Yes, read your insurance policy

[dennis thompson]

I have never read an insurance policy in my life. I recently got an email from my insurance company thanking me for having my homeowners policy with them. In the email was a passing reference to a discount for a generator. I have a generator, told the company and they reduced my policy cost by $94/year. I asked were there any other discounts available and they sent me a list of about 15 other discounts and in that list was a discount if you don't have a mortgage, I don't have a mortgage so I got another discount of $242/year, so my policy went down by $336/year !
READ YOUR INSURANCE POLICY!

[Stan Calow]

Probably pretty obvious to some, but my mileage has dropped considerably (<6,000 miles last year) which gets me a discount on auto insurance.

[Jim Becker]

The combination of being aware by the recommended reading as well as having an experienced and thoughtful agent can save a ton of money on property and casualty insurance products. My agent with AAA "found another one" a couple weeks ago that applied for our new home. Merely pre-paying before closing added an additional discount, too.

[glenn bradley]

Good advice all around. I'm suffering the after effects of having had "an experienced and thoughtful agent" for 30 years. When she sold her business and retired I was cast into the waiting shark pool of the current offerings. I still cast about a couple times a year hoping to find some decent outfit. I content myself by appreciating all the years of random phone calls of "Hi Glenn, I can save you some money by doing this or that". All the money she saved me helps offset the present. It really is the agent more than the insurance carrier that makes the difference.

[Bill Dufour]

We moved 1.4 miles to a better area. Our car insurance dropped $200 while the bigger nicer house insurance, with a pool, went up $200. I undersatnd this town is the car theft capital of the USA.
I need to watch American Graffiti again.
Bill D

[Doug Garson]

My insurance company gives discounts for things like proximity to fire hall and fire hydrants or having fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. All these reduce your fire risk. Not sure I understand why having a generator or not having a mortgage would reduce your risk and thus earn a discount.
Agree with your recommendation to read your policy, just puzzled by those discounts.

[Lee Schierer]

. Not sure I understand why having a generator or not having a mortgage would reduce your risk and thus earn a discount.
Agree with your recommendation to read your policy, just puzzled by those discounts.

A generator keeps your heat, refrigerator and freezer operating, so you don't have pipes freeze or food spoil. It also keeps sump pumps working.

[Doug Garson]

A generator keeps your heat, refrigerator and freezer operating, so you don't have pipes freeze or food spoil. It also keeps sump pumps working.
OK, assuming your insurance covers food spoilage, flooding and frozen pipes but why discount for no mortgage?

[Frederick Skelly]

OK, assuming your insurance covers food spoilage, flooding and frozen pipes but why discount for no mortgage?

Perhaps there's less overhead if they dont have a mortgage company in the middle? For example, some roll their insurance into their mortgae payments, adding a little more work. Likewise, if I file a claim, the check has sometimes had the mortgage company name on it and they also had to endorse it. Perhaps there's more interactions that consumers dont see. Also remember, Dennis got a discount but we dont know how big a discount that actually is - $20, $50, $100?

[Doug Garson]

Perhaps there's less overhead if they dont have a mortgage company in the middle? For example, some roll their insurance into their mortgae payments, adding a little more work. Likewise, if I file a claim, the check has sometimes had the mortgage company name on it and they also had to endorse it. Perhaps there's more interactions that consumers dont see. Also remember, Dennis got a discount but we dont know how big a discount that actually is - $20, $50, $100?
Good points, hadn't thought of them. I think Dennis said he got a $242 discount for not having a mortgage.

[Stephen Tashiro]

In taking out policies, I recall being asked if the home has a trampoline and or a swimming pool. I assume those items raise the cost of a policy. I've never had either. I wonder if trampoline includes portable trampolines or only permanently installed trampolines - if there are such things.

[Ed Aumiller]

My agent asked about trampolines... It seems ANY trampoline, especially the ones about 8-10 feet in diameter, even with the nets around them have a high incident rate of injuries.
So probably a lot of claims.....

On rentals, many companies will not insure if they have a trampoline.

[Frederick Skelly]

Good points, hadn't thought of them. I think Dennis said he got a $242 discount for not having a mortgage.

Yes he did, didnt he? That's real money.

[Tom M King]

What company is it that gives a discount for no mortgage?

[Alex Zeller]

My guess is insurers know that when dealing with a lender there's no short cuts. A lender is going to know exactly how to deal with an insurance company and will fight them to make sure the property is fully restored. They also will not put up with an insurer dragging their feet.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Raise your deductible. Because I was in the home repair business, I upped our deductible to two grand. Slashed premiums by almost 30%, as most claims are for less than that. Besides if it were less than two grand, I would fix it myself. Labor is usually the larger percentage of repairs. Make sure your insurance is replacement cost, especially with what building materials are now.

