Insurance Rant!

[jyoutz]

My Allstate insurance is bundled: home and auto, with 4 vehicles. The homeowner insurance rate has stayed pretty steady for the past couple of years and the auto insurance has been reduced by a few bucks in the past couple of years. Probably because the vehicles are a bit older.

 

[RSKY]

A little bit of warning here. I live in Mayfield Kentucky were the tornado went thru in 2021. I have never had State Farm insurance and know nobody that works for them. But NOBODY with State Farm is happy with them after the tornado. Last guy I talked to about it lived in sight of houses that were completely destroyed and they denied all his claims. Said his damage was caused by "wind driven rain" which was not covered and not by wind from the tornado. He is still in conflict with them nearly a year and a half later. Said they have not paid a penny.

We have had tornado people with insurance from other companies tell stories about companies going above and beyond what they expected. Would you believe the adjusters from another company went around a week before Christmas and wrote a check to each family to cover lost Christmas presents. That was not expected or covered under their policies but the company did it anyway.

Also watch out for companies undervaluing your home. A dozen years ago Farm Bureau got caught doing that in Kentucky and was forced by the state to review all homeowners policies and reappraise them. When I asked my agent about this he gave me figures that were very low. Swapped to another company and that appraiser said that I might could have rebuilt using the FB figures if I used the absolute cheapest materials. The new company's appraisal was 20-25% higher.

Lots of stuff goes on with insurance companies that you never hear about or know about. Youngest daughter is a director at an extremely large insurance company. Even though she is mainly in the large commercial accounts she has to deal with adjusters from several companies including some companies that her group does not sell. The difference in how the adjusters are trained makes all the difference in the world. They dropped several companies after the tornado based on their performance.

RSKY

 

[scootr]

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!

 

[2manyrocks]

Unfortunately, you never really know whether your insurance is good or bad until you're put into the position of having to use it.

 

[scootr]

Unfortunately, you never really know whether your insurance is good or bad until you're put into the position of having to use it.

Well somebody knows. That person is probably the crook that sold you the policy. Don't get me started.

 

[5030]

Unfortunately, you never really know whether your insurance is good or bad until you're put into the position of having to use it.

You got that right. Insurance companies all like to nickel and dime you when it comes to them paying out.

 

[jyoutz]

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!

I think we all feel that way. Until my insurance company wrote me a check to replace my 20+ year old roof because of hail damage. I recouped about 15 years of homeowners insurance payments with that one check.

 

[M59]

Wow, time for renewal and my homeowners went up 37% and autos up 55%. Never had a claim on either. Time to start shopping around…..may have to sell a kidney to pay!

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.

 

[Snobdds]

Inflation is now showing up in service based services.

Inflation comes for all...

 

[kenmac]

Assessed market value and replacement costs are two different things. It's not just materials cost, but every other expense a contractor faces has gone up too.
Even if you just went by market value, housing prices have soared in the last 5 years.

My home insurance has gone up maybe 20% over the the 18 years I've had this house (and part of that is that I increased coverage at one point).

I'm done with independent agents. I've gotten jerked around more than once by them and the small potatoes companies they represent. Never saw any meaningful savings going thru them, and at least in my experience the customer service sucked. The big boys have a brand to protect, Acme Fire & Life not so much.

Another vote here for State Farm, had them for 20+ years. My auto rates have actually gone down over the last 3-4 years. Maybe it's different here since my state doesn't require you to have it. Don't states that DO require auto insurance have an agency that sets rates?

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

 

[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