Comparing insurance prices, home and auto, and they are all over the place!

[rickandcindy23]

What companies do you find most reasonable? Safeco wants to do $2,500 deductible on our house, which is crazy, but the rate is hundreds less than American Family, our current company. Trying to compare apples to apples, and it's kind of tough because all of the companies I have talked to are asking completely different questions. Do you have a fireplace, "Yes, gas, two of them." Other companies are not asking that question at all. SQFT seems to matter the most.

I have never thought that the land and foundation replacement should be a part of any homeowners' quote because those two things wouldn't be lost, even in a total devastation of the home.

 

[kwelty]

What companies do you find most reasonable? Safeco wants to do $2,500 deductible on our house, which is crazy, but the rate is hundreds less than American Family, our current company. Trying to compare apples to apples, and it's kind of tough because all of the companies I have talked to are asking completely different questions. Do you have a fireplace, "Yes, gas, two of them." Other companies are not asking that question at all. SQFT seems to matter the most.

I have never thought that the land and foundation replacement should be a part of any homeowners' quote because those two things wouldn't be lost, even in a total devastation of the home.

I always look to Clark Howard for advice on these kind of financial decisions and he recommends Amica and USAA. I've had USAA for our home and auto for over 40 years and they have been excellent. Not only are their premiums among the lowest but since they are a nonprofit, each year we get a refund of part of our premiums that are not needed. You have to have a military connection to qualify but for Amica, you don't.

Best and Worst Homeowners Insurance Companies

Will your insurer be there for you when the chips are down? Read on for the best home insurance companies and the ones to avoid.

clark.com

Clark’s Top Picks for Home Insurance
Just as with his top picks for car insurance, money expert Clark Howard recommends two companies in particular for home insurance — Amica Mutual and USAA.
Clark’s Top Picks for Home Insurance

• Consumer Reports: Top 10 Best Homeowners Insurance
• Consumer Reports: 4 Lowest-Rated Home Insurance Companies
• J.D. Power: Top 10 Best Homeowners Insurance
• J.D. Power: 5 Lowest-Rated Home Insurance Companies
• Clark’s Advice for Getting the Best Homeowners Insurance Policy

Clark’s Top Picks for Home Insurance
Just as with his top picks for car insurance, money expert Clark Howard recommends two companies in particular for home insurance — Amica Mutual and USAA.

 

[Panina]

What companies do you find most reasonable? Safeco wants to do $2,500 deductible on our house, which is crazy, but the rate is hundreds less than American Family, our current company. Trying to compare apples to apples, and it's kind of tough because all of the companies I have talked to are asking completely different questions. Do you have a fireplace, "Yes, gas, two of them." Other companies are not asking that question at all. SQFT seems to matter the most.

I have never thought that the land and foundation replacement should be a part of any homeowners' quote because those two things wouldn't be lost, even in a total devastation of the home.

I was with Liberty for years. Their rates kept going up. I tried to negotiate with them before I went to a new insurance. They would not budge. They kept saying I had the biggest discount as a retiree from the Board of Realtors.

I ended up going with Travelers when I moved, 3 cars, homeowners, flood, additional liability and off site garage too which wasn’t on my Liberty policies.

I actually got more coverage then I had with Liberty and I am paying thousands, yes thousands less. I did go from a $500 deductible to $1000.

I had to put a claim in for my car this year as it was hit while not moving in Key West. They gave me a check based on a photo estimate. I took it to get fixed, the bill was 3x the estimate, they paid it. They also got my deductible from the drivers insurance that caused the damage so my cost was zero. I never had to get involved.

 

[easyrider]

My insurance agent can't compete with Flo at Progressive for home, auto, motorcycles and boat insurance. Progressive doesn't have any rental or business policies so my insurance agent recommends Safeco , policies we have had for decades.

We have had only a few claims for towing in the last decade. Progressive has not increased our rates for this. In fact, Progressive just gave us a discount of a whopping $16.00 on our auto policy and another $12.00 on the motorcycles, whoop whoop.

Bill

 

[HitchHiker71]

I have bounced back and forth between 21st Century, Progressive and GEICO over the last ten years based upon whoever is least expensive for both home and auto. PC insurance is commodity these days and therefore I shop around every year to ensure we have the lowest rates. I have found that the rates change dependent upon claims data annually so it’s best to check annually. Sometimes a particular company also runs regional or state based incentive programs to write more business in your state.

