oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
Member Is Offline
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Would you join a Nomad Club for group rates on Mexican Auto Insurance?
What would it take to form a "Nomad" Club" that could qualify for group rates on annual auto insurance? With a "Club" status could our group get
lower rates and be offered more flexibility with deductibles etc?
I'd pay a Nomad Club membership fee if it meant paying less for annual auto insurance. I pay for a club now but don't need any of the other services
that are offered. I'd be happy to switch our annual policy and support Baja Bound for example, but I do need to watch our budget.
Would you join a Nomad Club if group rate annual Mexican auto insurance was available?
(No Club meetings, reading minutes, or taking turns with refreshments will be required)
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 65408
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Doug had once set up a discount for Nomad members, years ago... BajaBound.com sponsors Nomad now.
[Edited on 11-20-2009 by David K]
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BajaSerg
Nomad
Posts: 182
Registered: 3-31-2008
Location: Los Angels/Rosarito
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy
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It all depends how much of a discount 
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woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15940
Registered: 11-8-2004
Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Everchangin'
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yes, if it was competitive.....
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Pescador
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3587
Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
Member Is Offline
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All policies are not equal. I am mostly interested in the amounts of liability coverage, legal coverage, and secondary coverages like towing,
adjuster availability, etc., and I know that the seller of Mexican policies has only a limited amount of influence with the Mexican Insurance company
that is doing the actual claims and underwriting. All mexican insurance bought in the United States is sold through a Surplus Lines Brokerage and is
not what most consumers have come to expect or receive from their United States Insurance Companies. I think that you get way ahead if you take the
time to read sample policies from any company that you are considering and do a comparison. In the United States, each state has an insurance
commissioner who take and process complaints where clients feel they were not treated according to the policy and they have regulatory power over the
companies. In Mexico, there is a government agency but I suspect that the complaint process is a much more convoluted and ineffective process.
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MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
Member Is Offline
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Pescador, great, great post reply.
For me, what I want in a policy is coverage first, cost second. I would not pay $75.00 for a policy wherein the insuring company was not responsive,
looked for ways to get out of paying as their first priority upon a claim, hard to contact, slow to follow thru or to get back to you, was non
communicative, slow to send an adjuster out, wasn't readily available 24/7 when you're in an accident, slow to pay on a claim, and is an
administrative nightmare to deal with. I would pay $350 for an insurance policy wherein the insurer did not suffer from all the stuff that I
mentioned above.
In my mind and experience, bad insurance companies are the same as yor having no insurance at all. So, why pay $75 for what is tantamount to no
insurance at all?
While I would be willing to pay more for being covered by a good ins company as opposed to cheap bad insurance, I still want to watch my costs. So,
if your new group policy would provide a good insuring company (the info on the new insurer would have to be persuasive), the price has to be
competitive enough to change from the coverage I have now, which is with Discover Baja. Just being honest here.
[Edited on 11-20-2009 by MitchMan]
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Bajahowodd
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9274
Registered: 12-15-2008
Location: Disneyland Adjacent and anywhere in Baja
Member Is Offline
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I've researched coverage from four different brokers over the years. Pescador is correct in that the folks offering Mexican insurance are US based
surplus lines brokers. Of the four I've checked out, they work with and quote for anywhere from one to four Mexican insurance companies. The two most
prominent have been Genworth(now HDI) and ACE. That said, for a number of reasons, I cannot believe that any Mexican carrier is going to provide a
different premium quote for different brokers. My guess is that if a broker can actually provide a high volume of business, they may well be receiving
a larger commission from the carrier, and then, pass that on as savings to the customer. I don't know this for sure. But, in reviewing the many times
I have applied for Mexican policies, I recall the process has been the same. There is literally no underwriting process applied to the liability
coverage. It is merely a question of how long is the policy coverage period and how much coverage I want. Physical damage coverage is based upon the
stated value of the vehicle. Now, if you look at how the same sort of insurance is underwritten in the United States, you will note that such factors
as annual miles driven, a drivers' record of experience, and the location of the vehicle. These factors and some others are utilized to develop a
quote. In the case of Mexican insurance, virtually none of those factors are used. So, just a guess here, but I just don't see how there can be any
appreciable discount to be applied, other than some minimal volume thing that comes from the commission paid.
Since one of the aforementioned surplus lines brokers is a Nomad member and advertiser, I welcome him to educate me.
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oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
Member Is Offline
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What prompted this query is I was thinking about switching our current Discover Baja Genworth/HDI annual policy to BajaBound's Genworth/HDI policy so
I could be supportive of BajaBound's business.
Both policies offer the same amounts of collision and comprehensive but Discover Baja is able to offer lower deductibles and offer coverage for just
the NorthWest territory and the rate was about $100 less than BajaBound's , even after the $39 membership fee.
I called BajaBound to see if I could tweak their deductibles and change the coverage area (their only option is for the entire country of Mexico) so I
could compare apples to apples on the 2 policies. She's going to research it further but thinks that Discover Baja is able to offer more flexible
options that aren't available to them because of their Club higher-volume status.
