Combining insurance/When is insurance not necessary?

[AprM]

I'm doing my annual insurance review and since I'm recently married I have a lot more to investigate this year. DH is a USAA member and when they say "for life" in the commercials he took it to heart. I use GEICO but really I use whoever gets me the best rate. He has home, auto, boat, and personal property (jewelry) policies. I have auto and umbrella. It's a lot to combine and review. What's your advice for the best way to do things? My quotes from USAA were high IMO. DH is open to the idea of leaving USAA but not if we shuffle companies every year, which I can respect.

Also, we have an RV which is paid for and not worth a ton (10-11k). Is it worth insuring? We take it out maybe 3 weeks a year and when we're towing it we are covered under the auto policy. I'm not sure what we'd need the insurance for... it's a travel trailer not a motor home.

 

[SecondCor521]

For me USAA has always beaten GEICO (and everyone else) for comparable coverage, but I know for others the reverse is true. One thing to consider with USAA is that they typically pay back a dividend on their insurance policies, which reduces the cost of the policies by the value of the dividend.

I would think that the cheapest option would be for you two to combine coverages - by that I mean have one auto policy that covers both drivers and all cars, and also have home/auto/umbrella from the same insurer. That is what I have read anyway.

Personally I try to self insure as much as I can. So if I owned an RV worth $10K and I could be OK if it got totaled, then I'd just not insure it and take the hit if something bad happened. This has the side effect of me being more careful with my stuff, which I think is a good thing.

The same thing might apply to the jewelry policy - if you could afford to pay out of pocket if you lost one of the covered items (like your wedding ring), then maybe consider going without. But you'd both have to be comfortable with taking on that risk.

The thing that I tend to insure for is liability, because I can't afford to pay for damages to other people if that should happen.

Would DH be OK shuffling companies if you did the research and the work of switching?

 

[Sunset]

I believe OP is saying the RV is not insured when sitting in the driveway. And the auto insurance covers it when towing it as it's a trailer.

My experience has been combine everything and ask for a quote from a few companies, I would also think adding the RV to house insurance would be a tiny addition for basically damage from hail/kids breaking in, etc.

It is easiest if you get all insurance to renew at the same time per year. (you can get a refund of unused policy time from original insurer for the things that you change over early).

 

[travelover]

I have a small camper worth about $7500. I have it insured for comprehensive / collision for about $50 a year with $500 deductible through Amica. Takes the worry out of theft / wind damage, etc. Liability is covered by tow vehicle's insurance. Other companies tried to sell me a much more expensive policy that included liability if the camper damaged something, which struck me as a weird scenario. The agent explained that the trailer might roll into a Lamborghini. I passed on that .

 

[CardsFan]

On the issue of the trailer: ours was broken into. What they stole was minimal. But the damage cost $3000 to repair. Insurance covered most of it. BTW, only the damage was covered by the trailer insurance. Stolen goods were on the home owners policy, and not enough to make a claim.