Put in homeowners claim, watch premium increase by 33%

[bignateyk]

True (location, location) and the amount of industry in the county matters. I paid $554.00 city and county tax on the house for 2012. We do have vehicle tax unlike some other states. Bro in law lives above White Plains, NY and pays $12K in property tax on his house (2500 sqft).😱

Jesus. And I thought the $5K I pay in property/school tax on my 3500 sqft house was bad.

 

[highland145]

SF dropped us due to two water/flooding claims since 2010.
They spent well over 25K between the two and figured that even if no more; they would never recover based on premiums.

Have given me 60 days notice.

Girl that works for me was dropped. Had a big kitchen redo after broken pipes and then they filed one for $1k for stolen mowers and such. Shouldn't have filed the 2nd one.

 

[highland145]

Jesus. And I thought the $5K I pay in property/school tax on my 3500 sqft house was bad.

House, 2 vehicles, 9AC of land...I paid $1611.:biggrin:

And $5500 for my kid to go to private school so I guess it works out.

 

[Engineer]

Had this happen about 8 years ago. Outside light struck by lightning which traveled into my house, killed 3 TV's, 1 PC, 1 monitor and a host of other stuff (about $1750 total). Insurance company made it so terribly difficult to get the money, it was crazy. Was told to take EVERY item to an electrical shop and have them certified killed by the lightning. I told them that for the $1,250 (after $500 deductible) to forget it (wasn't going to lug a 36" tube tv, pC and other stuff just to get it 'certified'). They said to just get estimates of the new items and give to them.

I did that and they paid up, but like the OP, my premiums went up nearly 30% for the next 3 years. Wasn't worth it in the end.

 

[CPA]

I'm not entirely sure as of yet. I will be calling to find out (I still as of yet have to get ahold of somebody to get my alarm added to my policy anyway).

...

Actually, now I'm even more confused since I'm looking at the policy renewal and ALL of the discounts as listed last year still apply (including claims free discount?). So they just jacked up my rate for the hell of it (yeah right).

It's also possible that they went to the state insurance commission and asked for a rate increase due to some natural disaster event, or the state put you in a new zone that has higher rates.

Great thing is you have choice and can go somewhere else.

 

[boomerang]

I haven't found that to be the case. I get quotes from other companies every few years and have yet to find one that is lower than what I pay with State Farm. I have all kinds of discounts with State Farm for Auto/Home/Umbrella and they never seem to raise my rates. Then again, all my policies are really high deductible.

Yup, this game plan has stopped working for me also. I switched last year to save less than $100 on my homeowners. Cars stayed virtually the same. My previous insurer was flabbergasted that I was switching and the more I talked to her about it, the more I became convinced that she was well aware that all the insurers are basically offering the same rates. I'll bet if I dug into the actual policy line by line I'd find some obscure change that reduced the rate.

I'm guessing that the insurers figured out that we do this and they see no need to give us a better rate. They're evidently happy to let the chips fall where they may. This will eventually bite us all on the ass because at some point somebody is going to scream the right words to the correct agency and the resulting investigation will show collusion among the insurance carriers. The "fix" will be a slap on the wrist to the insurers and a wide variety of ranges on premiums with the majority increasing.