Homeowners and Auto Insurance

[crosscreekcooter]

 

[crosscreekcooter]

 

[crosscreekcooter]

 

[gardnerwebbgator]

State Farm since my high school days when I first started driving.

 

[bradgator2]

What happened with Allstate?

Well, with the home.... it's the whole fence fiasco. My problem is they told us our fence plan was ok, county inspector even approved it, but then they denied it in the end.

For the auto, my wife hit a fallen tree branch and destroyed her side view mirror. There is alot of technology in this damn thing. We call the agent, he told us to call claims. The earliest appointment claims could see it was 3 weeks away. I said, "allstate has a damn commercial showing you can take a picture and send it in". "Well, that is an option you have to pay for and add to your policy." So the appointment eventually comes and the good news is it is indeed just the case and the repair will be less than the deductible, so insurance is not needed.

So in my search for new insurance....my wife is now classified as high risk because of 2 claims in less than 3 years.

Claim 1) we had a windshield replaced from a rock hitting it on the highway.
Claim 2) the sideview mirror

Regarding #1.... it was a $300 job for the windshield. Did anyone realize that was a claim/insurance ding?? Next time I wont call insurance.

Regarding #2.... yep, the mirror. Even though we are not using insurance and they will pay out $0..... it is considered a claim/insurance ding for the simple fact that we called the claims dept.

I mean seriously.... wtf?

 

[URGatorBait]

Well, with the home.... it's the whole fence fiasco. My problem is they told us our fence plan was ok, county inspector even approved it, but then they denied it in the end.

For the auto, my wife hit a fallen tree branch and destroyed her side view mirror. There is alot of technology in this damn thing. We call the agent, he told us to call claims. The earliest appointment claims could see it was 3 weeks away. I said, "allstate has a damn commercial showing you can take a picture and send it in". "Well, that is an option you have to pay for and add to your policy." So the appointment eventually comes and the good news is it is indeed just the case and the repair will be less than the deductible, so insurance is not needed.

So in my search for new insurance....my wife is now classified as high risk because of 2 claims in less than 3 years.

Claim 1) we had a windshield replaced from a rock hitting it on the highway.
Claim 2) the sideview mirror

Regarding #1.... it was a $300 job for the windshield. Did anyone realize that was a claim/insurance ding?? Next time I wont call insurance.

Regarding #2.... yep, the mirror. Even though we are not using insurance and they will pay out $0..... it is considered a claim/insurance ding for the simple fact that we called the claims dept.

I mean seriously.... wtf?

I had forgotten about them and the fence fiasco.

And that nonsense about paying more to be able to send in pictures for the claim is ridiculous. We were able to do that with my wife's claim when we were with Progressive, and it was a pretty average plan. I'm not entirely sure how Travelers does it, and hope not to find out lol.

As far as the windshield, that sucks. They replace those things precisely because it's a big issue if someone doesn't. I could see if someone was making a habit of replacing their windsheild that it ding them, but 1 time because the law pretty much wants to make you do it is crap.

I guess you technically filed a claim on the mirror, even though they didn't pay out.
I'm not sure if all carriers consider that a claim or not though when they don't pay out. Take it as a lesson learned to check the pricing on smaller items before going to the insurance company.

That said, it doesn't appear that the companies are holding those items against you in your quotes.

While I liked Progressive and when we did have a claim there were decent to deal with, they did jump our costs up quite a bit after my wife's accident from a year and a half ago.
That quote for progressive for auto is way lower than we had even before her accident though. We were right at 1,000/6months prior, and then it jumped to about 1450/6 months. Her accident ran a cost of $4k, which you never would have expected it from looking at it, but I guess they pack these cars tight these days.

Travelers was the best we could do right now on price, and actually, most of them wanted to charge quite a bit more than Progressive. But we came in at about 1250/6 months with Travelers. Hopefully that starts to come down after we get past that 3 year point from that accident, but I guess we'll probably have to shop around again by that point.
It sucks because I have a great driving record. Haven't had an accident since 2000 and haven't had a ticket (knocks on wood) since before that.

I'm noticing a trend of wives having to make auto claims

 

[Swamp Queen]

That's some BS about the windshield! No way that should count against you.

 

[Gatordiddy]

Wife went on a trip to Florida and left her Audi with our daughter at her apartment complex in Denver.
Told the daughter before she left to keep it covered.

