Insurance question

[bigla]

Our house and autos have been covered by Nationwide for 30+years. Its expensive. Our friend told us about a local broker who got them a good deal on their insurance. I called the broker and she got us quote that would be about 1500 a year less than what we are paying now. However, the house is covered by one insurer, St Johns, our rider for jewelry by another - Burns & Wilcox, and our car by another - Safeco. They are all legit carriers but not the familiar names we love to hate.
We have had only one claim with Nationwide, 10 years ago. It was a big one but they did not punish us afterwards.
I know it is my decision to make, but has anyone else had good or bad experiences with having their carriers "diversified" like this.
Thanks
Larry

 

[Dawg52]

I am with a local agent but they do have me with one carrier. Supposedly for combo discounts. But I wouldn't have a problem with multiple carriers if the price worked out better.

 

[REWahoo]

I have no experience with any of the insurers you are looking at.

Surprised that the agent wants to put you with separate carriers. As Dawg says, in most cases an insurer offers discounts if you have multiple lines with them which leads to the best overall pricing. If it was my decision to make I would contact another independent agent and ask them to provide quotes.

 

[pb4uski]

I am with a local agent but they do have me with one carrier. Supposedly for combo discounts. But I wouldn't have a problem with multiple carriers if the price worked out better.

+1

 

[Katsmeow]

However, the house is covered by one insurer, St Johns, our rider for jewelry by another - Burns & Wilcox, and our car by another - Safeco. They are all legit carriers but not the familiar names we love to hate.

We've had our home and auto insurance with Safeco for several years. Safeco is a part of the Liberty Mutual Group.

Safeco - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AS far as your jewelry coverage, my understanding is that Burns & Wilcox is a wholesale broker. Typically, it places coverage with other carriers. At one time, we had some coverage placed by Burns & Wilcox (maybe our umbrella coverage). Usually a retail broker (i.e. the broker that you do business with) will place coverage through a wholesale broker when the retail broker does not itself have a market for the particular coverage. Often, coverage that is placed through a wholesale broker is more expensive because it is some type of coverage that can't be obtained through more typical means. Years ago, I had to obtain insurance for my house through a wholesale broker and it was very expensive (house was more than 5 miles away from a fire station).

I am not familiar with St. Johns.

With insurers I usually want to look up their Best rating to get an idea of financial solvency. When I had coverage placed by Burns & Wilcox I looked up the company name where the coverage was placed with.

 

[sengsational]

According to Clark Howard Insurance | www.clarkhoward.com

Auto:

According to Consumer Reports, the top 2 insurers are Amica Insurance and USAA Property & Casualty, two of my longtime favorites. Just a hair behind them is New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company, a company that's never much been on my radar. And in the No. 4 spot, you have Auto-Owners Insurance. On the flipside, among the lowest rated auto insurers in the country are Allstate Insurance and Farmers Insurance. Just a hair above them you'll find Travelers, Metlife Auto & Home, and Liberty Mutual, among others.

Homeowners:

Tied in the top spot, you have Amica Insurance and USAA Property & Casualty, two of my longtime favorites. Just a hair behind them is Auto-Owners Insurance, a company that's never much been on my radar.

Amica and USAA Mutual may not have the best premiums. But remember my rule, homeowners insurance is only for use in a catastrophic situation.

To lower the cost of going with a top-rated insurer, I recommend you take as high of a deductible as you can swallow and your mortgage holder will allow you to have. Do not go with the $500 deductible of yesteryear.

On the flipside, the lowest rated insurers in the country are Allstate Insurance and Farmers Insurance, in a tie. Just a hair above them were Hartford Financial Services, Travelers and Metlife Auto & Home.

 

[bigla]

Thanks for the replies. We live outside of Charleston SC so homeowners is expensive and many companies won't write it because we are close to the coast (5 miles). We do have the highest deductibles they allow on house and car.
Part of our worries about changing insurance companies is that being a new customer, they might feel free to cancel us for any reason that they may come up with.
Thanks again
Larry

 

[aim-high]

I would first call up Nationwide and have them rerate your policies. They will do so based on your credit score and you should save quite a bit with the same carrier. Also, with that type of longevity, you may have special privileges, like guaranteed no cancellation and things like that.

 

[mel1322]

We switched to a broker about 6 years ago and saved a lot. We have one company for our rv and one for our house and autos. But when it comes to a claim we have just the one broker to work with. I love it! She shops around for the best deals for us but we get personal service from the one broker.

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[mel1322]

Btw we switched from nationwide to our current broker and saved over 1,000 per year

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