Auto and Homeowner Insurance

[MichealKnight]

My house is tough to insure. It's too big, and there's a large claim - I think will 2-3 years old only. Anyhow, my old insurer (Vault) wanted to jack the premium from $8800 to $26000 and I had trouble finding another insurer.

Allstate was great - $8100 so I jumped on it and also have 2 cars insured thru them.

I did a cursory check and if I switched my two cars away from Allstate -it's total $750 a year savings. $750 a year doesn't put my kids thru college but hey, it's $750 a year.

Question: If I cancel my Allstate auto insurance - does it trigger something to where they say - 'fine, we're not renewing your homeowners or we're going to raise it up?"]

I'm scared to mess with it. My homeowners policy I really want to just leave alone but would be nice to save on autos. Thanks

 

[wrigley]

Years back Nationwide insured my home and after 16 years of paying them with no claims, they told me I had to include auto (bundle) or they would drop me. I had very good auto rates at the time and bundling with them would increase my auto premiums, so I told them to pack sand. They dropped me! I'm in Florida so homeowner's insurance is a sore subject. Two of my neighbors recently bundled to keep their homeowner's insurance. One is with Allstate the other is with State Farm.

 

[njhowie]

Question: If I cancel my Allstate auto insurance - does it trigger something to where they say - 'fine, we're not renewing your homeowners or we're going to raise it up?"

They are extremely likely to raise the the homeowners premium. You are probably receiving a multi-line discount having both policies with them. Review your homeowners policy to see if the discount is indicated, or pick up the phone, call, and ask.

 

[Kings over Queens]

You will lose whatever discount you got on the house, if you got one, by bundling the two lines of coverage. Rate increases are approved by the respective state insurance commissioner/governing body, so it's not an arbitrary thing where they just raise your individual rates as punishment for moving the line of coverage.

the insurance market is a mess. there is no guarantee that allstate won't drop the house insurance next year due to other reasons.

 

[OldShooter]

Same advice I always give. Shop and find a good independent agent or two. Copy all your property and casualty policy declaration pages ("dec" pages in insurance talk), black out the premium amounts and give them all to the agent(s). See what you get back.

I don't try to be my own insurance broker and I never buy from tied agents, whose loyalty is to the insurance company, not to me.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I concur that it will cost you more to split up the insurance because you are currently getting multi-line discount. Don't wake the sleeping bear.

 

[Aerides]

The $8100 probably includes a multi-line since you have your cars there, and probably exceeds $750.

 

[Texas Proud]

As other have said, you lose your bundle discount...

Look at your policies and see how much that is... or ask!!

For me it is a good amount... more than the $750...

 

[Kings over Queens]

Same advice I always give. Shop and find a good independent agent or two. Copy all your property and casualty policy declaration pages ("dec" pages in insurance talk), black out the premium amounts and give them all to the agent(s). See what you get back.

I don't try to be my own insurance broker and I never buy from tied agents, whose loyalty is to the insurance company, not to me.

I love your support and advocacy of independent agents and if I'm to offer one bit of advice would be NOT to do what's bolded. Some agents may enjoy "bidding" on coverage, I never did, and wouldn't. If I received policy or other info that was redacted I'd dump it and move on. Others might, which is fine, but I wouldn't.

 

[OldShooter]

Fair point. I've also been told that the agent doesn't care about the current premiums, that he's just going to shop for the best company and price that he can find. So by that argument, no reason to black them out. Ideally, the potential customer will have talked to the agent to an extent that will help him decide whether to include the premium amounts or not.

 

[MichealKnight]

Thanks for replies.

While it hurts, I'm leaning towards not "poking the sleeping bear". Not just because the homeowner discount *might* be greater than or close to the $750 savings - at this point I just can't risk ticking off Allstate on homeowners insurance I just dont want the conversation. A year ago I tried an independent who got me a Lloyds quote for $18k per year. The AllState Franchise dude - and his assistant are always responsive - and placed the $8100 homeowners policy. I'll wait out another year. Then if the big claim is not used to rate me on the home because enough time has passed I'll get some independent quotes but for now, I think I'll stick with what I have. Thanks all for replies

 

[Al18]

Don’t forget to buy Umbrella Insurance if you don’t already have it

 

[Koolau]

Don’t forget to buy Umbrella Insurance if you don’t already have it

+1 It shouldn't be too expensive to bundle with the other coverage and can be worth its weight in gold (YOUR gold.)