So before I put BajaGeoff on the hotseat and asked if he'd like to start a Club, I thought I'd see if there was any interest.
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DianaT
Select Nomad
Posts: 10020
Registered: 12-17-2004
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by oladulce
What prompted this query is I was thinking about switching our current Discover Baja Genworth/HDI annual policy to BajaBound's Genworth/HDI policy so
I could be supportive of BajaBound's business.
Both policies offer the same amounts of collision and comprehensive but Discover Baja is able to offer lower deductibles and offer coverage for just
the NorthWest territory and the rate was about $100 less than BajaBound's , even after the $39 membership fee.
I called BajaBound to see if I could tweak their deductibles and change the coverage area (their only option is for the entire country of Mexico) so I
could compare apples to apples on the 2 policies. She's going to research it further but thinks that Discover Baja is able to offer more flexible
options that aren't available to them because of their Club higher-volume status.
So before I put BajaGeoff on the hotseat and asked if he'd like to start a Club, I thought I'd see if there was any interest. |
Now I say YES---
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Bob and Susan
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8813
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Mulege BCS on the BAY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Full Time Residents
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watch out
a few years ago the vags had a ins company go broke
i lost 6 months coverage
thank god i didn't need to use them or i would be out of luck
i think you need to look at the company and the coverage
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Pescador
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3587
Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
Member Is Offline
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I too like all the posts that Baja Geoff has put on here and it is certainly worth something that he supports the Bajanomad site. But because I have
been in the business before retiring, I am still sensitive to looking at all the coverages and have posted that information several times but as I
know from my own practice a lot of people made their decisions on my personality (which was fine tuned to find he most customers) rather than on
coverages. Try as I might, my clients did not do very well on reading the policies and even though I educated them on how to get the most out of
their policies they forgot it all quickly and when they got irate about somthing that was not covered the way they thought they should be.
One of the things I did learn with my Lewis and Lewis policy was that when I went to the company for settling a claim, they told me that it was ok
if I had the work done in the US, but when I had it done they used the appraisal which was done by one of their people. When I faxed them the
appraisals of two independent repair facilities who were within several pesos of each other it was obvious that they were low-balling me as to the
cost of repair and they did adjust their appraisal upward to more accurately reflect the cost of repair. Their appraisal was so far off as to be a
stupid reflection of what the actual costs of repair actually were whether or not the work was done in Mexico or the US.
Now in the US, this is the kind of thing I would fight for my clients for but in Mexico I found that even though the surplus lines brokers indicated
that they had a good audience with the insuring companies, I find that they have a more limited audience and you need to pretty much take things in
your own hands and do everything you can to make sure that you get adequate resolution with your claims.
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oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
Member Is Offline
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Pescador,
I'm comparing the HDI (formerly Genworth) policies because they pay the hourly US labor rate if repairs are needed. Other than that I'm looking at
comprehensive and theft coverage amounts and deductibles. The legal assistance etc seem to be comparable.
Ace was eliminated because they only pay $38-70 per hour labor for repairs.
I'm open to comparing other companies offerings if you have any suggestions.
We had Qualitas with Lewis for several years and Genworth with DB more recently, but we have no particular loyalty and remain claim-free so I have no
personal experience to draw from.
Based on other people's insurance company nightmare stories I've had the impression that after you buy your Mexican policy, you're on your own if you
have a claim.
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Pescador
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3587
Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by oladulce
Pescador,
I'm comparing the HDI (formerly Genworth) policies because they pay the hourly US labor rate if repairs are needed. Other than that I'm looking at
comprehensive and theft coverage amounts and deductibles. The legal assistance etc seem to be comparable.
Ace was eliminated because they only pay $38-70 per hour labor for repairs.
I'm open to comparing other companies offerings if you have any suggestions.
We had Qualitas with Lewis for several years and Genworth with DB more recently, but we have no particular loyalty and remain claim-free so I have no
personal experience to draw from.
Based on other people's insurance company nightmare stories I've had the impression that after you buy your Mexican policy, you're on your own if you
have a claim. |
I think that is a pretty good summary of how business is done in Mexico and I was just suggesting that you make sure that you read the policies and
discussions like this are great because being informed helps you when you have a claim. I find that taking pictures, getting statements from
passengers and others involved, obtaining a couple of extra appraisals from competing body repair shops, is all helpful. We are spoiled in the US and
expect the agents to handle a lot of those issues for us and act as an intermediary between the customer and the company.
Genworth has a good policy, in my opinion, and I prefer the Qualitas policy due to the liability coverages and the legal coverage section which is a
real issue in Mexico.
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
Member Is Offline
Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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I'll join if BajaBound is the agent/sponsor
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Bajahowodd
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9274
Registered: 12-15-2008
Location: Disneyland Adjacent and anywhere in Baja
Member Is Offline
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Apologies to BajaGeoff in advance, but has anyone had experience with these folks?
http://www.mexadventure.com/
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