Well, you can tell what a dull life I lead because for the past 45 minutes, I sat and read this entire post. I joined USAA in 1973, while in Undergraduate Pilot Training, and can still remember the day when I was waiting in line at the gas station at Williams AFB, and started to have a conversation with the guy who's car was right behind mine. You see the country was experiencing its first gasoline shortage since WWII and the lines at the pumps were LOOOOOOONG.

Anyway, the conversation turned to auto insurance and he told me about USAA. It was a military officers association and "all" military officers were members he said. That was impressive I thought, and so within a week we were USAA members, switching our auto insurance from Allstate and our renters insurance from whatever company (I don't remember) we had. Over the following 36 years we've had a few minor auto accidents and a few claims on our (now) homeowners policy, all of which were handled both expeditiously and professionally by the USAA staff. As well, each year we would get in the mail a "dividend check", sometimes as high as 6 or 8 hundred bucks, lately in the 2 to 4 hundred dollar range.

Whereas I'm quite sure that I can find cheaper insurance for both my cars as well as the house, I'm inclined to stay with what I know. I know one gets more conservative as one ages, and that's certainly the case with me, but the few extra bucks that I would save, would not compensate me for the aggravation I'd feel if that new company failed to process my claim correctly or worse, canceled my policy after a claim.

I can understand the frustration of guys who have had their USAA homeowner rates doubled, but at the same time, understand that USAA is in the business to: 1) maintain profitability; and then 2) to offer insurance, investment, and banking products to their members. And as a member with a very parochial point of view, I'd like nothing more than for USAA to not have to pay any claims for hurricane damage, year after year, because folks continue to choose to live in hurricane flood plains. After all USAA is an association, not a mutual aid society. It is not surprising that all insurance companies have raised their rates for homes built along coastlines, and they will continue to do so. If I owned one of them, I'd be more interested in knowing that if I filed a claim, that the company I filed with would still be in business and would pay off on said claim, than saving a couple (or maybe even a lot of) bucks.

I guess that I've developed a relationship with USAA that I'm comfortable with and one that gives me a piece of mind that I'm not sure I'd get from Geico, State Farm, etc, etc. That said, it doesn't mean that I won't, on Monday, do some internet surfing to see exactly what's out there, but I doubt if I'll be swayed just to save some bucks. Life's too short. I know that for a fact.

JJ