Austin Area TW Chapter (all gens welcome, even T4Rs; heck, just make it a Toyota and we're good)

Insurance is a commodity. And commodities trade on price. Know what you need, hit their websites, and make them earn your business.

Three professions that are useless:
1. Insurance agents
2. Realtors
3. Whores

All three of them can be done with little or no actual skill, and they all make way more money than they are worth.

 

If you qualify for USAA, I recommend them. They have been rabid going after everyone who ever hit us, including a lady in San Antonio actively trying to commit fraud.

 

What company do you use?

I don't think I qualify but I've heard good things about usaa

 

We like to use them because they see the value in having a great travel agent, so they book their international family travel with Pam. It's been a great relationship thus far...business owners helping business owners.

I did qualify for USAA but I was shocked at the price difference between them vs what we are paying now. I had Progressive before and was paying about $80/mo. I wanted to get USAA because I've heard great things but they wanted over $100/mo for the same coverage. When we got a quote from State Farm I was shocked at how low it was. I now pay around $40/mo for full coverage! Granted my truck isn't worth that much but glad to know I'm not being ripped off.

 

YMMV. I've gotten quotes from USAA before, and wondered what they were smoking.

Progressive for the motorcycles, Tundra, the wife's Telluride, and our umbrella policy. Grundy for the FJ40, and Nationwide for the house. And trust me, all of it was reviewed extensively last year, when our homeowners with Nationwide jumped by 33%, with the policy only increasing in coverage by 10%. I ran the numbers with the usual suspects, such as Progressive, State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Travelers, Liberty Mutual, Farmers, and Nationwide. I was looking to bundle, if possible, the homeowners and vehicle insurance, but not the FJ40. Grundy is good for that, and I knew the umbrella policy wouldn't be a huge difference between any of the companies.

While there were some differences between the companies, in the end, I stayed with what we had. Travelers was the only company that was what I would call competitive, without being annoying. Farmer's was in there as well, but required that I go back to the company that re-roofed our house last year, and have them prove the job was done. This was despite me sending them pictures of the shingles sitting in our driveway, and the guys on the roof the next day, placing said shingles. The pictures, of course, are time stamped, and Farmer's had a street view picture of our house that matched the pictures I sent them, but they said they needed proof from the roofer. I told them they were too dumb for me to send them money, and moved on. The companies I didn't go beyond the initial quote would have all cost me more, so what would be the point? Travelers was competitive on the homeowners, but Nationwide put a new roof on our house, at the cost of $37K, 6 weeks after we started a policy with them, so they earned a bit of loyalty.

In the end, even though I stayed with who we had, it was a good exercise. Insurance prices are up across the board, for a myriad of reasons I won't go into. I always tell people to shop every other year or so, and because you're able to get quotes online, w/o talking to people, you can quickly separate the wheat from the chaff. Just know that every situation is different, in terms of what factors a company uses, and how an individual scores in those areas. For example, if someone has a crappy credit score, they're not going to get the same rate quotes as someone with a good credit score.

Yep, it pays to look around.

 

Yeah was just looking for ideas on a spot to do a little off grid camping close by. With Texas being so privately owned aren't a lot of options to get some quick cheap off the grid camping other than PINS (4 hrs from Austin), Friends Deer Lease (4 hrs) or Way the Fuck out in Big Bend (8 hrs)

 

Texas is pretty stingy with their public lands. There are lots of places to camp near Austin but nothing I would consider "off grid." Maybe checkout Oxford Ranch Campground out in Llano. They are one of the better close places to go that is not a State or local park.

 

Thought I'd post this in here since I'll have to go down to New Braunfels soonish and can easily bring this with me.

Dometic Fridge for $800. $400 off Retail!

 

Tempting! I have been looking at these...almost pulled the trigger on one recently with the REI 20% off coopun. GLWS!

 

Yup!

What Ryan said... Oxford Ranch

 

Any garage door opener installers??? Or recommendations?? Up in Georgetown. Thanks fellas!

 

I installed my own in about 4 hours. Chamberlain belt-drive unit sold at Lowe's. Still works great 9 years later.

Are you adding new or replacing an old unit?

 

Adding new. Homes these days, your lucky to get windows and doors.

 

Then as long as you're "wired for a garage door opener" then it's an easy self-install. They leave the wiring for the door sensors in the walls; these connect to the wall switch, which also is wired up to where the unit will hang. The hardest part is figuring out how/where to mount the front of the track, getting the drive unit attached to the frame attached to the ceiling, and not melting because you're working in a garage in Texas in August...

...

...

...ok, I can see the benefit of paying someone else to do it now.

Seriously, are you pre-wired for an opener? I can take and send some pics when I get home on how I installed mine into a pre-wired garage.

 

Bonus - if you're going to seal your garage floor, now is the time to do it. I did mine and am so glad I did.

 

Absolute Garage Doors. Veteran owned, excellent service.

https://www.garagedoorsgeorgetown.com/

 

I will be down in New Braunfels on Friday....

 

Floating the river, Schlitterbahn, Or Slightly Stoopid @ whitewater amphitheater?

 

Why is now the best time? The summer heat? We just cleaned out the last junk in our garage yesterday and I'm going to powerwash/seal/paint the garage floor soon before it gets cluttered up again. Any suggestions while we're at it? thx. I'm on the red side of Austin in between Austin and Pflugerville TX.

 

Picking up something from 4LoFab for the truck.