[My question is time-sensitive, for I must make a move ASAP, and everything must be in place before next Tuesday.]
Anyone have experience with Markel, BMWMOA's endorsed motorcycle insurance company? (If a response contains sensitive information, it's OK to PM me.)
Here's my story (short version). In telling it, I recommend nothing, for Virginia courts award civil tort damages for tortious interference with a [third-party] contract. What anyone does after reading this is on their own, without any urging from me.
I insure our cages through USAA. When I bought my BMW Motorrad in October 2007, I called USAA and learned that USAA had recently stopped insuring motorcycles directly, and had begun referring its members to Progressive, which acted as underwriter. So, I went that route.
When I received my 2007-2008 Progressive policy, I noticed in the boilerplate a disclosure that "You were not given our best rating classification." I called Progressive's Customer Service & was referred to their underwriters. A representative implied that the cause was a statement by Equifax that I had no credit record of ever taking out an automobile loan. I patiently (more or less) explained that I had taken out a car loan while in the Army (late '60s), paid it off early, and had paid cash for cars ever since. (Spouse has had car loans individually, but that's not germane to the issue, so I omitted it.) So Progressive backed off its position, and reduced my rate by about 15 percent.
All was cool in the 2008 and 2009 renewals, so I wasn't terribly concerned when I received my renewal in September for my policy due to expire October 27. As I was about to write the check Saturday morning, I glanced at the policy, and was astounded to see again, "You were not given our best rating classification."
The reason: "You had no auto loans or leases reported opened within the last 10 years. . . . The average open date of all your reported loans and accounts was less than 20 years ago." (The first assertion is factually correct, but irrelevant; the second is absolutely false, and also irrelevant.)
I called Progressive Monday and had a very earnest conversation with a person who (I suspect) was reading from a script. She didn't care that I've paid cash for all my cars since 1970. She said that my enviable credit score (three weeks old, for we're in the process of refinancing our mortgage) was totally irrelevant. Her answers to my question, why Progressive had reversed its 2007 decision, was that (1) Progressive has a new computer model for rate decisions that factors in lack of auto loans and is infallible, and (2) the 2007 decision was age-weighted (?), and the 2010 decision is based solely on the absence of auto loans. (As to No. 2, my thought is that either the rep in 2007 or the rep in 2010 lied to me, because the 2007 rep certainly told me what I have written here.)
So, similar to Diogenes, walking around in the middle of the day with a lighted lantern, I am searching for (____)? (Diogenes was looking for an honest man; anyone today may complete my thought as they desire.)
