# State Farm - Shady Farm...



## uberlyftnewbie (Jan 18, 2019)

So I did the right thing and notified State Farm I was driving for work, because they can cancel your insurance and deny any claim if you don't notify them. First, they raised my monthly payment by $40, secondly they told me verbally over the phone that I could only work "part time", when I asked for clarification my agent told me I could not drive for more than 20 hours a week, and stated if I got into an accident they would pull my records from uber/lyft.

I took the 20 hours literally and that was my fault. So I only drove for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. But after a few months of struggling to pay my bills, I started to question my agent via email. I asked them to send me the actual legal verbiage. They emailed back basically you are only covered under TNC if you "drive for business 50% of the time". I wrote back and said that is really vague, please tell me what State Farm constitutes as time? I got a email back saying we provided you with the definition...

So I find a press release online from State Farm regarding TNC coverage and it says in plain English time starts ticking when you click the Go button and the coverage is just above and beyond what Uber or Lyft would pay if there was an injury resulting in a claim over the Uber or Lyft coverage (1 million). Nowhere does it say your driving time is limited to 20 hours, it just states that if you drive for work you must notify them and if you have the uber or lyft apps online for more than 20 hours per week they won't pay out anything above and beyond what Uber pays, so if you drive for both Uber and Lyft you're definitely going to exceed the 20 hours with both apps running at the same time while you're waiting for the next passenger who claims they will tip you in the app.

So I sent the press release to my State Farm agent and she finally stated in writing that TNC coverage time starts when you click the Go button and ends when you click the "Go Offline" however the press release below also clarifies that really the TNC coverage only applies while you have a paying passenger in the car so the whole thing was very frustrating, getting this information from them was difficult and they resisted giving any kind of detail, clarification or confirmation, maybe because they do not know themselves or more likely did not want to put anything in writing, having worked doing corporate customer email correspondence I know they prefer vague.

Below is State Farms press release:

https://newsroom.statefarm.com/tnc-driver-coverage-ar-md-nv-vt-wy/

"TNCs may provide high liability coverage limits while a paying passenger occupies the driver's vehicle or when the driver has been connected with a passenger and is on the way to pick that person up. But TNCs tend to provide a much lower limit of liability coverage when drivers are just available for hire and may not provide the drivers with any medical payments, comprehensive, or collision coverages at all. The TNCs may not be providing coverage for injuries to the driver or coverage for any damage to the driver's personal car".


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## njn (Jan 23, 2016)

that pr is like 3 years old.


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## losiglow (Dec 4, 2018)

It's interesting how auto insurance companies are handling RS so differently. USAA doesn't seem to care much. They just asked me to opt in to the gap insurance (at a whopping $6 a month) and increase the estimated mileage per year on the car. The total increase was just shy of $20 per month.


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## BigJohn (Jan 27, 2016)

losiglow said:


> It's interesting how auto insurance companies are handling RS so differently. USAA doesn't seem to care much. They just asked me to opt in to the gap insurance (at a whopping $6 a month) and increase the estimated mileage per year on the car. The total increase was just shy of $20 per month.


It all has to do with risk. And that is historical, perceived and focused. USAA only sells insurance to a specific group of individuals who by nature of their learning, are more inclined to be more respectful and trustworthy than John Q. Public. As such their policies take that into account on designing and pricing the insurance plans it offers.


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## losiglow (Dec 4, 2018)

BigJohn said:


> It all has to do with risk. And that is historical, perceived and focused. USAA only sells insurance to a specific group of individuals who by nature of their learning, are more inclined to be more respectful and trustworthy than John Q. Public. As such their policies take that into account on designing and pricing the insurance plans it offers.


That makes sense. However, they're sure sticking it to me with adding my son. Nearly $200/month to add him once he gets his license this summer :confusion:


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## BigJohn (Jan 27, 2016)

losiglow said:


> That makes sense. However, they're sure sticking it to me with adding my son. Nearly $200/month to add him once he gets his license this summer :confusion:


How old is your son? How long has he been licensed to drive? How is his record? Confused, not at all.


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## waldowainthrop (Oct 25, 2019)

BigJohn said:


> How old is your son? How long has he been licensed to drive? How is his record? Confused, not at all.


Zero record and young male driver, the highest risk category of driver with the factors that insurance companies are legally allowed to discriminate on. Everyone pays the price for reckless young drivers, including parents and non-reckless young drivers.


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## rob glen (Aug 11, 2015)

Sounds like it's time to say goodbye to State Farm. Problem solved! Look at it this way: can you imagine making a claim ,and getting it paid correctly? There are many more insurance companies, some even know what they are doing.....


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## BigJohn (Jan 27, 2016)

waldowainthrop said:


> Zero record and young male driver, the highest risk category of driver with the factors that insurance companies are legally allowed to discriminate on. Everyone pays the price for reckless young drivers, including parents and non-reckless young drivers.


Ah see there you are, throwing opinions into facts. Discrimination has nothing to do with it, statistics do.