Encompass has some of the lowest package rates I’ve seen if you combine home and auto together. They also have a cash payout option on homeowner policies so if you experience a total loss you can take the cash payout and simply walk away and start somewhere else fresh. Not many other homeowner policies give this option from what I’ve found. Encompass may only be accessible through a broker dependent upon your state.


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[Cornell]

All I know is that I won't use Liberty b/c I hate their commercials & Jingle How's that for making a financially sound choice?

 

[mjm1]

We have used Farmers and Liberty Mutual in the past, but switched to Esurance, an online subsidiary of Allstate. This is for both auto and home insurance. They also farm out umbrella policies to another company.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[clifffaith]

For us, USAA was higher than everyone else for home insurance when we checked last fall. Probably the reason we weren't using them already even though they've had our auto for over 50 years. Cliff happened to walk into the room after I'd been answering questions for the USAA guy for over 15 minutes and I said "talk to this guy or I'm hanging up on him". The number of questions was unbelievable -- almost like they didn't want to write a policy in kindle dry California.

 

[normab]

When we lived in Nj, we had Amica for 30 + years for homeowners but they did not offer us car insurance, so we went with NJ manufacturers, a very good company. Then we moved to FLORIDA, the lawsuit state, I.E., the lawyers want you to call them before your insurance company if you have an accident. (This is of course my opinion, based on all the lawyer commercials.)

Here, Amica offered us both insurance but the price went up about 50% to the litigious nature of the state. So we have changed insurances twice in 5 years. What I found was that you need to understand you policy and decide what you need so you can compare apples to apples. Anyone can give you insurance for less but is your coverage enough?

I took my existing policy to a couple of agents and let them give me quotes for the same coverage. I also tried to negotiate a better rate from my existing company.

Interestingly, I switched to AAA who gives you rates from several insurers. So I went with one of them, but the rates jumped quickly, up 50% after 2 years. I went then to an independent local agent, who got me the SAME policy and coverage with the SAME company and saved me 30%.

We are eligible for USAA also, but for us they were too pricey in Florida in our county. They are a good company and so is Amica but, of course, premiums depend on your location...

 

[tompalm]

I had USAA for over 30 years and one day they told me they couldn’t insure me because I wasn’t on active duty and that I live to close to the ocean. They only provide hurricane and home owner’s insurance to active duty folks in Hawaii. We are three blocks away and 1000’ above sea level, so no flood problems and no different than anyone else in Hawaii. They were really looking for excuses to cancel people that might have issues with a hurricane. I was paying over $5000 per year for auto and home insurance and moved everything to State Farm and save $1500 per year for the same coverage. My son had auto insurance and paying $2000 per year with no accidents or moving violation tickets. He moved to Geico and pays $1200 per year. USAA is way over rated and not the cheapest in Hawaii.

 

[Brett]

I use Geico for auto, Progressive for home
it's always beneficial to compare rates every couple of years

 

[WinniWoman]

You have to shop insurance every 5 years. Just the way it is.

Right now we have Progressive, but come Fall when our Umbrella policy comes up it will not renew because Progressive does not issue Umbrella policies in NH where we recently moved.

Since most umbrella policies are tied to auto insurance we are going to have to either find a stand alone umbrella policy or switch from Progressive auto to another auto insurance company.

 

[Beachclubmum]

We have USAA and had our first claim ever after the tornado tore down our street in January. My roof was 20 years old and getting close to being replaced anyway (as I told them when I called) but the tornado did seem to do some damage. They had an adjuster out a day later who said definitely yes on the tornado damage. We also had some leaking in the rain that followed that left a little bit of shadowing on one ceiling. Anyway, USAA approved it all: full roof replacement plus $1500 for drywall repair and painting. The roof ended up being around 15k and they had half of that in our bank account the same day the claim was approved and paid the other half when the work was complete.

My neighbor‘s roof was far more damaged (due to tree falling into their house) and their insurance
only approved fixing the the part of the roof where the damage was. I was very glad we had USAA!

 

[MULTIZ321]

You have to shop insurance every 5 years. Just the way it is.

Right now we have Progressive, but come Fall when our Umbrella policy comes up it will not renew because Progressive does not issue Umbrella policies in NH where we recently moved.

Since most umbrella policies are tied to auto insurance we are going to have to either find a stand alone umbrella policy or switch from Progressive auto to another auto insurance company.

Hi Marry Ann,

Try Geico.We were able to switch our auto policy to them with the inclusion of an Umbrella Policy for much less than we were paying for our previous stand-alone Auto Policy.

Richard