Posted: 1/5/2008 8:14:54 PM EDT
I just found out that State Farm is TRIPLING my homeowners insurance!!!  I've had all my insurance with them for 17 years and never had a claim. I called them up and the girl could not give me a good reason and acted like I was offending her by questioning the bill and not just blindly paying it. It's time to shop around. Anybody have any experiences and contact info for homeowners ins? Sean |
Because they can. If I'd known then, what I know now, I would have kept my last house instead of building a new one. Just paid it off and forget about the homeowners. Thousands of dollars a year.....for what? God forbid you ever make a claim.....legal Mafia I tell ya.  jj
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statefarm screwed me on my last claim. I was missing more than 50 barrel roof tiles, the picket fence knocked over, and I have leaks inside the house. They said the damage didn't meet the 2k deductible, and they gave me nothing. only a few years later when I met a contractor/adjuster did he show me how to re-open the claim and get something out of em. After I already made the repairs myself, I at least got back about half of the money. and they didn't cover the fence, or the damage to my truck from the tree falling over. My car insurance did cover all the scratches and dents in my jeep though, that was cool as shit. this is when we had the katrina/wilma combo. ETA: I'm using Citizens now. www.citizensfla.com/ |
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USAA isn't writing any new policies in "costal" communities in FL. My friend who lives in a very modest home, 30mi from the Gulf, just got his bill a few months ago. $1200yr to $4100yr, never filed a claim. Mine shows at the end of the month, we shall see. I'm going to totally drop my wind insurance if it gets bad. FWIW: Is your home up to code? The older homes seem to be the ones getting the crappy bills. |
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USAA sent me a letter stating they were not writing any new policies in FL without copies of orders to move here. Though they have not raised my rates yet. So I can't move without finding new insurance. I live in JAX where the last direct hurricane to hit was in the 60s. How about a plan Govenor? |
| My Father in Law had 1 claim after Ivan. State Farm went from $1400 yr. to over $9,000 a year! He was paying more for insurance than his house payment. He went to another company for $4,000. WTF they don't even need a gun. Is this the only industry were they are guaranteed to make a profit? |
Check your Citizen policies. They have a $1000 limit on jelery and $2000 on firearms. They will pay right away but you have to have a receipt or a picture of the items. You need a rider for more coverage on these items. They will cover you on cash in the house up to $1000 ( it may be a little lower now) and apply it to the deductible. We all have cash in the house. Good luck, |
How about insurance companies that sell other types of insurance in Florida but not homeowners insurance, not be allowed to sell insurance of any type unless they write a certain amount of homeowners polices. (They would be required to actually write polices, not just offer them for outrageous prices.) |
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Allstate opted to not renew my policy this past summer. Dropped everybody in my zip code (north melbourne/Suntree/Viera). After ranting and raving awhile, I got my agent to shop around - ended up going with St. Johns Insurance Co. Turns out the good hands folks did me a favor - I got better coverage for cheaper! I hope your situation turns out as well.. |
That is not fair, I don't know what you do for a living, but it would suck for anyone to be told that you have to sell, service and maintain a different product than you currently do.. |
| I just bought a house in July and got HOI through USAA. Well, kind of. A "new guy" wrote the policy when he shouldn't have. I got a call 3 days after we closed telling me that they shouldn't have given me insurance at all. Since they already wrote the policy they will insure me for 1 year at which time it will be canceled. I got the low down on why they are no longer insuring Florida homes, but dropping many fast regardless of enlisted/officer or active/reserve. Apparently, for USAA at least, Florida represents over 50% of all of their "risk" within the homeowners insurance sector, but their income from the Florida home owners insurance policies is less than 10%. Insurance is a business. They don't care about loyalty towards you (but they want it from you...go figure) or how you've never made a claim. Would you start a business where you had very little chance, statistically speaking, to make a profit? |
It's probably not "fair" but I've been told by retail companies that I buy from that if I want to sell something out of their line I have to floor (stock and display) the entire line. Speaking about being "fair" , when is the last time an insurance company gave any consideration to their customers? |
Sorry, but just the thought of an insurance company saying that makes me want to laugh, but there are to many hard working people out there being ass raped by insurance companies to even think about laughing. |
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I was thrilled last year when my Nationwide HO policy only went up a little (and it was a pretty good rate too). With all the cancellations and soaring rates I thought I was lucky as hell. And then I got the non-renewal letter a few months later. I really don't understand what criteria, if any, they use when canceling policies. I don't think my area (Pinellas/Pasco) has been hit with a hurricane since around the 40s. Elena in '85 was about the closest one but it didn't even make landfall here. I know it did some damage but it was a tiny fraction of what Andrew & Katrina did. Luckily I was able to switch to HomeWise as well and avoided the Citizens nightmare. I've never heard of them and I think they've only been in FL a few years, but my agent recommended them so we'll see. I'm sure after another 10 years of faithful payments, zero claims and not one single hurricane to hit my area they'll drop me too  LL |
I work for an Auto Insurance company that does not sell Homeowners. We were hit very hard by the Hurricanes the last few year. Auto insurance is a very competitive market. Do you realize the the average (actually very good) underwriting ratio is about 85%. That means we pay out 85 cents of every dollar of collected premium on claims each year. This a a very small profit margin. Auto insurance has nothing to do with homeowners and I do not see why people think that auto insurance companies should sell homeowners. I have had my issues with with Allstate Homeowners last year. I was non renewed after 22 years with no claims, ever. I got coverage with State Farm and the rates were reasonable. I have not received my renewal paperwork yet so I will have to wait and see what happens. |