Homeowner Deductibles

[shawnmwalker]

a good read: [EXTERNAL LINK] - Landlords are on edge over the housing market’s insurance shock—a whopping 80% say they’re anxious, survey reveals

 

[LostDollar]

oh here we go with extremist views that giving consumers options will make consumers make bad decisions & end up living in a van down by the river. So, the only answer is to protect consumers from themselves not maintaining a property causing it to devalue, but make insurance companies pay to turn their older depreciating stuff into brand new shiny stuff.

I had a roof replaced by an insurance company.

My local insurance agency was bought and sold several times. After one of the sales my coverage went to Kemper.

I paid the premium they asked of me every year.

Out of -- what in today's business world -- is a misplaced sense of customer loyalty, I resisted at least 3 attempts by a new agent in that agency to move me to what she said would be cheaper coverage. Two years later, I was still fighting my agent each year to keep that company's coverage -- company finally closed down in Kansas and I had to get coverage from a different carrier.

 

[LostDollar]

Allen, it wasn't my house but one of my insureds. He is 83 years old. No one 83 years old is going to get a loan and if he did how would he make the payments at his age. With inflation at the rate it is today people especially retirees are having a hard time making ends meet. Insurance companies need to either get in the insurance business or admit they can't make it and get out of the business.

Exactly.
Thank you for making that post.

From posts I see on the next door app I think it is safe to say "people". Just two days ago I was talking with a random stranger in the grocery store. We were commenting on hamburger being $6.00 a pound. People, not just retired, have to pay that. I no longer remember the numbers, but I saw something in the last few months that showed some obscene percent increase in usage of her church's food bank.

I highly value some of the comments and input Allen and Al3x have given me on assorted issues, but I don't feel like they are living in the same world I live in with their comments on this one.

Just a very simple issue. I have a kitchen ceiling light approximately 10' up. If my wife was my age and had the same balance issues I do, we would have to pay someone an hourly rate to travel to our house with their ladder and a light bulb to change it. (This will make 0 sense to many readers, but based on your post, I expect you will know exactly what I am saying.)

 

[shawnmwalker]

Well, I got lost somewhere in all this back and forth! (Pic of me trying to follow, but getting lost.)

 

[LostDollar]

Well, I got lost somewhere in all this back and forth! (Pic of me trying to follow, but getting lost.)View attachment 13417

I had a roof replaced by an insurance company.

My local insurance agency was bought and sold several times. After one of the sales my coverage went to Kemper.

I paid the premium they asked of me every year.

Out of -- what in today's business world -- is a misplaced sense of customer loyalty, I resisted at least 3 attempts by a new agent in that agency to move me to what she said would be cheaper coverage. Two years later, I was still fighting my agent each year to keep that company's coverage -- company finally closed down in Kansas and I had to get coverage from a different carrier.

two points I was trying to make,

a) If the insurance company is loosing money on my homeowner's coverage it is not my fault. I have paid the premiums asked - every year I have owned a home. The only time I have ever changed a carrier from the carrier an agency placed me on first, was when Kemper left Kansas and I switched to Safeco. (I had zero control over an agency selling out to another agency and the new agency replacing my carrier at that time.)

b) Somewhere in all this, agents bear some fault too because they (in my experience) AGGRESSIVELY push their clients to change to "lower" or "lowest" priced carriers rather than maintaining an existing business relationship with carriers that may have their products more reasonably priced for the financial risks they are assuming for the insured.

 

[LostDollar]

oh here we go with extremist views

My extremist view is I don't like Al3x's ACV plan but I am still going to go to his Insurance Day rally for the free popcorn and punch.

 

[Policy Monkey]

Somewhere in all this, agents bear some fault too because they (in my experience) AGGRESSIVELY push their clients to change to "lower" or "lowest" priced carriers rather than maintaining an existing business relationship with carriers that may have their products more reasonably priced for the financial risks they are assuming for the insured.

It sounds like the agent was trying to get ahead of the increase by offering a lower quote before the client (you) started shopping around. The aggressive part is strange. Maybe the agent was hungry for a rewrite commission (small as that may be), or perhaps they knew Kemper had one foot out the door, but weren't at liberty to say.

 

[Policy Monkey]

Out of -- what in today's business world -- is a misplaced sense of customer loyalty,

That statement is sad but true. Loyalty is a thing of the past in insurance. You could be with a carrier for 20 years with no claims, but that won't save you from the rate increases, coverage decreases, non-renewals, capacity issues, etc. And every carriers claim handling process should be identical whether you have been with them for 20 years or 20 days.

 

[ehall2]

LostDollar,
Today as an agent, I have to requote renewals and let the insured know if there is a better rate with another company. I don't like doing this but the public has forced me to do so. If I don't give them the lowest rate they will go somewhere else. Generally speaking, people today don't care about coverage, its all about the lowest rate. Most people don't even know what coverage they have.

 

[LostDollar]

LostDollar,
Today as an agent, I have to requote renewals and let the insured know if there is a better rate with another company. I don't like doing this but the public has forced me to do so. If I don't give them the lowest rate they will go somewhere else. Generally speaking, people today don't care about coverage, its all about the lowest rate. Most people don't even know what coverage they have.

I don't know the exact years and the exact number of times, but for the concept:

Let's say I have been covered through your agency by Kemper for several years. I have paid my premiums. I have never asked for any rate shopping. My auto insurance is with State Farm.

You come to me in 2010 and say I can get you a better rate with another carrier. Me nope, go away.

You come to me in 2011 and say I can get you a better rate with another carrier. Me, nope, go away.

You come to me in 2012 and say I can get you a better rate with another carrier. Me, nope go away.
Then I have the final 19-20 year roof hailstorm. Kemper pays for the roof.
Completely to my total surprise and amazement, the adjuster also provides some money for fence repairs. I didn't even know that could be done.

Then you come to me in 2013, twice and say I can get you a lower rate.
Me, nope, go away. (And what I am thinking is "F+++ Off and go away).

One or two years after that, Kemper leaves the Kansas Market and I have to discuss alternate house coverage and the result is SafeCo.

Also, you come to me in 2009 and say "give me your auto business and I can get you a lower combined rate". I say no, and explain exactly why State Farm is never, ever going to get my house business and why my house carrier is never going to get my car business.

you come to me in 2010 and say give me your car business and I can get you a lower combined rate. Me. Nope go away (and thinking I explained about that last year dumbhead).

you come to me in 2011 and you are still drooling and salivating about my car business. So, I finally give you info to hear a quote. What do I hear: Crickets, Crickets, Crickets, Crickets -- I'm hanging out on the edge of a black hole. I really could care less about the quote so I don't bother asking you about it.

In 2012 when you a trying to get me to change home carriers, I mention that the car quote never showed up and you have some non-committal answer and keep trying to push me into changing home carriers.

And all that is only what happened before I was fired from my last job and saving money became very important and I had to look at the house carrier/agent to add auto coverage to. That is another saga, and after -- 2-3 years later when safeco csr would not talk to me because I didn't know my birthday -- it is my personal opinion that the agent lied about my age to Safeco in order to present me with more favorable auto rates.

My SafeCo rates increase every year, so I have no way of knowing whether there was a one-time age correction rate bump as well as normal changes in my annual rate increases.

I think you as agent have gone far beyond normal ethical requirements and have become an annoying pest, probably for commission reasons. You really don't deserve my business, but for reasons I can't discuss here, I am not in a position to change agencies.

That is the conceptual experiential background to my post. The years I mentioned will not be correct. And YOU are not the you, the agent.