[Jim Koepke]

We moved here in 2008. That first winter we had a massive load of snow. Massive enough to collapse our greenhouse. It bummed me out. While cleaning up in the bedroom we use as an office, our home insurance policy was one of the things to file. Looking through it there was coverage for outbuildings. Imagine my joy to find out the greenhouse and the woodshed were covered. We were able to rebuild and make it a little better due to learning from the causes of the collapse.

jtk

[Gregg Feldstone]

I had the same agent and then his protégé with Allstate for 30 years. He was a very nice man and I felt like I could trust him. Every year for several years I asked him about getting my shop fully insured for flooding. I was told I’d have to have the building inspected by an engineer and a new elevation certificate created and then get a completely new policy just for my detached garage building which contained my shop. The cost of all of this would have been almost equal to what my house was insured for every year so I did not do it. then in 2017 hurricane Harvey hit in the shop got 7 feet of sea water in it. The Allstate adjuster who came to the house came to tears because he was also a woodworker and told me I should have complete coverage of my shop because he considered it attached. I simply had a deck built between the house and the garage which was touching both structures. It turns out that this is not exactly what the FEMA guidelines find acceptable but very close, And the adjuster has a lot of leverage as to how they report their findings.. A days work and a few boards and screws actually meet FEMA guidelines for an attached structure. I had never read the fine print of FEMA‘s flood policy. For about only $500 extra a year I could have increased the insurance on my garage to $100,000. and this is a structure that is half a mile from the Gulf of Mexico. After the Hurricane I asked the agent why I was never told I could do this and she lied to my face and told me she did. Because all of my business with this agency was done either face-to-face or over the phone I did not have any written record of the things I had been told over the years because I thought I could trust these people. so I say yes the agent matters but you still have to do all the research yourself and point everything out to them and fight for what you deserve. The agents are there to sell and get commissions so most of them don’t really care about you.

[Jim Becker]

Raise your deductible. Because I was in the home repair business, I upped our deductible to two grand. Slashed premiums by almost 30%, as most claims are for less than that. Besides if it were less than two grand, I would fix it myself. Labor is usually the larger percentage of repairs. Make sure your insurance is replacement cost, especially with what building materials are now.

I did that quite a few years ago as premiums for "this old house" were escalating substantially. I can afford to self-insure for $2500 for those unlikely things that might happen and since I tend to do my own repair work, it's even more economical this way. I set up the insurance for the new property the same way and it was almost mind-boggling how positively it affected the annual premium.

[Jack Frederick]

I view all insurance as Catastrophic loss protection only. I take the highest deductibles that I can to reduce premium costs. On auto, with the higher deductible, if I do not have a claim for three years I have made up the deductible cost. Homeowners here, in the foothills of the Sierra, due to the fire risk is a real problem getting it and then keeping it as the companies are very aggressive in cancellations.

[Bill Dufour]

Earthquake insurance, I belive the deductible starts at 20,000 and you can go higher. Basically it does not cover all the windows and plumbing breaking.
Bill D

[Kev Williams]

sometimes I wonder how the math all works out for ins. companies... case in point, I/we moved (back) in to my parents house- also my business- in 2009. In 2012, 9 years ago, we had the shingles replaced, insurance paid all but $500 of the the $7000 bill. Our premiums are roughly $450 a year. So, 9 years later we've only paid back in premiums $4050 of the $6500, just for shingles, and the premiums will still cover any further losses. Seems a bargain to me. Must be a lot of people never need to use the insurance..

[Doug Garson]

. Must be a lot of people never need to use the insurance..
You hit the nail on the proverbial head. Insurance is all based on the numbers. Insurance companies hire very smart people who analyze the risk and calculate what your rate is along with thousands of others most of whom never make a claim. Plus they insure themselves by -- you guessed it -- taking out insurance! There are very large financial organisations called reinsurance companies, and their function is to insure the insurers. So basically your claim vs your premiums is insignificant, just a drop in the ocean.

[Dave Lehnert]

We were with the same agent/company for years. Never thought about changing till all of a sudden they kept jacking up our bill every 6 month. Discounts dropping off the bill. We went to a new agent that just opened up in town. She ran our numbers and could not understand why we were paying so much. She worked after hours trying to figure out where she could have made a mistake because it was 1/3 of what we were paying. She ran it through corporate and came back even cheaper. Funny part was with our old insurance co. were were paying $100 a year membership for the privilege of a discount.
You owe it to yourself to shop around.

[Jim Becker]

Shopping around occasionally is a good practice...just be sure that apples are being compared to apples. Sometimes those "great rates" don't necessarily have the same coverages. In homeowners, be really careful that the come-ons are full replacement cost, etc., and also have the level of liability you personally require.

That said, switching frequently if you have a mortgage with escrow of insurance and taxes can be a bit of a financial pain because of having to front the money for the new policy that first year. Switching is a bit more of a dance when one bundles auto and umbrella for better rates, too.

[Ronald Blue]

Something else is umbrella policies. Cheap protection from major liability issue. It could be a car accident, someone falls off your steps, or you name it. I think I'm paying $350 per for 3 million and that starts after the base policy maxes out.

