Watch your Home insurance bill

[BuffCyclist]

Just got Homeowners Insurance with Armed Forces Insurance in February, they beat USAA's price by about $180 (and that is with higher coverages). However, I insure all 3 of our cars with USAA.

My Dad has been with AFI since 1974 when he first got to the USAFA, and has never changed homeowners insurance since then. He is the type of person to change companies every year for a $10 savings.

[jerrymrc]

I had State Farm for everything for over 30 years. They raised my HO premium almost 40% about 6 or 7 years ago...never had a claim.

AM-FAM did that some years ago when they went to credit scores. Since mine is good I could not understand.

Seems they used everyone in the household to include the kids that did not live there anymore.

[Ronin13]

we are just paying for all of the havoc last few years .. Mine went up to , but just think of next year with all of the firesThe price will never go down even with 0 clams

Yes and no... Last year was in the $50Billion range, these fires are barely breaking $2B at current estimates... I don't expect to see rates increase as much as they did this year. We had Travelers take an almost 30% increase, but they pushed for going away from mono-line policies (Home only) and are doing away with $500 deductible. Everyone is having to increase rates, go with higher deductibles, and try to bundle... on top of that, a lot of companies give pretty nice discounts for having an alarm- we saw one customer's ins go down $200/year for an alarm.

Allstate, up $800 this year. No one can touch their price. That was before fire season. I still love living in the mountains.

Not true... Chubb can blow Allstate's prices out of the water, but they don't like to write for anything below $600,000 Coverage A.

[jerrymrc]

and are doing away with $500 deductible. Everyone is having to increase rates, go with higher deductibles, and try to bundle...

Already did that. Went from 250 to 500 to 1000 in 2008-2010 to keep it the same. Changed company's in 2010 to keep it at 800. went up $120 in 2011 and also that is when they were changing roof valuations so put in a claim before the change. I was going to hold off but it was legit.

Did the black box on the cars and got 30% discount but even with no tickets, accidents it looks like the cars may jump because of the hail storms even though we did not have a claim.

It just seemed like in years gone by doing good by not having claims, tickets, accidents would make your rates go down and that does not seem to be the case anymore.

[Ronin13]

Already did that. Went from 250 to 500 to 1000 in 2008-2010 to keep it the same. Changed company's in 2010 to keep it at 800. went up $120 in 2011 and also that is when they were changing roof valuations so put in a claim before the change. I was going to hold off but it was legit.

Did the black box on the cars and got 30% discount but even with no tickets, accidents it looks like the cars may jump because of the hail storms even though we did not have a claim.

It just seemed like in years gone by doing good by not having claims, tickets, accidents would make your rates go down and that does not seem to be the case anymore.

I'll just say this: Katrina, Joplin, hail... these past few years haven't exactly been too great. Insurance companies have to make money too, and if they don't raise rates they start operating in the red.

[Snowman78]

^+1, I am a insurance adjuster and worked all the storms, WE PAY A LOT IN CLAIMS.

[SSChameleon]

When shopping the home insurance be sure to get a copy of the policy and not just the dec page. I have had three clients who thought they were saving $400+ per year untill they realized the new policy did not cover water loss (such as from broken pipes or a faulty dishwasher) and capped the loss of use amount to $2,500 per month.

[mevshooter]

Hmmm... I take out a loan, I pay the interest, I get no slack.

I pay insurance company for a policy I rarely ever use, they have to pay money out when someone gets in an accident, I'm supposed to feel sorry for them?

Yeah, I don't think so.

Insurance companies are like stock brokers. They reap major rewards, billions of dollars, with a questionable amount of regard for the "little guy" and then come crying to the public at large when something crashes.



With that said, I do love USAA.