The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that provides coverage for more than 24 million motor vehicles owned by more than 15 million policyholders as of 2017. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The insurance agency sells policies through local agents, called GEICO Field Representatives, over the phone directly to the consumer via licensed insurance agents, and through their website. Its mascot is a gold dust day gecko with a Cockney accent, voiced by English actor Jake Wood. GEICO is well known in popular culture for its advertising, having made numerous commercials intended to entertain viewers. Despite the presence of the word “government” in its name, GEICO has always been a private corporation not affiliated with any U.S. government organization. Leo Goodwin Sr. and his wife Lillian Goodwin originally founded the company in 1936 to sell auto insurance to federal government employees. GEICO also offers property insurance, as well as umbrella coverage which GEICO sells, but the risk on the policies is transferred to third-party companies. GEICO manages the policies as the insurance agent and has a separate customer care team that handles the property and umbrella policies.
GEICO was founded in 1936 by Leo Goodwin Sr. and his wife Lillian Goodwin to provide auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. Since 1925, Goodwin had worked for USAA, an insurer that specialized in insuring only military personnel. He decided to start his own company after rising as far as a civilian could go in USAA’s military-dominated hierarchy. The Goodwins funded the creation of GEICO with $25,000 of their own money and $75,000 from Fort Worth, Texas-based banker Cleaves Rhea, with legal assistance from future GEICO CEO Lorimer Davidson. Based on Goodwin’s experience at USAA, GEICO’s original business model was predicated on the assumption that federal employees, as a group, would constitute a less risky and more financially stable pool of insureds compared to the general public. In 1937, the Goodwins relocated GEICO from San Antonio, Texas to Washington, D.C., and reincorporated the company as a D.C. corporation after realizing that their business model would work best in the place with the highest concentration of federal employees. In 1948, the Rhea family sold its 75% stake in GEICO to a coalition of investors, which was led by Benjamin Graham’s Graham-Newman Partnership taking 50% (worth $712,000 at the time); this sale accidentally violated an SEC regulation, which forced Graham-Newman to divest a portion of their holdings in 1949, resulting in GEICO becoming a publicly traded company at around $27 per share. Graham-Newman’s investment in GEICO eventually resulted in a position worth $400 million by 1972, which was by far Graham-Newman’s best investment and outperformed the rest of their portfolio combined. In 1951, Warren Buffett, then a Columbia University graduate student under Benjamin Graham, interviewed Lorimer Davidson (then a VP) and named GEICO “The Security I Like Best.” From 1948 to 1958, GEICO’s market capitalization grew almost 50 times. In 1958, Goodwin retired and was succeeded by Lorimer Davidson, who grew the company’s insurance premiums at a compound rate of 16% annually from $40 million to $250 million over his tenure. Davidson retired and was replaced in 1970 by Ralph Peck (President and COO) and David Lloyd Kreeger (Chairman and CEO), who had been one of the other investors in 1948. In 1974 under Kreeger’s leadership, GEICO began to insure the general public after real-time access to computerized driving records became available throughout the United States. Alvin E. Krause, retired from GEICO, was given carte blanche by the directors to help bring about a wholesale reorganization of GEICO’s underwriting operations including promotions and dismissals. He helped nurse the insurance firm back to financial health. He was a director of the GEICO Corp. from 1978 to 1983 and was an honorary director at the time of his death. He was chairman of Criterion from 1978 to 1981. Having been with GEICO since 1938. GEICO generally deals directly with consumers via the telephone and the Internet; however, the local agent program has more than 300 independent offices across the United States. GEICO is now the second-largest writer of private auto insurance in the country. In 2015, GEICO began offering coverage for drivers of ridesharing companies in select states, including in high-population states such as Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia. The policy, which is issued through GEICO’s commercial department, has received praise from insurance experts and quickly launched GEICO as the largest insurance provider for ridesharing company drivers. In 2016, J.D. Power rated the company #20 out of 24 for overall purchase experience, with a 2/5 score.
GEICO CANCEL GUIDES
Get together the following account information:
First Name
Last Name
Phone Number
Email Address
Username
Password
Billing Address
City
State/Province/Region
ZIP/Postal Code
Country
Reason for Cancellation
Last 4 Digits of Card
Date of Last Charge
Amount of Last Charge
Phone (Live Agent)
Follow these steps:
Call 1-877-206-0215
Request that the agent cancel your account
When asked, give the agent your account information
Request that you be given a refund
Request that the agent provide you with a confirmation number or email
Retain any confirmation numbers or emails you receive for your records
