# Two Insurance Policies, One Car? Metromile + Personal.



## ajcadoo (Jan 22, 2015)

I have USAA personal insurance in California. I have a $600 six-month premium. I don't want to lose that rate.

Metromile is now Uber-friendly personal insurance, but the rates are higher than USAA, thus I don't want to switch.

I am thinking of purchasing Metromile with basic tier coverage and adding in addition to my existing policy. Essentially two policies on one car.

If I'm in an accident on my own: go to USAA. If I'm in an accident while transporting a PAX, go to Metromile, and thus go to Uber. Fully covered no matter what, including me and my car.

I would just unplug my Metromile dongle anytime I am doing personal driving.

The only con to this plan is the premium which appears to be about $70/month, which would be hard to makeup at these rates.

What's yall's opinions...?


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## lu181 (Nov 3, 2014)

Metro mile is a replacement for your personal ins they dont cover the time from when you accept uber ping uber does so you get no benefit. Metro is personal ins just saying they are ok with you being uber driver. This is the problem with letting uber influence the regulations that have existed for many years as opposed to making them follow the rules.


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## ajcadoo (Jan 22, 2015)

However, when you are involved in an accident while transporting a PAX, Uber requires you to file a claim with your personal insurance immediately. If they deny the claim for personal damages (which they will), then Uber will help out.

With my idea, I would contact Metro as my personal, get denied presumably, and go to Uber to get the damages covered. All while avoiding USAA, but still having the benefit of the low USAA rate.

Replacing USAA would increase my premium by 40%! Not about that life.


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## Moofish (Jun 13, 2014)

Wouldn't having both USAA and Metromile still be significantly more than just having metromile? So why bother having both?
Even with both, you would be committing fraud against USAA for using your vehicle for commercial purposes. Metromile is just personal insurance that acknowledges you driving for Uber, so no headaches.


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## lu181 (Nov 3, 2014)

I dont know if all insurance does this check but i once had a situation where i could not get insurance because. Previous owner had not dropped theirs yet, so you wouldn't be able to have two policies. It also complicates issue lets say metromile find out about usaa and tell you to go to them or vice versa. Insurance does not actively seek out to pay out. Just creating anouther headach


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## Rideshare Patriot (Mar 11, 2015)

margins are already razor thin, you will not make it doubling your costs.


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## UnixHead (Aug 21, 2014)

I looked at the Metromile - there's a big gotcha: As I understand it (at least in CA) Uber now is PRIMARY whenever the app is on listening for pings, not just when enroute or transporting. Yet Metromile (MM) will charge you for driving with the app on until you get a ping.. Another problem - I do a lot of long distance runs. Metro would charge me for the deadhead miles (if I don't get a ping traveling back), even if the Uber app is on. I suspect in my case MM would be way more expensive than my current ins.
As to unhooking the dongle, ajcadoo, I'll bet that would void your insurance, and I'm sure they would be able to detect that it's been removed and re-installed.


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## lu181 (Nov 3, 2014)

From what I saw on the web they cover period 1 waiting for ping and normal personal use. Uber covers period 2 and 3 not sure what is the gotcha its on their site. Miles is the only issue i see so might not work For everyone which is the case for every insurance doesn't work for everyone. I have read mileage charge is capped @150 but i didn't see that from their site so who knows.


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## Casuale Haberdasher (Dec 7, 2014)

ajcadoo said:


> I have USAA personal insurance in California. I have a $600 six-month premium. I don't want to lose that rate.
> 
> Metromile is now Uber-friendly personal insurance, but the rates are higher than USAA, thus I don't want to switch.
> 
> ...


POST # 1 / ajcadoo : Boston Bison won-
ders if, in the inter-
vening 6 weeks, You've Contacted Metro-
mile to answer these Thorny Questions?


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## MikeB (Dec 2, 2014)

ajcadoo said:


> However, when you are involved in an accident while transporting a PAX, Uber requires you to file a claim with your personal insurance immediately. If they deny the claim for personal damages (which they will), then Uber will help out.
> 
> With my idea, I would contact Metro as my personal, get denied presumably, and go to Uber to get the damages covered. All while avoiding USAA, but still having the benefit of the low USAA rate.
> 
> Replacing USAA would increase my premium by 40%! Not about that life.


This is a big waste of money. Imagine this: you are driving with app on looking for fares and get into an accident, either your fault, or 50/50 or their fault and they are uninsured. You are hurt, you need medical care, medications, doctors visists, MRI, X-Rays, possibly long term care (LTC). You are paying to three insurance companies big-ass premium thinking you've thought it all over and now insured, right? 
WRONG. USAA denies your coverage - you're working livery. Metromile denies your coverage because your app is on - you working livery. And finally, Uber's insurance company, named James River insurance denies your medical expenses coverage because they don't cover drivers' medical expenses, treatments and medications. So you lose big.
If you want to be driving livery and being fully covered on the job, you need to buy livery insurance.


