- Joined
- Jul 16, 2010
- Messages
- 10,762
- Reaction score
- 7,057
- Points
- 749
- Location
- The Weirs, New Hampshire
- Resorts Owned
- Innseason Pollard Brook
So, in my ongoing quest to try to cut expenses, I am now tackling insurance- auto and umbrella- since I haven't had much luck with cutting anything else and have not been able to sell one of our cars.
Background: In 2011, Allstate cancelled our homeowners policy that we had with them since 1977 (both our homes) because they decided suddenly they did not like the location of our main fire dept. in terms of distance from our home (about 10 miles).(Mind you, my neighbor about 2 miles up the road continues to have her Allstate homeowners policy and the secondary fire dept is 2 miles away. 2 more fire depts. are about 6 miles away). Teh Allstate agent in town even closed up shop.
Anyway, the whole thing made me crazy and we tried to fight it but didn't win and the long and short of it was I went on line and got insurance from Progressive no problem and have that policy to this day. But- my auto and umbrella policies are still with Allstate.
I tried shopping the whole bundle a few years ago with companies like State Farm and Liberty Mutual, etc. and all the quotes were very high, so I called Allstate and they were able to rewrite our policy through a different division and that brought our rates down for a few years. But now they said they cannot do that again at this time since it was done not that long ago.
Fast forward to the past couple of days I am getting quotes and Progressive turns out to be the least expensive for both auto and umbrella by almost $500 per year. The coverage is very similar so I am comparing apples to apples for the most part.
I call my Allstate agent and he has a new person there handling things and she proceeds to tell me she can do a homeowners policy for $20 less than Progressives' and plus I would get a little over a $100 off my policies because of the bundling. This I do not get. I tell her Allstate dropped us because of the fire dept. and she says- well that was long ago. Wait- really? The fire dept, is still in the same place. She also says if we go ahead with it they would send an inspector to our home to check things out. Uh- Progressive didn't do that. The whole thing sounds weird to me. Anyway, I am shopping auto and umbrella- not homeowners! Not after what they did to us- dropping us like that- no claims- nothing! How could I even trust Allstate with a homeowners policy? What if we went along with it and then they dropped us again?
She tells me by NYS law she cannot do anything about the Umbrella Policy rate and she also tells me I have every imaginable discount on my auto policies except that thing they put in your car to monitor your driving habits. I say no thanks to that one!
Last resort now she says she is running a credit check through, which will take up to 10 days, to see if we can get a better rate. She claims this is a different type of a credit check than the ones mortgage companies use, for example. Ummm.. we have pretty great credit and that has always been the case and I am not seeing how this would save us $500 per year.
What a pain in the butt! I am not sure whether to wait to see what she comes up with or just go with Progressive and call it a day. Of course, I had just renewed our auto policy with Allstate this month, but I do not want to wait until April to make a change. The Umbrella policy renews in February and that is "attached" to the car insurance.
My husband ironically works for Allstate (not an agent, but in claims) and he says Progressive if famous for stalling claims- directing their insureds to the other drivers' insurance company first when in an accident, only to have their insured come back to them after the other drivers company directs them back, delaying the claims processing.
Anyone have Progressive for their auto insurance? We used to have them for auto many years ago and I do not recall any problems, but I am not sure if we ever had any claims with them.
Not fun this stuff. What a racket. I really hate the insurance business. Plus, when you think about it eventually Progressive will raise their rates and we will be back up again. And- we hope to move in 2 years or so to another state and that will require starting all over again! Ugh!
Background: In 2011, Allstate cancelled our homeowners policy that we had with them since 1977 (both our homes) because they decided suddenly they did not like the location of our main fire dept. in terms of distance from our home (about 10 miles).(Mind you, my neighbor about 2 miles up the road continues to have her Allstate homeowners policy and the secondary fire dept is 2 miles away. 2 more fire depts. are about 6 miles away). Teh Allstate agent in town even closed up shop.
Anyway, the whole thing made me crazy and we tried to fight it but didn't win and the long and short of it was I went on line and got insurance from Progressive no problem and have that policy to this day. But- my auto and umbrella policies are still with Allstate.
I tried shopping the whole bundle a few years ago with companies like State Farm and Liberty Mutual, etc. and all the quotes were very high, so I called Allstate and they were able to rewrite our policy through a different division and that brought our rates down for a few years. But now they said they cannot do that again at this time since it was done not that long ago.
Fast forward to the past couple of days I am getting quotes and Progressive turns out to be the least expensive for both auto and umbrella by almost $500 per year. The coverage is very similar so I am comparing apples to apples for the most part.
I call my Allstate agent and he has a new person there handling things and she proceeds to tell me she can do a homeowners policy for $20 less than Progressives' and plus I would get a little over a $100 off my policies because of the bundling. This I do not get. I tell her Allstate dropped us because of the fire dept. and she says- well that was long ago. Wait- really? The fire dept, is still in the same place. She also says if we go ahead with it they would send an inspector to our home to check things out. Uh- Progressive didn't do that. The whole thing sounds weird to me. Anyway, I am shopping auto and umbrella- not homeowners! Not after what they did to us- dropping us like that- no claims- nothing! How could I even trust Allstate with a homeowners policy? What if we went along with it and then they dropped us again?
She tells me by NYS law she cannot do anything about the Umbrella Policy rate and she also tells me I have every imaginable discount on my auto policies except that thing they put in your car to monitor your driving habits. I say no thanks to that one!
Last resort now she says she is running a credit check through, which will take up to 10 days, to see if we can get a better rate. She claims this is a different type of a credit check than the ones mortgage companies use, for example. Ummm.. we have pretty great credit and that has always been the case and I am not seeing how this would save us $500 per year.
What a pain in the butt! I am not sure whether to wait to see what she comes up with or just go with Progressive and call it a day. Of course, I had just renewed our auto policy with Allstate this month, but I do not want to wait until April to make a change. The Umbrella policy renews in February and that is "attached" to the car insurance.
My husband ironically works for Allstate (not an agent, but in claims) and he says Progressive if famous for stalling claims- directing their insureds to the other drivers' insurance company first when in an accident, only to have their insured come back to them after the other drivers company directs them back, delaying the claims processing.
Anyone have Progressive for their auto insurance? We used to have them for auto many years ago and I do not recall any problems, but I am not sure if we ever had any claims with them.
Not fun this stuff. What a racket. I really hate the insurance business. Plus, when you think about it eventually Progressive will raise their rates and we will be back up again. And- we hope to move in 2 years or so to another state and that will require starting all over again! Ugh!