Homeowners insurance

[Fredkrueger100]

I currently have Safeco home and auto insurance. My premium has went up the last two years which resulted in a shortfall in my escrow account. Needless to say I ain’t happy about it. I was shopping around and the only place I could find that was as cheap was farmers. Actually farmers was about $1,000 cheaper per year on my home and about $300 cheaper for auto. The agent that called me is a guy from Midwest City and he asked me the amounts I wanted and then I asked about firearms. He said I would have to take out a floater policy to cover guns. They will only pay up to $3,000. So I took out a $15,000 floater policy as well. The amounts I chose for my home were actually quite a bit higher than what I have with Safeco. It is hard for me to believe it could be that much cheaper with that kind of coverage. I was going to commit to switching when I went over the paperwork and noticed a couple of discounts that I know they are gonna take away once I sign the paperwork. Then the premium will go up. I just don’t have a very good feeling about it. Once the agent thought I was getting it I haven’t heard from him. That tells me all I need to know about him. All he cared about was getting a sale. My current policy doesn’t have a cap on firearms. They will pay up to whatever my personal property is. I don’t know if any other company that does that. Does anyone have farmers and if so how do you like them? Also, if anyone has Safeco how do you like them? I have only been with them a short time.

 

[Fredkrueger100]

I have mine with State Farm, Farmers screwed me over. Most people I send her way have ended up switching for whatever reason. I have life insurance their as well

I won’t ever go back to State Farm. My dad had them for 30+ years and I was on his policy and I got in a wreck and it destroyed my engine, tranny and many other things and my body guy said it was totaled. State Farm made them fix it and the car was a piece of crap after that. Then they dropped me from my dads policy. So my dad switched. I know some people like them but we didn’t have a good experience. Now they try and get me to come back and their quotes are always ridiculously high.

 

[ronny]

Ah, the joys of home ownership.

 

[SlugSlinger]

I had Farmers for about 2 weeks before canceling the multiple policies. The agent / agent’s office wouldn’t return my emails or phone calls. I was trying to add a boat to my policy. That agent’s office was a joke and about the most unprofessional business I have ever dealt with. I ended up having to call the corporate office to cancel my policies. I ended up going with Amica.


Here’s an opinion on home insurance companies.
https://clark.com/insurance/best-and-worst-home-insurers/

Best and worst home insurance companies
Theo ThimouDecember 12th, 2018 11:00 am
Looking for the best homeowners insurance? The top home insurance companies aren’t always those with the cheapest premiums!

RELATED: Best and worst auto insurance companies

When it comes to sorting out the best from the worst homeowners insurance companies, price isn’t the be all, end all.

You’ve also got to consider a company’s reputation with both customer complaints and customer satisfaction after you make a claim on your property.

If you’re looking for the top home insurance companies, here’s who to check out and who to avoid…

Best and worst home insurers: Table of contents
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.

But surprisingly, the reason he loves them doesn’t have to do with their cost!

“Amica and USAA may not have the best premiums,” Clark says. “But remember my rule, homeowners insurance is only for use in a catastrophic situation — so it’s crucial to have the best coverage in case something does happen to your home.”

1. USAA

USAA scored the highest out of more than two dozen insurers on the J.D. Power 2018 U.S. Home Insurance Study and clinched the number two spot on a similar list from Consumer Reports.

With USAA, the insurance coverage and other financial services it offers are only available to those in the military or who are affiliated with the military through direct family ties.

So that may eliminate USAA from consideration for a lot of people.

2. Amica Mutual

Amica Mutual has no restrictions on who can become a customer. But because Amica Mutual is a mutual company, it tends to be very expensive the first year you join.

That’s because there are no shareholders like there are with other public companies. When you sign up for Amica Mutual homeowners insurance, you become a part owner of the company.

So your first year of membership is higher because you’re “buying into” the mutual company.

But the wealth the company generates flows back to owners in the form of an annual dividend, which is typically between 5% and 20% of the premium you paid that goes back in your pocket!

Consumer Reports: Top 10 best homeowners insurance companies
Consumer Reports is a trusted publication that Clark watches closely for its rankings of the top home insurance companies.

