USAA, and I have a cold

View 711 Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Another day being devoured by locusts, We had a plumbing emergency that fortunately was controlled so no collateral damage, and that has been fixed without problems. It was small enough that it wasn’t anything we were going to the insurance company about, but – well, it’s a story worth relating.

Our insurance company for auto and house insurance is USAA. We have been with them from long ago, since Mr. Heinlein recommended them to us. I’d never heard of them, but Robert recommended them highly, and we found they were certainly cheaper than what we had been paying. USAA is essentially a veteran’s mutual insurance company although they have opened the rolls to others including sons of veterans. I can only say that in thirty years we have yet to be disappointed in their service, or to run into a bureaucrat who uses fine print to put the company’s interests ahead of ours. I don’t mean they are patsies, but they are competent and fair. This includes both automobile and home insurance, two major collisions (someone else hit our cars) and a major house structural problem.

One of the best features of USAA is their list of contractors who do the work, both home and auto; and in all our experiences with USAA recommended and approved companies we have again found it more than satisfactory. Today’s plumbing problem wasn’t covered by the home owners policy being below the deductible, but the repair was done by a company recommended by the contractors who had done our last major USAA paid repairs; and once again it was a satisfactory experience. It turns out our water pressure regulator had worn out, so that our internal house water pressure was 150, about twice what it ought to be. This caused a pipe to burst, but fortunately it was a pipe from a valve to a lavatory faucet and thus easy to control and cheap to replace; they also replaced the regulator and the whole mess was done quickly and efficiently. I love USAA.