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Does anyone here know if GEICO's quality has declined in the last five years since it began laying off 60% of the workforce, cutting advertising (Advertising is now being increased.) and raising prices? All I hear about is the increased profits.

Are they paying all valid claims? Is the customer service as prompt and knowledgable? Have policies in force risen or fallen?

I have my car insurance, home insurance and umbrella policy (home and umbrella through Travelers) with GEICO, but I haven't made any claims or called for service. Berkshire is also my largest stock holding, by far. I could use some reassurance that GEICO is not declining in quality. I appreciate your input.

rrr1234

Some statistics:

Job cuts as of May, 2025:

"Vice chair of insurance operations Ajit Jain said GEICO reduced its employee count from around 50,000 to approximately 20,000."

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/break...

Policies in force as of early 2026:

"GEICO hit a milestone of 17 million policies in 2019. However, aggressive rate hikes and reduced advertising led to a loss of approximately 1.7 million policies in 2022 and a further 9.8% decrease in 2023."

"As of early 2026, GEICO’s policies-in-force (PIF) have returned to a growth phase after several years of decline. While the company did not disclose an exact count for year-end 2024, industry estimates placed the number between 16 million and 17 million auto policies."

https://www.google.com/search?q=geico+policies+in+...

Customer service:

"Most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Many customers expressed significant dissatisfaction with the customer service, finding it unhelpful and difficult to reach. They also reported issues with the pricing, noting unexpected increases and a lack of transparency.

Consumers frequently encountered problems with the service provided, particularly regarding the handling of claims, which were often delayed or denied without clear explanation. Additionally, many felt that the staff were unsupportive and unprofessional, contributing to a generally negative experience."

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.geico.com

There were good reviews as well.

"Geico is No. 1 in our rating of the best car insurance companies. In our survey, it received high marks from consumers for customer service and claim handling. It also has some of the lowest average rates among companies we researched and more discounts than other insurers we reviewed."

https://www.usnews.com/insurance/auto/geico-car-in...

I'll try to reserve judgement for now, but it's hard to imagine that the quality at GEICO is as good as it used to be after cutting 60% of the workforce. Quality is Berkshire's greatest asset.

PS. I'm happy to see gecko adds coming back, although Progressive's Flo must outnumber the gecko by at least 10:1.

However, aggressive rate hikes

My house & car insurance renewals are coming up in a couple of months.
So I got an online quote from GEICO.

Much higher than my current company. Much.

Last year, I switched car and umbrella from GEICO to progressive in Florida. About 60%!! Cheaper.

When I hear of drastic staff reductions and reduced advertising at Geico, I think back to underwriting standards, because when insurance can't be sold at good prices, Berkshire wants to sell less of it. Put so simply you would think every insurance company runs that way, but they do not as Buffett has written about in his letters.

I see two ways the cost of insurance can get too low: the first is the one we probably experience the most - other companies want to grow, and they push the growth to their staff so much they start undercutting other insurers in price. Eventually the whole industry starts to underprice the risk.

The second way is what I suspect is happening: instead of the pricing side of insurance getting low, the cost side of insurance is getting high. I'd attribute this to a higher prevalence of distracted driving, and expensive to repair cars taking over the driving fleet. So many cars have expensive sensors built into bumpers that make the cost of repairs very high. If other car insurance companies have been keeping rates low despite these increasing costs, we may have entered a poor pricing situation in a sneakier way than normal.

If my theory is right, now might be a good time for you to consider shopping around your car insurance. Not because of bad customer service due to the reduction of numbers, but because the reduction in staff and advertising is telling us that other insurance companies are pricing insurance too low.

I continue to read reviews about GEICO customer service, and the overwhelming consensus is that the service is very poor. Long wait times, bots that don't understand simple questions, agents that bounce you around, and that don't know answers to simple questions, and that are dismissive and even rude. I think Berkshire really blew it with their focus on profits instead of quality under Todd Combs. Berkshire has lost reputation, and customers, and they won't easily get it back. I still love Berkshire Hathaway overall, but I'm ashamed of GEICO's actions.

“Berkshire has lost reputation, and customers, and they won't easily get it back.”

I can’t really comment on all of that and we have not had many claims, esp. recently. I hope it’s not slipped that much!

I’ve been a pretty happy GEICO customer for 34 years- auto initially, then an larger umbrella, home owners and personal items/jewelry policies. The home owners policy was transferred years ago to an “affiliated” Chubb & jewelry policy to Travelers. I’ve filed an auto claim maybe 3 times over the decades, last being 7 years ago after hitting a deer, and I have not had issues with the coverage/ repairs/ customer service. They did lowered our premiums after COVID with the “give back” as did many other cos. The premiums have steadily risen of course over the decades as they have everywhere.

Honestly, I have not “shopped around” as I want to support the “family” business. I am a bit lazy wrt this issue and we doubt GEICO is overcharging us to any real degree. We’ll have a teenage driver in a couple years so I’ve been advised to perhaps shop to obtain other quotes & max out the “good grades” and completed driving course discounts for youngsters at that time. Just my 2 cents.

We currently have Geico for car insurance only. We’ll probably drop them when we replace our roof and consolidate insurances to add a teenage driver and umbrella insurance.

When we first bout a house 15 years ago we got home insurance through a Geico affiliate and honestly it was the worst experience. In retrospect they likely didn’t want to cover us, as they quoted double a reasonable cost, but we didn’t know any better - being new homeowners. Then they requested we do a bunch of odd things to the house - clean some bricks on the house, and trim trees “away from the house”. Note that we’re in the midatlantic, so there’s no risk of wildfire.

We took before and after pictures of the house and hired a licensed arborist to clear 10 feet above the roof. But by then, I had shopped around with better companies. They gave me a final notice of cancellation because I didn’t know how to submit the pictures, but it coincided with the start of the new insurance anyway. So we said goodbye and never looked back.

I don’t know why Berkshire isn’t stronger in home insurance. I have a feeling they either see risks that other companies ignore, or are themselves ignorant of the differences in geographic locations.

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