How to Reach an Insurance Company

I mentioned in my previous post the website www.gethuman.com, which I can't recommend enough. I am a big fan of lists, since they help me to organize my time, and I've found some great ones on this site. Today, I'm reprinting their list of insurance company phone numbers. As always, if you have suggestions or additional phone numbers you'd like to share, to make the list more complete, please let me know!

AARP Healthcare
800‑523‑5800 - Press 1; wait for prompt; press 4.
Aetna
800‑738‑7674 - Say "member"; Press *0.
AFLAC
800‑992‑3522 - Press #; wait for prompt; press #; wait for prompt; press #; wait for prompt; press 3.
AIG
877‑638‑4244 - Direct to human.
Allstate
800‑255‑7828 - Press * at each prompt, ignoring messages.
Anthem Blue Cross
800‑280‑7293 - Press * at each prompt, ignoring messages.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield
877‑526‑3425 - Say "get associate" at prompt.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
800‑999‑1118 - Press 1000.
Ceridian Benefit Svcs.
800‑877‑7994 - Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.
CIGNA
800‑849‑9000 - Press ##.
Delta Dental
888‑335‑8227 - After language option, press 2 for existing or 3 for new account.
Farmer's Insurance
800‑435‑7764 - Do not press or say anything, ignoring messages.
Great West Health
800‑663‑8081 - Press 1, 1 (for memeber) or 2 (for providers), then press 4 at each prompt, ignoring messages.
Humana Medicare Claims
800‑457‑4708 - Press *; wait for prompt; press *; wait for prompt; press 0; wait for prompt; press 0; wait for prompt; press *.
Liberty Mutual (Claims)
800‑225‑2467 - Press 10.
Medco Insurance
800‑251‑7690 - Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.
Medicare
800‑633‑4227 - Say "agent."
MetLife
800‑560‑5001 - Press ####.
Nationwide Insurance Claims
800‑421‑3535 - Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.
Northwestern Mutual
800‑388‑8123 - Press 0; press 1 to participate or 2 to decline survey.
NY Life Benefit Services
800‑294‑3575 - Press 0.
Principal Life
800‑247‑4695 - Press 1; wait for prompt; press 2; wait for prompt; press 0; wait for prompt; press 0.
Secure Horizons
800‑228‑2144 - Say "perspective member".
UnitedHealth
800‑585‑6586 - Select type. Say "Representative" three times.
USAA
800‑531‑6095 - Press 000#; wait for prompt; press #.

Good Advice for People Trying to Reach an Actual Human Being on the Phone

If you're like me, you spend a good portion of your day on the telephone. One of my biggest pet peeves is the amount of difficulty involved in trying to reach an actual human being!

Fortunately, I recently came across an excellent site with lots of handy tips for people who don't have a lifetime to waste on hold. It's called www.gethuman.com, and below are their suggestions for how to get an actual human being on the phone. I hope you find it as useful as I did. (If you have any ideas which can be added to the list, please let me know!)

1. Interrupt. Press 0 (or 0# or #0 or 0* or *0) repeatedly, sometimes quickly. Unfortunately the same keystroke does not always work for each company. Many will connect to a human after a few "invalid entries", although some will hangup.

2. Talk. Say "get human" (or "agent" or "representative") or raise your voice, or just mumble. They might connect you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases.

3. Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone.

4. Connect to account collections or sales or account cancellation; they always seem to answer quickly. First ask them for their name and rep number (so they know you are writing it down, and thus so they are more likely to help you). Then ask them to transfer you to the department you need. Sometimes they will put you ahead of the queue, although sometimes they will send you to the end (and thus in those cases this tip is useless).

5. Toll call. For credit cards, if the expected wait time is too long, hangup and try to call back on their non-toll-free number, as they often have shorter queues.

6. Selecting the option for Spanish will sometimes get you a bilingual human more quickly than if you just waited for an English-only operator.