My strange and frustrating experience with State Farm

My Frustrating Experience with State Farm

I wanted to share my recent experience with State Farm, which has been quite strange and frustrating. Our agent has been slow in processing our applications, has withheld important information about our policies, and has generally been unhelpful and combative. As a result, we’ve decided to switch to Allstate, where we can get similar coverage for less money, and so far, their customer service has been much better. However, now that we are trying to cancel our State Farm policies, they haven’t confirmed our request and it feels like we’re just getting the runaround.

Here’s a bit of background on how we got here:

My wife and I became first-time homeowners at the beginning of this year—exciting times! We closed on our new home in January 2025, and as we prepared for that, we started looking for home insurance. We thought we got a decent deal with State Farm, especially since my wife already had auto coverage with them. It made sense to bundle our home and auto insurance for a discount, so I switched my car insurance from Progressive to State Farm as well, believing I was overpaying with them.

Initially, the process seemed straightforward. Our agent guided us through the paperwork, and apart from a few “Signature required” documents that we were told to ignore, everything appeared to be in order.

Then came the red flags. About a month after signing and paying for the auto insurance, I still hadn’t received any documentation about our policy. I called our agent, who explained that transferring the policy took extra time. It didn’t entirely make sense to me, but I accepted her explanation and didn’t push back—I just wanted to be covered.

As the days went by, we occasionally spoke about discounts and coverage changes, and I mistakenly trusted that if there was any critical information we needed, she would inform us.

Fast forward to last week, when I received a letter from State Farm’s underwriting department stating that they had not received a signed document for Uninsured Motor Vehicle Coverage Selection/Rejection, which is required in Georgia. I realized that the “Signature required” documents were actually crucial paperwork I should not have ignored. While I understand it’s my responsibility to review all paperwork, an agent guiding us to disregard necessary documents feels deceptive.

After looking into our Uninsured Motorist coverage, I was shocked to find we were set at 250/500/250, which added over $220 to our six-month premium of around $900. This seemed excessive, especially since rates in Georgia typically range from $20-$40 for more reasonable coverage options. Even after calling to downgrade to 50/100/50, we’d still be paying $180—far too high in comparison to what we found later with Allstate.

While I was reviewing, I noticed our home insurance policy was missing from the State Farm app. When I called to inquire, I learned that our home insurance application was still pending—over two months later! Our agent offered excuses, claiming they needed to wait for the mortgage company, which didn’t make sense to me since we had been copied on those communications. She then tried to downplay the delay as normal for insurance applications, but I was skeptical.

When I pressed for specific reasons behind the delay, she deflected and pointed out that I could have raised these concerns earlier. This was infuriating; her responsibility to update me was being turned back on me.

By this point, I was already looking into other options. The sales representative at Allstate was far more helpful, and we figured out new policies for both our auto and home coverage at significantly lower rates. Though we’d pay a bit more for home insurance ($500 more yearly), we’d save over $800 on our auto policy.

Ready to make the switch, we confirmed everything with Allstate, but when I called to cancel with State Farm, we were bounced to another