NOTE: I am based in Louisiana and periodically go abroad for long stretches, followed by a few months at home. I am a low-income retired 50 y.o. single male, no kids, with a perfect driving record for the last 10 years, only filing a few claims with the insurers of parties that have hit me. I am a homeowner (no mortgage) and have a Chapter 7 bankruptcy from 6 years ago I have few assets that are recoverable in my state and my car is a beater, so I am only interested in the bare minimum liability coverage.
I have been a satisfied customer of GEICO for many years, mainly because they USED to offer me a great storage plan that gave me a 70% discount for the time the policy was in that plan, upon getting back to regular coverage. (I did not have to do anything with the state, and really didn't want to, as it was my understanding that I would need to forfeit my {special, university-affiliated} plate and get a new registration & plate, with my insurance card, etc., requiring expensive taxi rides, etc.) A month ago as I was leaving once again, I called to get put into the same storage plan. Just recently I called GEICO just to follow up that I had been properly put into this plan, only now I was told that the rules of the storage plan has changed and I can no longer get the storage plan.
As for the state, I can put the car into the status of being in non-use, and could cancel the insurance after that with no ramifications (I am trying to get the ramifications of that, including putting it back in regular use; it does seem that I can do the non-use declaration online, so that not be a big hassle.)
So with GEICO no longer giving me the service I want, I am now looking for an insurer that can do what GEICO had done. I suppose that I could not get new coverage and be put immediately into the storage plan, so in that case, I would only get coverage again before I get back; in that case, I would need an insurer that would make it easy for me to get coverage without having to respond to snail mail, etc.
I suppose that a side issue would be if indeed I go the route of simply putting my car into non-use and completely cancelling my insurance, I would like to know how hard it would be for me to keep getting new insurance every time I get back home.
I also plan to file a complaint with my state department of insurance for the misrepresentation that GEICO did in signing me up for a storage plan when indeed they did not (i.e., the agent did not inform me that there was no storage plan), and could use any pointers there.
I have been a satisfied customer of GEICO for many years, mainly because they USED to offer me a great storage plan that gave me a 70% discount for the time the policy was in that plan, upon getting back to regular coverage. (I did not have to do anything with the state, and really didn't want to, as it was my understanding that I would need to forfeit my {special, university-affiliated} plate and get a new registration & plate, with my insurance card, etc., requiring expensive taxi rides, etc.) A month ago as I was leaving once again, I called to get put into the same storage plan. Just recently I called GEICO just to follow up that I had been properly put into this plan, only now I was told that the rules of the storage plan has changed and I can no longer get the storage plan.
As for the state, I can put the car into the status of being in non-use, and could cancel the insurance after that with no ramifications (I am trying to get the ramifications of that, including putting it back in regular use; it does seem that I can do the non-use declaration online, so that not be a big hassle.)So with GEICO no longer giving me the service I want, I am now looking for an insurer that can do what GEICO had done. I suppose that I could not get new coverage and be put immediately into the storage plan, so in that case, I would only get coverage again before I get back; in that case, I would need an insurer that would make it easy for me to get coverage without having to respond to snail mail, etc.
I suppose that a side issue would be if indeed I go the route of simply putting my car into non-use and completely cancelling my insurance, I would like to know how hard it would be for me to keep getting new insurance every time I get back home.
I also plan to file a complaint with my state department of insurance for the misrepresentation that GEICO did in signing me up for a storage plan when indeed they did not (i.e., the agent did not inform me that there was no storage plan), and could use any pointers there.
