Auto, Renter, Umbrella Insurance Bundling

[RetiredHappy]

Fermion, you may not have alot choice with your sailboat.

We have a golf cart and American Family is the only insurance company which we found that has reasonable insurance rates - $50 per year. All other insurance companies charge around $1200 per year for the golf cart. We would love to give them all our business but their pricing on our auto, home and umbrella are very expensive, so they only cover our golf cart.

 

[Sunset]

...
So I called Progressive to include my recent Defensive Driver Course and remove collision and comprehensive (my Honda is a 2001 Civic). So this should reduce it further.
.....

Are you sure you want to remove comprehensive, as it' pretty cheap and covers you for the guy that breaks your window trying to steal stuff in the car. etc.
Or the rock into the window.

 

[BGold]

Here’s an update on the insurance front:

Working with four independent insurance agents and waiting on quotes from two more.

Bundling Auto, Renter, and Umbrella:
Geico has lowest auto but highest renter and Umbrella
Travelers is high all around
Progressive (current insur) has difficulty updating our quote; and second highest overall (so far)
Kemper - lowest all around

So far Kemper is the leader with moderate auto and very low umbrella ($2M) and renter.
-Brian

 

[BGold]

Are you sure you want to remove comprehensive, as it' pretty cheap and covers you for the guy that breaks your window trying to steal stuff in the car. etc.
Or the rock into the window.

Hi Sunset,
Thanks for the suggestion, but a broken window would probably fall within any deductible first.

 

[PatrickA5]

Question on using an Independent Insurance agent:

Do you tell them what you're currently paying? Or, do you just give them the particulars and have them give you the price. Just wondering if they just try to beat the price a little (if they know what you're paying). Or, is the quote they give you going to be the same whether or not they know what you're paying now? It's not that I don't trust insurance agents, but.........

 

[COcheesehead]

Question on using an Independent Insurance agent:

Do you tell them what you're currently paying? Or, do you just give them the particulars and have them give you the price. Just wondering if they just try to beat the price a little (if they know what you're paying). Or, is the quote they give you going to be the same whether or not they know what you're paying now? It's not that I don't trust insurance agents, but.........

You can withhold the cost on the first try, but if you like the agent, it’s up to them to find a better rate going forward and they will know the costs because they are your agent.

 

[Gotadimple]

Question on using an Independent Insurance agent:

Do you tell them what you're currently paying? Or, do you just give them the particulars and have them give you the price. Just wondering if they just try to beat the price a little (if they know what you're paying). Or, is the quote they give you going to be the same whether or not they know what you're paying now? It's not that I don't trust insurance agents, but.........

First of all, you need to remember that personal lines insurance rates are NOT negotiable. They are filed with your state insurance commissioner. Commissions are paid to an independent agent if they place the coverage with an insurance company. If you apply directly to the insurance company it is the same price - commissions are built into the price.

Independent insurance agents have contracts with few or many carriers, so pick one with many contracts and they will be able to shop your coverage requirements among many and give you more options. Certainly, if they are a high producer for carrier A they might want to place you with #A, but, they are obligated to show you all the quotes.

So you can ask the next questions: how easy is this company to deal with? How is their claims service? customer service? There is price and there is service. If you have a dispute or a claim who will be easier to deal with?

 

[OldShooter]

... Do you tell them what you're currently paying? Or, do you just give them the particulars and have them give you the price. Just wondering if they just try to beat the price a little (if they know what you're paying).

What I have done is to copy the dec pages, black out the premiums, and copy again to make sure there is only black, no numbers visible. It's just a habit; when I am competing vendors I don't pass around numbers.

... is the quote they give you going to be the same whether or not they know what you're paying now? It's not that I don't trust insurance agents, but.........

Blacking the premium numbers as I have done, though, is probably a waste of time as @gotadimple points out.

First of all, you need to remember that personal lines insurance rates are NOT negotiable. They are filed with your state insurance commissioner. Commissions are paid to an independent agent if they place the coverage with an insurance company. If you apply directly to the insurance company it is the same price - commissions are built into the price. ...

... So you can ask the next questions: how easy is this company to deal with? How is their claims service? customer service? There is price and there is service. If you have a dispute or a claim who will be easier to deal with?

Yes, but I generally trust that a good agent will not place me with a bad company. After all, my hassles probably end up being his hassles, too, so it is in his best interest to minimize them.

 

[PatrickA5]

Thanks for the replies.

I've had State Farm for close to a thousand years. We have 2 cars, 1 home, and an umbrella.

A few years ago, I contacted an independent agent and the results weren't good. I'm thinking about trying to find a couple more agents and going through the process again.
I also sent requests to Geico, Progressive, Allstate, Farmers, etc. Most were at least close on auto but were way higher on homeowners.

I probably wouldn't switch for under $500 total as we've been happy the few times we had to make a claim with State Farm.

 

[BGold]

Hello PatrickA5,

I have been uploading so much information so many times online and to folks on the phone, that I’ve taken to sending them an outline of my request with amounts for coverage. I haven’t told any of them what others have quoted. But when they’re beyond other offers I let them know. That usually ends the conversation and I thank them for their time. When they’ve quoted a competitive proposal I let them know as well. No one has asked for the quotes of other insurance agents.

