Pete said:
I switched to USAA about 8 years ago after years and years with State Farm. Christmas Eve 2002 in a blizzard in Maine I backed through a snow drift and slid down a hill into a tree - $500 damage. Then in Feb 2004 I dinged a Hundai in the parking lot at work - $500 damage. I left a note and notified USAA.
The next renewal time USAA said I had 2 "at fault accidents" and doubled my policy on the truck and bike. Truck went from $700 a year to $1300, bike went from $650 to $1100. They said it would be that way for 3 years. I checked around and GIECO beat them by 50% on the bike. Unfortunately no one would beat them on the truck because of the 2 at fault accidents.
As of last week the 2002 fender bender is over 3 years old. GIECO said next renewal my bike will drop another 30% . I plan on calling USAA and asking them if they are going to lower my truck and how much because the one accident is over 3 years old. If they don't make a huge drop I am going to bid them farewell.
I tried to insure my house with USAA and they were triple what everyone else charged. They said it was because of black mold in Texas or something. Since that time I have gotten about a undred mail solicitations from USAA saying they have revamped homeowners and to try again, figure the odds. I tried to insure my camper with them and they were a bunch higher on that too.
It seems that they only want to insure cars for drivers who never make claims. Loyalty is one thing but I have paid them over $13K for insurance over the years and they have paid out $1000. 13:1 profit margine and they are going to spank me?
I disagree on the way you view the 13:1, Pete, but before I get to that part let me warn by saying I am biased toward USAA and can understand their trying to keep costs down. We have had two no fault incidents and as long as you don't have more than three no fault incidents over 3 years, your rates don't go up. I had previous insurance where one no fault raised my rates.
As to the dividend comment above yours, the dividend is based on what they had to pay out in the past year to the "profit" they have to pay out. They had Katrina and many other things to pay out this year. Most insurance companies don't pay you out for any amount they overestimated in your coverage (which is essentially what they are doing) they made to you that year. They take the profit.
Now, Pete, you can't claim they have a 13:1 profit for you. Insurance is not an individual calculation. Each year you pay, that money is lumped over all insured individuals caculating a rate to cover payouts, overhead, etc... If you want to caculate your benefit for using USAA, you would find you won by far over those 8 years. Here is why...
1) You were required to maintain insurance. So, you had to pay someone. Thus, you are in the insurance pool. USAA must cover the costs of payouts and overhead plus a little something extra (the rest is returned to you if they dont need it). Insurance is caculated at that rate and spread across the insurance pool (higher rates to those who are "riskier" and lower rates to those who are "safer) so people are paying what has been deemed statistically their fair share.
2) Over 8 years you certainly saved money over every other insurance company. So, you gained a benefit over those 8 years for what you were required to do. If you saved $300 a year over those 8 years that would be $2400 plus your ROR on that $2400 for having it in your pocket at that time. Now, eliminate the truck since you couldn't have saved money on it with any other insurance because of the incidents. That leaves you the bike. Over the three years are you going to save $2400 plus accumulated investment value? I doubt it. All this is a net effect even with 2 at fault incidents. Most other insurance companies would have screwed you both sides of the deal and you also wouldn't get that end of year payout of anything they took extra (which wasn't even caculated above and would have increased your benefit).
Just remember, insurance can't take loyalty into account. It is straight statistics. If they keep it that way, then you will win out over the long haul with USAA's practice of much lower rates during no incident times (or low non fault times) and pretty competitive rates during incident times. If they start deciding based on loyalty, emotion, or anything else about the way they feel a year will play out for someone, they jeopardize the security they provide and the low cost model.
Just MHO...
I've been with Nationwide since! 
We have Nationwide for auto and home. I call GEICO about once every year or two (since 1996) and they can never beat what we pay to Nationwide. And how much are we talking in these USAA dividend checks? Couple of hundred? Less?
I GOT A WHOPPING $15 dollars.