Home owner's insurance... OMG they are freaking crooks!

[diana_circe]

We live in a very rural area and got a large home with 5 bedrooms for just under $80K. Its old and needs updating, but has decent plumbing and wiring and is completely livable. Our current insurance is running us $47 a month for $80K to cover the house and $60K to cover contents.

The policy is up in the next couple months so I have been getting quotes and they are ridiculous! The agents don't seem to want to do what I ask them to do, give me quotes on way more than I need and when I tell them that's not what I want they basically tell me how stupid I am for not wanting reconstruction costs, blah blah blah.

Financially I have the house covered so that it is paid off in the event of a fire, tornado, whatever may totally demolish it so that my mortgage is paid off if that happens. I know it would probably be wiser to insure it for reconstruction costs, but I also know that if something happens I will have my mortgage completely paid off and the money we would get for contents would cover replacing the basic necessities as well as a down payment on a different house. I don't think I'm being stupid. I think I'm making sure I don't have to file bankruptcy if my house is totaled while making sure I can manage the cost of the insurance until we are in a more stable position financially.

Anyone else dealing with something like this?

I'm honestly at the point where I think I'm better off dealing with the insurance companies directly, rather than going through an agent, who just gets a percentage of the policy I buy. It doesn't seem to me they have the consumer's best interest at heart, but their own financial gain in mind.

[freeby4me]

Our policy more than doubled so I do feel your pain. We do have the reconstruction thing though. SO can build a house for alot cheaper than what it would cost to have someone else do it so it makes more sense for us to do it that way.

[evrita]

Mine goes down every year because we have the house and our cars covered thru the same company. I dont think it is that bad if you think about it 500.00 a year to cover over 100.000 if you lost everything. I guess that is just IMO.

[diana_circe]

I pay $47 a month currently, they offered me a policy for $198 a month. Way more than $100 a month, its $150 more than what I pay now. And we have a hard time covering that at this point.

[gmyers]

The thing I don't understand about insurance on the contents of you house is
my sister had a friend that had peplacement value on all her stuff inside her house. But when her house burned down completely they only gave her a fourth of what she had it ibsured at. Can they do that if you have replacement value or do you get the full amount. She didn't I know that.

[myspirit]

Look into your local farm bureau. That is who had the best deal for us country folk!

[sunniekiss]

I pay $64.47 for $200,00 of coverage & $75,000 in contents. I do have replacement value on mine.
I built my house for $40,000 27 years ago buy could never rebuild it for that again.
For me, I would rather pay a bit extra that risk losing everything. Yes my mortage would be paid off but then I would be starting backa zero. But then, that is just me.

[iluvmybaby]

Look into your local farm bureau. That is who had the best deal for us country folk!

Farm Bureau is the BEST insurance company, and the wonderful thing is, when you have house and car insurance with them, you get BIG BIG discounts. We have our house and two cars insured with them, and our rates never go up more then a dollar or two and that is like every other year it happens. They rock!

[karefree]

Insurance is something I can't bear to think about but I would never want to be without it. Our house was almost 1000 for a year last year and it is coming up again month after next. Out cars , '06 aveo, '95 neon and an old '85 blazer runs us about 3000 per year. The insurance is for me (52 yo female) my husband 61 yo male and our 25 yo son. It is all with the same insurance company. Allstate. It is highway robbery.

[MsLynn]

allstate for me charged me more for one vehicle than others charged me for both vehicles. Right now i have travelers and couldn't be happier with their rates. they are about the only ones that i can afford these days

[diana_circe]

I'm happy enough with my auto insurance company, but I would happily change auto carriers if I could find one that would give me decent home owner's rates and combine them so I could get the discount for carrying home and auto with them. My current home owner's ins. co. doesn't offer auto, and my auto doesn't offer home owner's. But so far, for us, keeping them separate is cheaper than combining them.

I had a single car accident just over a year ago, and you would think its that issue that is holding us back, but in reality its the home owner's. I just cannot get a quote for anywhere near what we are already paying. Combined we are paying $137 a month, and the closest I can get is $163 for combining them with one company.

[evrita]

I am jealous I pay 116.32 a month for Auto and almost 500.00 a year for homeowners. The Auto is for 6 months then it is up for review and that is the cheapest that is for 2 cars.

[diana_circe]

evrita, when you break that down monthly its about the same as me. I pay $47 a month for home owner's and $97 for auto. We really want to carry more than state minimums on auto, and have full on our car. We currently only have full on our van because we have a loan for it. But again, right now its more important just to have it than to make sure our car is replaced if it gets totaled due to our own fault.

[vicky122]

The thing I don't understand about insurance on the contents of you house is
my sister had a friend that had peplacement value on all her stuff inside her house. But when her house burned down completely they only gave her a fourth of what she had it ibsured at. Can they do that if you have replacement value or do you get the full amount. She didn't I know that.

She might of got the money after it is was depricated (sp) But what they do is sat for example her fridge was 400.00 so the insurance gives her 200 to buy one. She has to show she replaced it with a 400.00 oneand once they get the reciepts they will give the other 200.00 back.
At least that is what they did with us.

[iluvmybaby]

Farm Bureau charges us $300 a year for really awesome coverage and $400 for auto ((that is because is because it covers me and I am under 25))

[flute]

I know if an earthquake hits my company doesn't offer that insurance so we're screwed. *sigh* and we sit right on a major fault line THANKS ALLSTATE!