Let us try it this way, how do YOU think insurance companies should rate and determine which new young drivers are going to be safe and which will be the ones to cause accidents and claims?


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## waldowainthrop (Oct 25, 2019)

BigJohn said:


> Ah see there you are, throwing opinions into facts. Discrimination has nothing to do with it, statistics do.
> 
> Let us try it this way, how do YOU think insurance companies should rate and determine which new young drivers are going to be safe and which will be the ones to cause accidents and claims?


Whoa. Discrimination isn't a bad word. Insurance companies need to discriminate, i.e. recognize a distinction between people like age or other known generalized risk factors. Their business would not work without discrimination. The business makes its money by generalizing about the unknown and partly unknowable. There are factors that they can't legally discriminate on.

As far as I am concerned I didn't editorialize at all. It is a fact that the risk factors with young drivers are felt by society in the form of early deaths, hospital debt, and insurance premiums. Driving is pretty risky.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

And as for your question, I don't have an idea. Some insurance companies have given discounts for "good students" which seems pretty stupid but maybe they did the math on the risk pool and it makes them money. I don't know. I don't work in the insurance business.


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## BigJohn (Jan 27, 2016)

waldowainthrop said:


> Whoa.


The wording of your post that I quoted can easily be taken as a complaint about the way things are done, a complaint that many people often make about insurance companies because they are not willing to understand and accept the reasons behind it.

Thank you for taking the time to explain that is not what you were doing.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

waldowainthrop said:


> Zero record and young male driver, the highest risk category of driver with the factors that insurance companies are legally allowed to discriminate on. Everyone pays the price for reckless young drivers, including parents and non-reckless young drivers.


Nope there's actually a higher risk group you can discriminate against. Uber/lyft also don't allow them to drive. The cab company i drive for doesn't allow them either.

Get convicted for a DUI and your rates go up 80 fricken % once you get your license (or get a hardship exemption ect)


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## BigJohn (Jan 27, 2016)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> Nope there's actually a higher risk group you can discriminate against. Uber/lyft also don't allow them to drive. The cab company i drive for doesn't allow them either.
> 
> Get convicted for a DUI and your rates go up 80 fricken % once you get your license (or get a hardship exemption ect)


For those convicted of a DUI, this should be the mandatory penalties:
1st conviction: 30 days jail, loss of license for 1 year, probation including license restrictions for 3 years.
2nd conviction: 6 months in jail, loss of license for 5 years, probation for 5 years.
3rd conviction: 1 year in jail, permanent loss of license.
For those convicted of a DUI that resulted in injury or death to others:
1st conviction: 1 year in jail (plus any manslaughter penalties) loss of license for 5 years.
2nd conviction: 1 year in jail (plus any manslaughter penalties) plus $250,000 fine payable to the state for medicare type funding and permanent loss of license.

That is in addition to civil penalties and responsibilities.


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## uberlyftnewbie (Jan 18, 2019)

rob glen said:


> Sounds like it's time to say goodbye to State Farm. Problem solved! Look at it this way: can you imagine making a claim ,and getting it paid correctly? There are many more insurance companies, some even know what they are doing.....


So I would switch but one thing not mentioned here is how your credit rating affects the price of your insurance, if you have no credit (like new drivers) or bad credit score you have to pay much more, I have low credit that I am working on fixing, State Farm charges me half of any other quote I've ever received, that's why I can't leave them.


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## Jon Stoppable (Dec 11, 2019)

My State Farm TNC policy rider (VA) says nothing about an hours limitation. They have to send the policy rider. Read it. Anything verbal is worthless.


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## uberlyftnewbie (Jan 18, 2019)

Jon Stoppable said:


> My State Farm TNC policy rider (VA) says nothing about an hours limitation. They have to send the policy rider. Read it. Anything verbal is worthless.


Yes, that's exactly what I stated in my original post. I was lied to by my state farm rep I've known for over 20 years.


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## Jon Stoppable (Dec 11, 2019)

You were talking about press releases and what your agent said. Neither of those are legally binding. Sure they were clueless, but when you get the TNC coverage SF mails you the policy update with the TNC rider. Might even be in SF app if you dig deep enough. It's not something you should have to specially request.


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## uberlyftnewbie (Jan 18, 2019)

Jon Stoppable said:


> You were talking about press releases and what your agent said. Neither of those are legally binding. Sure they were clueless, but when you get the TNC coverage SF mails you the policy update with the TNC rider. Might even be in SF app if you dig deep enough. It's not something you should have to specially request.


I've never received anything regarding the TNC from SF in the mail, I had to beg my agent for info and all I got was vague clueless replies and they started getting nasty about it, that's why I had to resort to the SF press release I found by searching google. If you work for SF I don't mean any offense, I've had nothing but good service from them for over 20 years, this is the only issue.

On another note, I've heard nightmare stories about drivers who had their cars totaled only to find out that because they had a car loan from the dealership it wasn't covered, lost the car but still had to make the payments. Read the fine print folks. You get in an accident and watch Uber/Lyft go back and forth with your insurance company, neither wanting to pay. It's the American way.


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