Instead of focusing on price alone, the magazine asked more than 7,000 of its readers to rank their insurers on six metrics:

• Ease of reaching an agent to handle the claim
• Agent courtesy
• Promptness of response and attentiveness in handling the claim
• Simplicity of the claims process (number of steps, amount of work etc.)
• Damage amount: Satisfaction with company’s estimate of dollar amount of damages
• Timely payment: Satisfaction with timely payment by insurer

Here are the winners and losers, according to the magazine:

(#1 is best)

1. Amica Insurance
2. USAA Property & Casualty
3. Erie Insurance Group
4. MetLife
5. Auto-Owners Insurance Group of Companies
6. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
7. The Hartford Financial Services Group
8. Liberty Mutual
9. Travelers
10. Farmers Insurance

Consumer Reports: 5 lowest-rated home insurers
Nobody wants to get stuck with a company that does a poor job with customer satisfaction and with handling customer complaints!

Now that you’ve seen who the readers of Consumer Reports say are the best, here’s who they report are the worst homeowners insurance companies:

(#1 is worst)

5. State Farm
4. Allstate
3. American Family
2. State Auto Insurance Companies
1. Auto Club Group

J.D. Power: Top 10 best homeowners insurance companies
Another study Clark watches closely to determine the best and worst homeowners insurance companies is J.D. Power’s annual home insurance tally.

Recently, J.D. Power surveyed nearly 45,000 customers across the country — more than six times as many as Consumer Reports did — to determine the rankings for its 2018 U.S. Home Insurance Study.

They found customer satisfaction with the best home insurers is at an all-time high, led by a couple of old familiar names like USAA and Amica Mutual.

J.D. Power scores home insurance companies on a 1,000-point scale. Here’s who came out on top:

(#1 is best)

Home insurance company Customer satisfaction index rating
1. USAA 891
2. Amica Mutual 861
3. Auto Club of Southern California Insurance Group 840
4. The Cincinnati Insurance Company 835
5. Erie Insurance Group 828
6. State Farm 825
7. MAPFRE North America Group 823
8. Allstate 822
9. Auto-Owners Insurance 822
10. Farmer’s Insurance 819
J.D. Power: 5 lowest-rated home insurers
OK, so you’ve seen the insurers that J.D. Power says offer the best homeowners insurance policies. Now here’s who they report are the worst homeowners insurance companies:

(#1 is worst)

5. Travelers
4. National General
3. The Hanover
2. Homesite
1. UPC Insurance

Clark’s advice when shopping for a new home insurance policy
The cost of home insurance varies widely by state and region. But if you feel like you’re not getting the coverage you want for the money, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when shopping for a new homeowners insurance policy…

High deductible policies offer dual benefits
Take the highest deductible that you can handle and that your mortgage holder will allow you to have. Doing that will both lower your premium and discourage you from unnecessarily making small claims.

That last part is very important, according to Clark.

“You should think of homeowners insurance as ‘use it and lose it’ kind of proposition,” the consumer champ says. “It’s not for use except in the case of a catastrophe.”

If you use your policy frivolously, other insurers may not want to do business with you when you need to shop around and switch insurers in the future.

Make sure your home is properly valued for rebuild
The biggest mistake is not having enough coverage in the event you do face a total loss. You want to be sure that if your home has to be rebuilt, you’ll have enough coverage for it.

Talk with your agent or insurance company to see if you’re adequately insured. If your home isn’t properly valued in the event of a catastrophic loss, the shortfall between what it costs to rebuild and what your insurer is willing to pay will have to come out of your pocket.

Consider an umbrella policy if you’re a high net-worth individual
Just as with Clark’s advice on auto insurance, if you have a lot of assets to protect, you need to have a lot of liability coverage for your home.

That could include getting an umbrella policy that sits on top of your existing home and auto policies and covers you for a catastrophic claim.

Umbrella insurance policies are sold in multiples of a million dollars. These policies pose such a low risk to insurers that they only cost a couple hundred for the first million dollars of umbrella coverage. Then the more multiples of coverage you add on, the lower the price drops.

Be careful of homeowners policy exclusions
There are about a dozen different oddball exclusions that some home insurers are now doing. These things are not covered by most home insurance policies:

• Mold
• Sewer backup
• Sinkholes
• Flooding
• Construction work damage
• Jewelry/fine art
• Termite infestation
• Earthquakes
• Stolen/destroyed cash
• Trampoline accidents
• Dog attacks
• Pool accidents

As a general rule, you can always get an additional rider on your policy to cover many of the scenarios above.

Unless, of course, you’re talking about flooding. In that case, it’s not a rider you need; the federal government makes flood insurance coverage availablethrough the National Flood Insurance Program.

