Insurance Rant!

[kenmac]

HP942,
As far as the home owners increase goes, blame multiple factors: Inflation(High), cost of building and building materials( Crazy high), sky rocketing house prices(Ludicrous), and depending on where your insurer does business, the attempt to recover for incurred losses.

I shop the following insurances ( home owners, umbrella, auto ) every year with both captive and independent insurers and this saves me thousands of dollars each year. Independents do not have access to every insurer since some insurers only sell through specific vetted/ qualified agents.

Shopping is a pain BUT you can save real money not just the kind of money for a nice dinner.

What I find odd here is, there are several independent agents that also sell Allstate insurance.
I have shopped several captive agents so far this yr and they are unable to beat my price with Travelers !

 

[kenmbz]

I have Liberty mutual and they have processed my claims without too much fuss.
Increases across the board and not cheap.
I went cheap once, that was not fun.

 

[GeneV]

We got Allstate for home and auto, had it for years. I comparison shop every few years, always expecting to find a better deal, still waiting on that. To be more precise, I see something like maybe $50/year savings when I get quotes from Farmers, State Farm, etc....which I KNOW is their best offer to get me signed up, so that they could jack that rate up the following year, and onwards.

I had Farmers years ago, and that's exactly what was up with them, every year a sizeable increase. When I switched to Allstate from them, it was a dramatic drop in premium cost.

 

[Hoss710]

I have been looking for insurance for 1 of my tractors that ill be keeping on my daughter's farm. and so far no 1 wants to quote it?

 

[jyoutz]

I have travelers through an independent agent .
I wouldn't say they are a small potato company. LOL

When I busted out the rear window of my truck a couple months ago, I called travelers and they said to pick a glass company that would bill them, and it would be taken care of.

I called and found a glass company that would bill travelers direct. The guy came out replaced the glass, P paid him $50.00.
The process couldn't have been any simpler .

Much simpler than when I had Allstate


My state requires auto insurance. That I'm aware of, there isn't an agency that sets insurance rates. Insurance companies decide those rates

Your experience with Allstate is different than mine. When I need auto glass, I go to a local shop, they contact Allstate on a phone call. I’m asked to verify information over the phone, then the shop does the work and I pay nothing but deductibles (if any).

 

[jyoutz]

We got Allstate for home and auto, had it for years. I comparison shop every few years, always expecting to find a better deal, still waiting on that. To be more precise, I see something like maybe $50/year savings when I get quotes from Farmers, State Farm, etc....which I KNOW is their best offer to get me signed up, so that they could jack that rate up the following year, and onwards.

I had Farmers years ago, and that's exactly what was up with them, every year a sizeable increase. When I switched to Allstate from them, it was a dramatic drop in premium cost.

I had the same experience.

 

[JJT]

My homeowners ins went down significantly, I upped the deductible to $10K.

I have friends with smaller houses that pay 2x what I pay, but they have a small deductible and make claims on a regular basis for things that are self inflicted or questionable, (like a dead tree that fell on the pool house, hail damage on a 20+ year old roof, frozen pipes in the crawl space, that freeze every few year.....).

 

[TheMan419]

Insurance in general just boils my blood. I'd be rich if I had all the money I spent betting I would have a problem when I never had many problems at all... and like those hurricane victims God help you if you do. Health ins is the worst!

Right up until you have a heart attack and go into sudden cardiac arrest. When you see the bills from that you have another heart attack and then realize it is ok because insurance is picking up $1,000,000.00 and you only have to pay your $4500 deductible.

Or then have the heart procedure necessary to correct the problem and get a $250,000 bill for that.... oh yeah insurance picked up the tab on that one.

 

[Torvy]

Like @jyoutz, we have had Allstate for 33+ years. Insurance is useless until you need it. Prices are tricky. You can pay low rates and then when you need to file a claim, your savings go away. We had our roof replaced for free ($19k savings) a few years ago. We have lived in 4 states together with house and auto in all. There are some features that vary by state, despite being with the same company. Windshield coverage is definitely one of those things. Agent makes a huge difference. We just lost our favorite agent to his retirement. He was awesome at saving us money and offered products without pushing.

 

[kenmac]

Your experience with Allstate is different than mine. When I need auto glass, I go to a local shop, they contact Allstate on a phone call. I’m asked to verify information over the phone, then the shop does the work and I pay nothing but deductibles (if any).

I never went to a shop. The glass installer came to my farm and replaced. I just made one phone call.

On another note. I priced Allstate again a few weeks ago when I was shopping around for lower rates.
Allstate was a couple hundred a yr higher for HO / vehicles combined, vs Travelers . I can't remember off the top of my head what the difference was vs state farm, but state farm and Allstate was close to each other with pricing