Wife returned to Denver to find the car uncovered.
And a hail storm had moved through while the car was out in the open.

$18,000 and 5 weeks later - she got the car back.

Liberty Mutual paid it and our rates didn't go up... so we dodged a bullet on that one.

 

[bradgator2]

That's some BS about the windshield! No way that should count against you.

I certainly had no idea it did. And, you only get that "free" window replacement if you carry collision. I've been debating dropping it on my truck, and so that is how I found out about that. I always know the fine details of my policies, and so that is why all these things are infuriating. Because you do your homework and stay on top of it and be a good customer .... and they still fuq you.

 

[GatorJ]

For auto I found progressive to be cheapest. Unless you have USAA. What I have and it's significantly cheaper than progressive.

Progressive has a bunch of bundles that make a cheaper such as paying off your bill early. I think with progressive I was paying about 380 for six months. But that was for one car. They quoted me about $150 for two cars. Per month. I pay 140/month with USAA. But I have some pretty good coverage.

For home I use Heritage. Very very affordable.

 

[NVGator]

For auto I found progressive to be cheapest. Unless you have USAA. What I have and it's significantly cheaper than progressive.

Progressive has a bunch of bundles that make a cheaper such as paying off your bill early. I think with progressive I was paying about 380 for six months. But that was for one car. They quoted me about $150 for two cars. Per month. I pay 140/month with USAA. But I have some pretty good coverage.

For home I use Heritage. Very very affordable.

Why don't you use USAA for Home?

 

[GatorJ]

Why don't you use USAA for Home?

They can't cover Florida.

 

[NVGator]

They can't cover Florida.

Didn't know that. Why not?

 

[GatorJ]

Didn't know that. Why not?

Probably because of all the hurricanes. No insurances cover homes for a while in Florida. Only citizens. It wasn't until about two years ago they start allowing private insurances to cover homes in Florida.

 

[gingerlover]

Probably because of all the hurricanes. No insurances cover homes for a while in Florida. Only citizens. It wasn't until about two years ago they start allowing private insurances to cover homes in Florida.

Thats why Farm Bureua put us with Florida Penn. The only other ones available were basically startups.

 

[gingerlover]

After being a property adjuster at one point I will never have Allstate. They deny what almost every other carrier would approve. They also will try to replace your roof by the shingle after hail storms.

 

[bradgator2]

Probably because of all the hurricanes. No insurances cover homes for a while in Florida. Only citizens. It wasn't until about two years ago they start allowing private insurances to cover homes in Florida.

Yep, it was damn near impossible about 7 years ago. But I got over 6 quotes last week, so they are coming back. State Farm still wont offer a policy.

But.... I just got it all switched over this morning to Progressive for both home and auto. I went directly to them, and not through some independent agent. The sideview mirror "claim" that wasnt actually a claim because Allstate was not used to pay out a single dime for the repair.... made our online quote increase by $190/6 months.

 

[GatorJ]

Yep, it was damn near impossible about 7 years ago. But I got over 6 quotes last week, so they are coming back. State Farm still wont offer a policy.

But.... I just got it all switched over this morning to Progressive for both home and auto. I went directly to them, and not through some independent agent. The sideview mirror "claim" that wasnt actually a claim because Allstate was not used to pay out a single dime for the repair.... made our online quote increase by $190/6 months.

Progressive does Florida now? They didn't a year ago. Good to know. Was there a good bundle discount? Btw I was with Progressive for 15 years but USAA was still cheaper. Waiting for them to come here.

 

[bradgator2]

Progressive does Florida now? They didn't a year ago. Good to know. Was there a good bundle discount? Btw I was with Progressive for 15 years but USAA was still cheaper. Waiting for them to come here.

Sorta... they outsource it through 2 other companies. Mine is technically with American Strategic Insurance (ASI), I cant recall the name of the other option. All of the phone conversations were directly with ASI.... but it's a Progressive policy. To have it bundled, it saves about $200 total over a year.

Now that I typed that.... I wonder if I could have called ASI directly. Owell, I'm good. My new policy is significantly better than my old Allstate policy. For example, every FL policy has a separate hurricane deductible, which is usually 2% of the value of your home. It was only like 20 bucks a year to lower that to a $1000 hurricane deductible.

 

[-THE DUDE-]

Indiana farm bureau insurance...does that help?