Final thought
There’s a fine line between the best and worst homeowners insurance companies — and it isn’t always cost.

Making a decision about the best home insurance company includes weighing considerations about customer satisfaction and the number of complaints the reviews suggest they have.

Especially important is a company’s reputation for making its customers whole again after a catastrophic loss — which is the whole point of insurance to begin with!

“If you’re with a poorly ranked insurer, there’s no question: Shop the market to find a lower price and fire them! That’s a win-win. You can get higher quality at a lower price,” Clark says. “On the other hand, if you’re with the two elites of the insurance industry — Amica and USAA — I say you should stay with them even if it’s more costly.”

 

[stick4]

I don't see AAA on any of those lists. We switched to them and beat the premium prices of all the big guys I queried.

 

[Fredkrueger100]

I don't see AAA on any of those lists. We switched to them and beat the premium prices of all the big guys I queried.

I got a quote from them and they told me they won’t insure me because I own two pit bulls. That was one of the questions on the quote was what kind of dog I have. I won’t ever do business with them because of how ridiculous that is.

 

[Fredkrueger100]

You guys won’t believe what has happened. When I got the quote from farmers it looked great and was gonna save me a lot of money or so i thought. The agent wanted me to give them my bank account number and my mortgage company and loan number so they could get the ball rolling on the policy. So I gave them the info. I then received an email about the policy and it had documents that I had to sign and I also had to provide a couple of documents to farmers. Upon reading the proposed coverage it was slightly different than the quote so I said I ain’t signing anything and made the decision to stick with Safeco. I didn’t call the agent back and tell them because I didn’t want to deal with being harassed about not wanting it. A week went by and I heard nothing from the agent. Then my wife got a call from them. They asked for her to give them a call. Then about 3 days later I received a call and the message was the same. Then another few days went by and I received one more call with a message to call them back. I never responded. Then yesterday I got a text message saying they were fixing to process a payment of $158.62 for my autos. I said “I do NOT give you authorization to do that”. And that I didn’t want the policy. Then the agent said “so do you want me to push the date back?” I said, “ No. I don’t want the home or auto policies and that I was sticking with my current company”. Then the agent said to me that they had already sent the policy to my mortgage company and that the premium had been paid from my escrow account!! Not once was I contacted and told they had done this. No text, no email, no documents in the mail, and no voicemail. Which proves they didn’t want me knowing until it was too late to do anything about it. I was so mad I couldn’t even think. So I called my mortgage company and they said they were sorry and that kind of stuff happens all the time. Then I called my Safeco agent and he said they broke the law by doing that because I never signed and purchased the insurance. When I contacted the agent by phone and told them they better refund my money ASAP she tried to make excuses about refunding the money. Then she said I would have to fill out a form to cancel the policy. I said I never even bought the dang policy! They never once contacted me to tell me what they had done. They were purposely not letting me know. So I contacted farmers corporate and the lady contacted her supervisor and the agency and they determined that since I gave them my bank number and the mortgage number that that was more than enough to give them permission to move forward. So apparently things can be done without signatures nowadays. I never called them back to tell them I didn’t want it because I thought they couldn’t do anything because I never signed the purchase documents. Now they are trying to jerk me around saying if I don’t provide certain documents to them and give them a written letter of cancellation they won’t refund my money for the full amount. They said they would only go back 5 days!! This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever had to deal with. I hate insurance companies so bad. They are just legal rackets. If they don’t give me my full refund I am filing a lawsuit against farmers. Farmers are a bunch of crooks!! Make sure you don’t ever change your mind on something like this or it may end up screwing you like I am having done.

 

[stick4]

Could have been worse. Glad you have an exit strategy.

 

[SlugSlinger]

And that's a perfect example of why I dropped Farmer's like a rock. The agents and office staff are the most unprofessional "professional" people I have ever dealt with.

 

[magna19]

I've had Farmers, State Farm, Farm Bureau, Safeco, AAA over the last 38 years. I will say that at a different time each one had the best policy. Had agent from Safeco do a bait and switch to a higher premium after signing up. Called around one year to find a better policy and switched to Farm Bureau with a huge savings and only found them cancelling policies with 2 claims in 5 years in my area after too many low premium policies sold. Mike Gaddis at Farmers is an outstanding agent but premiums got high. AAA dropped my homeowners premium over 600.00 this year and couldn't be happier.