[whatever]

Last fall our car ins went thru the roof in price. so i called my agent and made him start looking. He kept trying to get me to stay with that company. I think they are their big money makers. I told him find me a cheaper one or i will take my business elsewhere. Well he found me one that saves me $250 every six months. I had to pay the six months up front. but i just put back the monthy amount for the next time its due now. As for home ins. Our keeps going up and i'm about to start looking also. We have ours ins. for 105,000 plus 92,000 contents. Plus 15,000 on our garage. And we pay 500 a year. ANd every 6 months it goes up. And i'm sick of it! we never files claims!!!!

[Jolie Rouge]

Don't get me started on insurance companies .... the fine print of our Hurricane coverage states that they do not cover any damage caused by "wind AND water".... wind damage is one policy, water damage is another policy... so wouldn't the HURRICANE ( which is all about WIND AND WATER ) cover both ?

[diana_circe]

I ended up going through esurance.com when our policy expired because my agent drug ass getting us a new quote. I got it a lot cheaper through them. I am dreading getting our renewal on the home owner's. It went up about $100 from the first year, and after hearing from everyone I'm afraid it'll be higher this year than last. And like you, we haven't filed any claims, thankfully there's been nothing to file.

[gmyers]

Last fall our car ins went thru the roof in price. so i called my agent and made him start looking. He kept trying to get me to stay with that company. I think they are their big money makers. I told him find me a cheaper one or i will take my business elsewhere. Well he found me one that saves me $250 every six months. I had to pay the six months up front. but i just put back the monthy amount for the next time its due now. As for home ins. Our keeps going up and i'm about to start looking also. We have ours ins. for 105,000 plus 92,000 contents. Plus 15,000 on our garage. And we pay 500 a year. ANd every 6 months it goes up. And i'm sick of it! we never files claims!!!!

That sounds good to me. We pay $985 a year for $72,000 on our house, $45,000 on household goods and $5000 on our utility building.

[SLance68]

Don't get me started on insurance companies .... the fine print of our Hurricane coverage states that they do not cover any damage caused by "wind AND water".... wind damage is one policy, water damage is another policy... so wouldn't the HURRICANE ( which is all about WIND AND WATER ) cover both ?

I am right there with you - love those hurricanes that only cause flood damage not wind damage so it is not covered under your homeowners policy. You have to get flood coverage for the water - even if your house was water damaged by RAIN not a flood. We have been lucky though and had minimal damage in 2004 after 4 hurricanes but my homeowners has gone from $ 600.00 per year to 1500.00 per year - same house - higher deductibles.

[momfromTN]

Try paying $3000. for a small 3-bedroom house in Florida, per year. This is one reason we are getting out of our house asap, renting until I finish college then getting the hell out of Florida.

[diana_circe]

Holy cow, $3K for a small house? I know the cost of living is higher elsewhere, and I have no desire to live in a more populated area. And as glad as I am that our costs aren't that high, I still feel justified in bitching :lol

But now I am bitching on everyone's behalf. How can hurricane insurance NOT cover damaged caused by wind or water? And why are we all so dependant on insurance when there is so many stipulations to what they do and do not cover? And I could see charging $3K for a small house if you'd filed claims before, but just in general?

[momfromTN]

Holy cow, $3K for a small house? I know the cost of living is higher elsewhere, and I have no desire to live in a more populated area. And as glad as I am that our costs aren't that high, I still feel justified in bitching :lol

But now I am bitching on everyone's behalf. How can hurricane insurance NOT cover damaged caused by wind or water? And why are we all so dependant on insurance when there is so many stipulations to what they do and do not cover? And I could see charging $3K for a small house if you'd filed claims before, but just in general?



We could afford our home when we bought it 4 yrs ago. Then the hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 gave the insurance companies a reason to be greedy as hell. I don't care what they paid out in claims. There were many many years without big storms where they made huge profits, as well as the fact that most of them made big profits after 2004.

Now we are in foreclosure and cannot afford the insurance and taxes. We will be moving out very soon and most likely filing bankruptcy. We were stupid and did a refinance with an ARM mortgage after two years. We were assured that we could refi again, but then the market fell through. Still, it is our own fault.

Pity, because the only debt we have is our house. But, we know we cannot afford it, even with a ch 13, so we will most likely file a ch 7, to get out from under the whole thing and not be held liable should they try to get a judgement or file a 1099 for "forgiven debt" (which is another crock of poo) so we would be hit with taxes.

No, we never filed any claims on the insurance. Just happen to live in a state where companies are allowed to be thieves and crooks and price gouge us to death.

You would not believe the amount of people in Florida in foreclosure and filing bankruptcy.

[diana_circe]

Yeah we have an ARM loan too, and its up in April and I am terrified that we won't be able to cover the mortgage once that happens. With the financial falls we've taken the last couple of years there is no way we'll be able to refinance then. We'll just have to pray and do what we can and hopefully we can make it.

Sometimes I realize that I am so sheltered that I don't always see that its rough all over.

[earnhardt1]

i have full coverage on the 06 dodge and the 98 mustang convertable and homeoweners and it runs me 142.00 for the cars and 40 for home

[Urban Cowgirl]

One thing is that insurance companies usually charge more to people with lower credit scores. So if you don't know your credit score you should find out.

Also for anyone that is military, I highly reccommend USAA. I have shopped around and no one has been able to beat their prices for us!