Thread: New to US

Hi,
This is my first posting. Moving to US in two months and am trying to understand the insurance nightmare. Does anybody know who the best companies are for car insurance and house insurance?

Alimi.

Welcome Alimi, sorry I cant help with your question though!

Hi Alimi,

What visa are you coming on? You may be able to register with an expat company such as AIG who can get insurance etc as if you were a USC with excellent credit history, we used them and I would highly recommend them :)

Thank you for your reply, we are on an L1 visa. Alimi

Insurance companies like L1 visas, they see it as some sort of security as it's a dual intent visa so you shouldn't have a problem getting it. :)

Thanks for this, any suggestions on which utility companies to go with?

You go with whoever covers your area, it is like the UK used to be...for most things not just utilities ;) Your landlord should give you the details of who to call.

One of the questions nobody has asked yet is what state you are moving to, and I did not catch it in your initial post. A lot of companies offering insurance do so on a state by state basis. Insurance in the US is slightly different than in the UK for both home and auto insurance so be sure to make sure you shop wisely.

If I were to be honest I would probably for your first year look to go to someone with a local presence like State Farm, they have local brokers responsible not only for your sale but for your ongoing service and so they are more likely to offer a tailored service (although it might be a little higher than some others).

The biggest difference for UK residents is that some companies (such as Geico) utilise credit scoring for car insurance, try to avoid this as much as possible. Make sure when you leave you get a copy of your no claims certificate from your UK insurer as it will be a lot more tricky to get hold of once you get over to the USA.

Good luck with the move and feel free to inbox me if you have any other questions.