 

[skipro33]

Question: If I cancel my Allstate auto insurance - does it trigger something to where they say - 'fine, we're not renewing your homeowners or we're going to raise it up?"]

I'm scared to mess with it. My homeowners policy I really want to just leave alone but would be nice to save on autos. Thanks

You bet it does! I'm in California, living in the highest fire risk rating area possible. Most here have to insure for fire via the California Fair Plan; a conglomeration of insurers who split the risk of high fire risk homes, mostly by charging 200-300% premiums to the average homeowner policy. My agent, I have Liberty Mutual, told me to NOT go shopping for car insurance because my policy is weighted for having all my insurance needs covered under one umbrella. Home, cars, RV, motorcycle, umbrella policies are all through Liberty Mutual. HOWEVER; Liberty no longer insures motorcycles, RV's or has umbrella policies. Least-wise, not in California they don't. So I don't know what's on the horizon and I don't want to find out. I pay around $2,300 a year for a home market valued at $1M and replacement valued at $1.75M (Costs that much more to recondition the land after $1M worth of house just torched it all to hell and back). Labor costs, code updates, material costs, all add up.
If I wasn't able to get homeowner's insurance and had to go on CFP, I wouldn't. My neighbors pay in excess of $1,000 a month and that's just for the fire component. They still have to get all the other coverage for their home through another provider. Instead, I'd take that $1,300 - $1,500 a month and fire harden my home. Put in a 15,000-gallon cistern, pumps, generators, etc. and do what I can to prevent it from burning rather than give it away to those bastirs. I'm told they even play hardball when someone actually needs to collect on their policy. That's insult to injury. Wow! Normally, I wouldn't even suggest non-insuring but I could afford to walk away if it came to that. There's enough to live on the road; a few months at a time, traveling around, before settling into a retirement condo somewhere. My kids, however, would be bent to learn they would not be inheriting this estate, but that I failed to insure and blew the cash on housing after a catastrophic event. Now that I think of it, I should offer for them to pay the fire insurance since it's they that stand the most to benefit. I'm sure they would love that. About as much as a fart in church! Ha!

 

[Texas Proud]

Is that for all perils?

My premium starts at $3287 for a $445K house... I do get discounts of about $760 for new roof, age (of me) and car bundle...

I did shop last year and was told that they could not match what I already have..

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I'll add to this. Call an Independent Agent and don't give them your dec. pages. Ask them to meet you at your home and draw up their own Replacement Cost Estimates and build a plan from the ground up. What you currently have may not be what is best for you. Have the dec pages handy for info like serial numbers and other info.

Let the agent determine the property limits, liability limits and such. That's their job. If you're on this forum you need an Umbrella Policy too.

I did it for 32 years. I could care less what the previous agent had you with. I never insured a property that I didn't personnally inspect on site. My job was to start from the ground up and handle your future, not your past coverage. It doesn't cost you anything for them to start from scratch and come up with a plan for you. If you don't like it, don't take it. If the agent won't do this for you, call the next one. They're everywhere.

Another observation in general. Consumers know that the best performing product is not necessarily the cheapest. Yet with insurance people relate the best with the cheapest. For example, the cheapest toilet paper isn't the best toilet paper. Insurance is no different. I'll admit the insurance industry is at fault for this with their advertising, they're selling price.

You don't know how good your insurance company is until your house is on fire.

My suggestion is similar to Oldshooter's. Find an Independent Agent that will come to your house and look it over with you, come to a plan and trust them to put a plan together. For the most part Independent Agents are an ethical bunch and will do their best for you. You want an agent who has experience and has had to handle claims with fatal auto accidents, lawsuits and total house fires. You want them and their experience in your corner.

Another pointer. Go to your local auto body shop and ask them who pays the claims best. It's not the companies with the clever ads on TV. Contact your favorite building contractor and ask them who is the best insurer to work with when you have a claim such as a hail storm or fire.