[dennis thompson]

I have a pickup which I hardly use, 9,000 miles in 3 years. So I called my insurance company and got a $27, (not much but better in my wallet than the insurance company,) reduction in my car insurance.
Keep on reading those insurance policies.

[Wade Lippman]

I found two things (generator and low temp monitor) that I should have been getting discounts for the past 9 years. Maybe I have to find a new insurance agent.

A question in case anyone knows. My zip code is in two counties. My insurance policy has me in the wrong county. There isn't much difference between the two. Does it matter? I am pretty sure I mentioned it to them a few years ago; I guess they didn't bother to fix it.

[Andrew Joiner]

I have a former insurance adjuster friend named Tom. He knows the tricks of the insurance trade. He said you really have to read ALL the fine print in your policy. I told him if I have questions about my policy I email the agent to have proof. He said thats even better, after all who can interpret a whole multi page policy?

Tom said his most troubling example happened in my county. A guy with a 1.3 million $ house had a minor fire with 20K in damage and filed a claim. He just got a new policy and asked his long time agent is there any changes? No was the answer and the agent retired.

Thinking he had the $1,000 deductible he'd had for years. As paper work advanced the homeowner saw that his deductible was $13,000! He called and his new agent said " we switched you to a 1% deductible".
The homeowner consulted with my adjuster friend. The insurance company is a large well known name. They claimed the policy showed the change to "percent deductible" as the home increased in value to over 1 million over the years. The homeowner said his long time agent never told him.

[Dave Zellers]

We just saved $650 a year by increasing our deductible to $2500.

Thank You Dennis!

[Dave Lehnert]

An agent we had years ago said people call all day long saying they want the cheapest policy they can get. Have a loss and cant understand why it is not covered.

[Jim Becker]

An agent we had years ago said people call all day long saying they want the cheapest policy they can get. Have a loss and cant understand why it is not covered.

Sadly, this isn't uncommon and is just another effect of folks not considering value instead of just cost when making purchase decisions. With insurance, this isn't helped by some company's marketing of "only buy what you need". I don't have an issue with the concept of "buy only what you need"...but where it falls flat with insurance is that too high a percentage of people don't actually understand insurance and what all the various pieces are for. Then they have a loss, file a claim and find out that because of the way they purchased their insurance without actually understanding what it covered, they are facing the loss without help from the insurance they bought. When I was in the business for a couple of years long ago (my dad was a very successful and well respected agent for 30+years) it was actually difficult at that point to get folks to take higher limits on the 'uninsured/underinsured motorist" coverage on their auto policies. They were taking high limits to protect others but not protecting themselves in the same way for only a few dollars of premium difference. That's just one little example. I can only imagine what folks are skipping when they shoot for lowest cost rather than best value...

[Doug Garson]

Another suggestion, be careful what questions you ask. A few years ago a friend with a small business asked for a favor. He wanted me to store a few sample for him (he lives in a different, smaller town) and deliver them to a courier when he needed them shipped somewhere. Just to be safe, I asked my car insurance company if I was covered. They responded that they don't cover "delivery vehicles" even if I was only doing it as an unpaid favor. I said OK. I won't do it but they put a note on my file that I had asked the question. Never had a claim but every time I "delivered something" like helping out at a foodbank and delivered to a client or picked up groceries from a store and delivered to the foodbank I wondered what would happen if I had an accident. I've since changed companies, haven't asked the new company the question. I wouldn't use my vehicle for paid deliveries (like a commercial vehicle)without clearing it with them but don't consider what I have been doing as making my vehicle a "delivery vehicle". Anyone with insurance experience have an opinion on this?

[Andrew Joiner]

Just to be safe, I asked my car insurance company if I was covered. They responded that they don't cover "delivery vehicles" even if I was only doing it as an unpaid favor. I said OK. I won't do it but they put a note on my file that I had asked the question. Never had a claim but every time I "delivered something" like helping out at a foodbank and delivered to a client or picked up groceries from a store and delivered to the foodbank I wondered what would happen if I had an accident.
Doug, How did you see the note on your file?

It's amazing how much power insurance companys have and how they track us. They catagorize us in many ways. A low credit-based insurance score can affect your car insurance rates more than a DUI, in some cases.
Some use a tactic called "price optimization" to charge loyal customers a higher premium.

[Doug Garson]

Doug, How did you see the note on your file?

It's amazing how much power insurance companys have and how they track us. They catagorize us in many ways. A low credit-based insurance score can affect your car insurance rates more than a DUI, in some cases.
Some use a tactic called "price optimization" to charge loyal customers a higher premium.
I never actually saw the note on my file, I was just told they had put it there. Made me think twice about using my car to deliver but didn't stop me. Just made me wonder what would happen if I had a claim, how would they know if I was delivering something? Now that I think about it, I should have asked them where in my policy does it say I can't use the vehicle for deliveries.

[Wade Lippman]

My insurance agent finally got back to me. I am entitled to discounts for my generator and my low temperature monitor. But they only allow 20% discount and I already had 16%; so I get a $40 refund for this year. Better than a sharp stick in the eye.