided that Geico, largely because home, RV, and cages are all covered there. Old Honda, liability only; $99 a year. OK, why not? I set it all up. Within a couple of months I got the Rockster and sold the Honda. I checked w/ Geico and was amazed; much newer, larger displacement, more valuable bike, liability only: $99 a year! Heck yeah! Pulled the trigger and happily rode away. Two days later I was out for a little ride north of town and hit a deer. ABS worked great, didn't go down, bike went wobble wobble and kept going. The only damage was that the tip of the carbon fiber front fender was broken clean off. Discovered that OEM replacement is $800! Mrs asked about insurance and called me a dummy when I told her I had only put liability on it. I checked back in w/ Geico and reconfigured the policy. The beast is now covered w/ the whole appropriate package except emergency roadside. I couldn't believe it: still $99.00 a year. Ride on! (And no, I didn't try and make a claim after the fact for the fender.)

mikeseven said:

Just got my renewal invoice for a collector car that I insure with American modern. The first year's premium was cheap compared to my regular insurer State Farm. With the first renewal the premium has increased 53% despite no claims, minimum mileage, nothing has changed. Had to smile when the latest marketing from BMW MOA promoting this insurer popped into my email, just as I was reviewing the policy premium. Talk about good timing. Don't be fooled by teaser rates.

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You need to make sure you report the company to your state board of insurance.

E.

easy said:

You need to make sure you report the company to your state board of insurance.

E.

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Make sure Ted at the BMW MOA office also knows of your personal experience too please.

vark said:

I’m having trouble understanding this statement. It reads like you are making monthly insurance premium payments of over $200 (maybe far over?) That can’t be right. The ANNUAL premium on my F700GS is <$300, and I probably have more coverage than I should.

I must be reading this wrong.

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I wrote it incorrectly. I should have said, an increase of $200 per year. But yes, $200 a month for one bike and trailer, approximately $16 more per month than two bikes and trailer. I guess I lost the two bike discount. Bike insurance in our province is absolutely abominable. Come January, I'll be calling a buddy's insurance company which is charging him only about $1400 yearly for two bikes and as outrageous as that would be for an American, a deal in Ontario. Mine used to be $1400 yearly for several years with a few companies but after a couple of years, a rate increase of $700 or so becomes the new premium. The reasoning is that although I have never had any claims (it's always this year) there have been so many mc accidents that all rates have to increase to cover the additional insurance payouts. This winter the search for a new provider will happen again.

On the bright side, if I should be involved in an accident, serious or minor, I will not have to put money for any hospital procedures; the government covers that

It is crazy what some people pay for insurance. I have a 2018 RT, a 2016 HD Limited and a beater 2003 Yamaha R1, plus my wife's Trailblazer, all on full coverage with high liability and our home insurance all through the same company. $200 a month.

I remember talking to a guy that lived right in Los Angeles. Full coverage for a new Yamaha R1 was $8,000 a year for a $16,000 motorcycle, said he would have a motorcycle stolen every 2-3 years as he did not have a secure place for them. He needed full coverage as he always had a loan on them. He would chain it to a column at his apartment building, put a cover over it and have an alarm system and they would still steal it! He didn't have a place for enclosed storage handy and he rode it daily.

For collector car insurance I can't say enough good things about them. I've had a policy with them for about 15 years and never had any surprise rate increases and their customer service is excellent. I had to file one claim and it could not have have been any easier: have your shop send us the estimate and we'll send you a check. Easy and no rate premium increase after that. They also offer excellent roadside assistance and are very active in the collector car community. IMHO there are none better.

I really like Hagerty for my collectors cars, I have 4 vehicles insured, with full coverage, stated value and the total premium for all 4 of them is less than $500.00 a year.

Motodan said:

Here's BBB listing on American Modern. Read the reviews then you decide:

https://www.bbb.org/us/oh/amelia/pr...perty-and-casualty-insurance-company-0292-647

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Many of the reviews on BBB site are like my story. A few weeks after canceling, American Modern sent me a refund check for $60. The refund should have been for 10 months on the $475 policy which I paid for, but they refunded me at their "new" 300% higher premium rate policy which I never accepted. I spent about another hour or two trying to get them on the phone and then after a long discussion one of the staff and her supervisor, they refused to pay me back for policy which I paid them for. I haven't their check $60 refund check yet. They have stolen about $295 ($425 / 12 x 10 - $60) from me and hours of my time using a bait and switch system of reissuing paid, in force policies at 3 times the original rate. The process has taken hours of my time and I'm not sure it is worth continuing by going to the state insurance board or a lawyer on principal. I will probably chalk up the loss as a learning experience which hopefully someone else here will benefit from.

I sincerely hope the BMW MOA takes the BBB reviews and the two cases on this thread into consideration before continuing to recommend American Modern to its members.