Homeowners policy went up 21%

[Lakewood90712]

The " Good Hands " at Allstate just grabbed my pocketbook. Never had a claim , not in a wildfire area, and the house with the meth lab down the street was put out of business over 5 years ago.

I bundle car/homeowners/umbrella. The auto and umbrella did not go up this year, only a slight increase in auto last year.

I know returns on the money they use as reserve is not good these days, but this is a big jump with "3%" inflation , especially when re-construction costs have dropped every year back to 2008.

 

[bbbamI]

Yikes.

Allstate lost our business 3+ years ago. I had our policies there for years and am not the type to switch from one company to another. However, curiosity got the better of me and I checked around. I got more coverage for less money...saved about $1500 a year.

I remember at that time, my Allstate agent said he didn't blame me. The rates were going up and people were leaving right and left.


Haven't had to submit a claim with the different companies yet, so we'll see how that goes if/when it happens.

 

[W2R]

The " Good Hands " at Allstate just grabbed my pocketbook. Never had a claim , not in a wildfire area, and the house with the meth lab down the street was put out of business over 5 years ago.

I bundle car/homeowners/umbrella. The auto and umbrella did not go up this year, only a slight increase in auto last year.

I know returns on the money they use as reserve is not good these days, but this is a big jump with "3%" inflation , especially when re-construction costs have dropped every year back to 2008.

That's awful. Is it a general increase for your area, perhaps? Allstate is my insurance company too, and rates on homeowners' insurance are going up 11.3% this year here. I am not a fan of Allstate but AFAIK new homeowners' policies have not been written here by any company since the hurricane. The only new policies are the state-sponsored policies, at twice the price. So, those of us with existing policies are stuck with them, and mine is with Allstate.

I am inclined to raise my deductible sky high if my rates go up very much.

 

[easysurfer]

Used to have Allstate a few years back but dropped them because of price.

Went with the lizard and saved. Umbrella with the lizard was half as much as Allstate.

 

[Lakewood90712]

I haven't talked to the agent yet. Will look at deductables too as an option to lower the rate.

 

[glippy]

This is an area just screaming for a comparison website where you enter your details and you get estimated quotes from a half dozen different insurers.

I'm sure they're all fighting tooth and nail trying to keep that inevitable service from popping up. Better to keep everyone in the dark.

 

[grasshopper]

Insurance must not be like other businesses, where it is cheaper to retain customers, rather than get new ones.

 

[travelover]

I reshop my insurance as a bundle every few years. I have a good "score", so I can pretty much hop around at will.

 

[brewer12345]

Insurance must not be like other businesses, where it is cheaper to retain customers, rather than get new ones.

Partially correct. What happens pretty often in the insurance industry is that the world changes to make the risks from certain types of policyholders more costly or an insurer realizes that they are undercharging certain classes of existing customers. When that happens, insurers will often hit these policyholders with a significant price increase to true up the costs with revenue. If the customer stays, they are now profitable (rather than making a loss for the insurer). If the customer leaves, the insurer gets rid of an underpriced/money-losing risk.

 

[braumeister]

Maybe related to that vault you installed in the basement for your gold bars?

 

[MichaelB]

Also consider, insurers invest the premiums in low risk financial instruments to provision for expected future losses. As interest rates fall the present value of their liabilities increases and they need to make up that difference by rate hikes.

 

[rescueme]

Also consider, insurers invest the premiums in low risk financial instruments to provision for expected future losses. As interest rates fall the present value of their liabilities increases and they need to make up that difference by rate hikes.

I wonder how much risk they actually take on their own or just manage the risk via reinsurance (Reinsurance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)...

 

[Midpack]

Lakewood! Please shop around, you may be able to do better. I got my auto and home insurance reduced by more than 50% recently, after years of not paying attention to increases. I got quotes from others, but I didn't even have to change insurance carriers or reduce coverage in the end (though maybe I should have). The sordid details http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/hopefully-theres-no-one-as-dumb-as-me-here-59422.html

 

[brewer12345]

I wonder how much risk they actually take on their own or just manage the risk via reinsurance (Reinsurance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)...

In the case of Allstate, I believe quite a lot is disclosed about their reinsurance program as they are a public company.

 

[GrayHare]

What's the general opinion here on perpetual insurance? That it supplies a full refund of all money paid in has long intrigued me.

 

[MooreBonds]

Try to make sure you get quotes from mutual insurers. While not a guarantee of lower prices, they don't have [-]shareholders beating down their doors, institutional investors dropping their stock 50%, and voting out board members for poor performance[/-] quite the same profit motive that for-profit insurers do. Kind of like credit unions for the financial services industry.

I'm with Amica (a mutual company) for my home/auto/umbrella, and some immediate family members have them for their homeowners coverage in Florida. And not that it means too much, but for the last 10 straight years, they've won the JD Power award for top-rated homeowners and auto insurers by their policyholders. (yes, I think that's the same award Toyota has won in the past, so obviously it's not a shoo-in...but at least they weren't ranked dead last among insurers!

 

[Helen]

Allstate lost our business 3+ years ago. I had our policies there for years and am not the type to switch from one company to another. However, curiosity got the better of me and I checked around. I got more coverage for less money...saved about $1500 a year.

The same thing happened to me with MetLife. I had been a customer of theirs for over 20 years. I saved a lot of money by switching to State Farm. Now I'm getting offers mailed to me from MetLife saying how they can save me money if I switch back to them I'll never go back to MetLife, I had to deal with them by phone and it was a huge pain. Now I can email my agent (or stop by and see him) and deal with auto, car, home and umbrella without having to spend hours on a menu driven phone call.

I'm going to keep an eye of my premiums with State Farm, if they start jacking the rates up I'll get a quote from Farmer's.

 

[Donzo]

The same thing happened to me with MetLife. I had been a customer of theirs for over 20 years. I saved a lot of money by switching to State Farm. Now I'm getting offers mailed to me from MetLife saying how they can save me money if I switch back to them I'll never go back to MetLife, I had to deal with them by phone and it was a huge pain. Now I can email my agent (or stop by and see him) and deal with auto, car, home and umbrella without having to spend hours on a menu driven phone call.

I'm going to keep an eye of my premiums with State Farm, if they start jacking the rates up I'll get a quote from Farmer's.

I have been with State Farm for 20 + years (all policies) - they increased my HO rate 20% last year after several years of no increases. I called and raised my deductible $1000. and got it close to where it had been.
I have been very happy with SF concerning the few claims I have had over the years. A responsive agent is worth a little more $ to me.

 

[East Texas]

Lakewood, make sure you didn't lose any discounts such as a new home discount. Loss of discounts, coupled with rate increases, are painful. Even though your area may not have been directly impacted with any disasters, you're still a part of the overall pool. I think just about everyone is getting a rate increase this year.

 

[eytonxav]

I'm with Amica (a mutual company) for my home/auto/umbrella, and some immediate family members have them for their homeowners coverage in Florida. And not that it means too much, but for the last 10 straight years, they've won the JD Power award for top-rated homeowners and auto insurers by their policyholders. (yes, I think that's the same award Toyota has won in the past, so obviously it's not a shoo-in...but at least they weren't ranked dead last among insurers!

I've been with them for almost 50 yrs (some of that time on my father's policy) and they have been outstanding through thick and thin. I've heard a lot of horror stories of how people are treated badly by some of the other carriers, but have never heard any negatives regarding AMICA.