I'd rather have a great company with a $2,000 deductible than a poor company with a $1,000 deductible at the same premium.

 

[Chuckanut]

Auto insurance up another 12% from 6 months ago. Previous yearly increase was 25% over one year. Now add another 12% to that.

 

[m3bs]

Local news report said we can expect an 11% increase in Homeowners and 38% on car insurance in the wake of Helene. My premiums for both have already increased over 50% in the last two years.

 

[Koolau]

Local news report said we can expect an 11% increase in Homeowners and 38% on car insurance in the wake of Helene. My premiums for both have already increased over 50% in the last two years.

Yes, rather drastic increases in the past year. I thought insurance companies already planned for such one-off events. I guess this IS their plan. Dump it on everyone else even though they're not involved in the losses or even close to them.

 

[m3bs]

They are all backed up by reinsurance programs, so their losses are limited. We are 200 miles from the coast, but the eye of Helene came right through here two weeks ago and did billions in damage. I’ve already spent $25K on cleanup, and most of that won’t be covered by insurance. I’m hoping they will at least cover the trees that fell on my garage and repairing the roof. I was very lucky that none of the 16 trees that came down on my lot hit my house.

It hasn’t been long since the surcharge for Hurricane Hugo dropped off my insurance premium. Maybe this time the folks on the coast that we’ve been subsidizing for years will get to help out with us inlanders.

 

[Koolau]

Maybe this time the folks on the coast that we’ve been subsidizing for years will get to help out with us inlanders.

Clearly, not the kind of "pay back" you were hoping for. Sorry to hear of your storm issues. Hope things proceed quickly and the insurance co. comes through for you.

 

[Flieger]

They are all backed up by reinsurance programs, so their losses are limited. We are 200 miles from the coast, but the eye of Helene came right through here two weeks ago and did billions in damage. I’ve already spent $25K on cleanup, and most of that won’t be covered by insurance. I’m hoping they will at least cover the trees that fell on my garage and repairing the roof. I was very lucky that none of the 16 trees that came down on my lot hit my house.

It hasn’t been long since the surcharge for Hurricane Hugo dropped off my insurance premium. Maybe this time the folks on the coast that we’ve been subsidizing for years will get to help out with us inlanders.

Sounds like you got it a little worse than me. Upstate SC here and have spent ~$10k so far on cleanup, but have more removal yet. As a note, $3200 was covered (getting trees off of the house), the debris removal of those trees after getting them off of the house is only covered at "$1000 per event" and was applied toward the $2000 deductible. The landscaping that was damaged from falling trees (mature Crepe Myrtles, etc) are not covered due to Wind.

All that said, with the devastation just 30 miles north of me at Chimney Rock, etc, I feel very fortunate.

Flieger

 

[Koolau]

Best wishes to all our members who are victims of both recent storms. Blessings.

 

[zinger1457]

Had a strange thing happen during my most recent auto insurance renewal with Progressive, the new rate increased by close to 100%, no accidents or claims. Shopped around and found a couple options close to what I was paying. As I was on the Progressive web site comparing policies decided to open a chat and find out why the large increase. Was told the increase was because they couldn't confirm my drivers license, sure enough I had gotten a new license at the beginning of the year with a new number. Gave the rep my new license number and the new rate dropped down close to what I was paying. Never thought about contacting Progressive with my new license, never did it in the past and didn't have any issues. As I looked around my account on their web site I couldn't find my drivers license listed anywhere and no option to add/change it. Seems strange that they wouldn't contact me when the issue came up, I guess something to consider if you see an unusually large increase.

 

[Surewhitey]

Local news report said we can expect an 11% increase in Homeowners and 38% on car insurance in the wake of Helene. My premiums for both have already increased over 50% in the last two years.

I asked if we were on the 28% plan as our HO policy went up 2 years in a row by exactly that. He chuckled (all the way to the bank). I raised my deductible to $5k and reduced it by ~$900 annually.

We also have never insured the land value of the property and just the structure. Some companies won't allow this but Allstate apparently will in TX.

DW has been in the industry for a few decades so she knows the principles of different lines of coverage.