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## Older Chauffeur (Oct 16, 2014)

As another poster mentioned, I believe it is illegal to carry more than one personal policy on a vehicle. You cannot collect twice for the same loss, is the rationale behind the law, IIRC. that doesn't stop a corporation from covering itself for liability when you are using your personal vehicle on its behalf, however.


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## TeleSki (Dec 4, 2014)

MikeB said:


> This is a big waste of money. Imagine this: you are driving with app on looking for fares and get into an accident, either your fault, or 50/50 or their fault and they are uninsured. You are hurt, you need medical care, medications, doctors visists, MRI, X-Rays, possibly long term care (LTC). You are paying to three insurance companies big-ass premium thinking you've thought it all over and now insured, right?
> WRONG. USAA denies your coverage - you're working livery. Metromile denies your coverage because your app is on - you working livery. And finally, Uber's insurance company, named James River insurance denies your medical expenses coverage because they don't cover drivers' medical expenses, treatments and medications. So you lose big.
> If you want to be driving livery and being fully covered on the job, you need to buy livery insurance.


I could not find an insurance company that would cover a one-person "livery" in California. Holding tight until July, when there should be Hybrid policies in California. If there are none, then I'm looking at switching to MM. Their coverage did not seem to be much more than USAA for me. I pay about what you(ajcadoo) pay for coverage with USAA.


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## PTB (Feb 3, 2015)

TeleSki said:


> I could not find an insurance company that would cover a one-person "livery" in California. Holding tight until July, when there should be Hybrid policies in California. If there are none, then I'm looking at switching to MM. Their coverage did not seem to be much more than USAA for me. I pay about what you(ajcadoo) pay for coverage with USAA.


what can you do if current 6 month insurance policy needs to be renewed in June?


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## TeleSki (Dec 4, 2014)

PTB said:


> what can you do if current 6 month insurance policy needs to be renewed in June?


Not quite sure what you're asking, but you could check out Metromile, or renew your policy. If hybrid policies come out in July, you can always cancel that, and get credited the pro-rated amount.


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## frndthDuvel (Aug 31, 2014)

UnixHead said:


> I looked at the Metromile - there's a big gotcha: As I understand it (at least in CA) Uber now is PRIMARY whenever the app is on listening for pings, not just when enroute or transporting. Yet Metromile (MM) will charge you for driving with the app on until you get a ping.. Another problem - I do a lot of long distance runs. Metro would charge me for the deadhead miles (if I don't get a ping traveling back), even if the Uber app is on. I suspect in my case MM would be way more expensive than my current ins.
> As to unhooking the dongle, ajcadoo, I'll bet that would void your insurance, and I'm sure they would be able to detect that it's been removed and re-installed.


Nobody yet, er rather I have not seen anybody say that MM is more expensive than other carriers. Most are surprised at the savings in fact. At least I was. I don't understand your "big gotcha". Worrying about deadhead miles? Well you pay those already with your carrier right, who will drop you the minute they find out you drive TNC. MM covers all miles except those from after you accept a ping and until drop off. Please go to metromile.com. Get a quote. It takes less than 5 minutes, then please come back here and discuss apples to apples. MM also limits miles per charge per day at 150. But go get a quote. Drivers do have some responsibility to do what is right. Making sure we are properly covered is one of those things. Yeah ,yeah UBER should,pay, well they do if you have MM.

Made 27 net bucks an hour today. WOohoo! UBER is blessed! OH wait, it was only 1 ride. Sat around waiting for a Cinco De mayo ping from 5-7, at my E County ******* area home. Where when the guarantee was on I could never sit that long at that time on X without getting a ping. Told myself if nothing by 7 it would be cerveza thirty. 7:02 a ping from the local Starbucks. Nice girl with sniffles visiting from Seattle, yeah Starbucks pickup. Did not say one word about her having one in her hand.

Nice trip to Little Italy, a 3 dollar tip. Which she started digging for right after I had mistakenly said I missed the correct turn, which it turns out I had not. I hope she has no problem with her sky diving adventure manana. I told her she could take the pocket size kleenex pack. Said screw it, that is enough. Put it on XL and cruised home, even took a detour through a 1.5 surge area, but did not bother to go off XL. It was all or nothing, then beer. Hard to get excited while in the midst of getting Fubered on a referral fee!

Went from 12 weeks of 45 plus trips a week for 3 guarantee months, to less than 20 in April, now a whoppng 1 in May. I have seen less surge since the guarantees have gone away. It also seems from the few hours I have had the app on, that there is just so many cars out there. I guess I have nobody but myself to blame since I made 2 referrals. One from a UPN lotto hit! Yeah!

47 miles driven, 23 miles paid to MM at 4,3 cents per mile, 98 cents, oops. I made $26 dollars for the hour.


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## @VACountryGUY (Jan 29, 2015)

I have heard nothing but bad news when having to deal with James River. Im not sure saving a few dollars with metro mile or any company is worth the hassle. A company like Progressive or GEICO seems to be the way to go, if you can...


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## ajcadoo (Jan 22, 2015)

Im just going to wait for USAA's policy to come to California. Then I will probably start driving recreationally for fun. $1/mile is still ridiculous to make a living.


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