 

[BGold]

Okay so I’ve received three additional quotes from phone conversations:

State farm Auto = $580/6-mon; renter=$136/yr; umbrella = $605 (2-million) = $1901 (1-yr projection)
- JD Powers -top customer Service (847 score)
- Consumer Reports - overall score - 80
- 3.4/5 Wallethub

Amica Auto = $493/6-mon; renter = $330/yr; umbrella = $231 ($2-million) = $ 1547 (1-yr projection)
- JD Powers - highest customer service in New England (867)
- Consumer Reports - Top 3 ratings (first 2 n/a in NYState) overall score - 88
- 3.4/5 Wallethub

Erie came back on Mars with their quote, so they’re out.

Both State Farm and Amica are in the playoffs with an edge to Amica.

 

[Scuba]

We did bid ours out through an independent agent a few years ago, and I was surprised to learn that Allstate (our current insurer) was the best. The other thing I appreciate about Allstate is being able to talk with our agent, who has been in the business for 30+ years, directly instead of having to call an 800 number and talk with someone with much less experience and no personal relationship with us.

 

[Montecfo]

Live example of independent agent

I just got a live example of why it is so good to use an independent agent for your home, auto and umbrella.

I have been with Travelers (bought through my broker) for I will say 3 years. I had two claims during that period: water damage to hardwood from a plumbing problem ($10k+) and hit a deer in rental car ($8k or so).

The bundle price was up about 15 percent this year, with homeowners taking a 20 percent jump, and auto up 6 percent despite DW retiring this year so we have no commuting and very little driving.

Sent an email to my agent asking if this seemed "normal" for this cycle. She said it was but she'd be happy to get me new quotes to compare.

Well I got the new quote yesterday. It saves me about 20 % overall. The auto was actually lower by over 30 %.

AND the coverage is better. Here are some ways the coverage is better

-auto deductibles are half what I have now
-auto insurance can't rise for 3 years
-Guaranteed replacement cost on the homeowners
-$25k coverage to fix underground water, gas, power and sewer lines that fail. We hear about these all the time.
-$500k additional uninsured motorist on the base policy, so my total liability coverage for that risk rose by that much.

I was pretty blown away by the package. Could not be happier.

I recommend.

 

[BGold]

I just got a live example of why it is so good to use an independent agent for your home, auto and umbrella.



I have been with Travelers (bought through my broker) for I will say 3 years. I had two claims during that period: water damage to hardwood from a plumbing problem ($10k+) and hit a deer in rental car ($8k or so).



The bundle price was up about 15 percent this year, with homeowners taking a 20 percent jump, and auto up 6 percent despite DW retiring this year so we have no commuting and very little driving.



Sent an email to my agent asking if this seemed "normal" for this cycle. She said it was but she'd be happy to get me new quotes to compare.



Well I got the new quote yesterday. It saves me about 20 % overall. The auto was actually lower by over 30 %.



AND the coverage is better. Here are some ways the coverage is better



-auto deductibles are half what I have now

-auto insurance can't rise for 3 years

-Guaranteed replacement cost on the homeowners

-$25k coverage to fix underground water, gas, power and sewer lines that fail. We hear about these all the time.

-$500k additional uninsured motorist on the base policy, so my total liability coverage for that risk rose by that much.



I was pretty blown away by the package. Could not be happier.



I recommend.

Impressive savings. Congrats! Unfortunately that was not my experience. The two I interacted with came in higher on at least 2 of the 3 items than most of the quotes I received. MMDV.

Perhaps my living in NYC was prohibitive to them? I’m certainly not fond of alternate side of the street parking - LOL.

I did find Amica Insurance to meet my criteria with significant savings as well as highly regarded customer service.

 

[Happyras]

I may have to do this. I have been with American Family for over a decade but they keep raising the rates on all of our policies in ways that don't seem to mesh with reality.

We are with AmFam as well. 4 policies.
I am reviewing our policy renewals currently, and we live in Redmond subject to general Inslee and the current lawless OIC (insurance commissioner). You may not know but the OIC changed the way rates are fairly applied for risk, due to Covid impact. In a true socialist move, they neutralized the premiums so that low credit, unemployed drivers with little to insure against would pay less. We get to pay their premiums for them with higher rates for lower risk, wealthier clients.

He eliminated the insurance credit scoring discount in WA. Our rates went up 40% on this renewal due to the loss of that discount. Our score was 7 out of 50, so it was a large factor. When the OIC ended this mandate in October, he sent out a letter to all carriers who could request to re-instate the discount. However, our house of reps decided not to vote the change or put it up for public vote, so the OIC dictated that on March 4th it would be in effect again for 3 years. The only other 2 states without credit score discounts were done through popular vote.

12 companies elected to use the credit scores again until March 4th. AmFam did not choose to do so. Allstate is one that did, so is Progressive, Stillwater and Cincinnati.

Our problem in shopping around is that our home is a large log home, a few carriers, like State Farm, and Safeco, will underwrite but since our roof is thick butt pressure treated shake, and 27 years old they will not.

We can keep the home and rental on AmFam, but we loose the multipolicy discount if we move auto to another carrier. It is almost worth it, as AmFam is about 2X the cost of some others even with the multi discount.