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Home insurance went way up

clifffaith

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Worldmark
Our insurance bill with Nationwide went up $200 last year, and I just grumbled and paid the bill without doing any research. This year it will go up another $561. I'm guessing the increase is because of the fires in California last year. So it is time to do research.

We do have a "wild area" near us, which is basically chaparral covered hills set aside as a preserve area because it is prone to sliding, otherwise I'm sure it would have been built on long ago. We used to live in a gated community on the coast in that area (12 minutes from where we are now) and were turned down by Farmer's, who'd insured us until then, because they considered it a "fire area" as well as a "slide area" (our home there was actually picked up and moved in the late 50's when half the neighborhood was sliding; they had a "Last Days of Pompeii" themed party). We lived there 1999-2002; our last two homes are in "regular neighborhoods", but again that slide/fire area is only two miles or so from us.

Cliff was a captain in the army back in the day, so first thing I asked him to do was call USAA. They must have been high for home insurance sometime in the past, otherwise we'd use them for home like we always do for our cars. They first wanted $1925 when I was having heartburn over $1657 with Nationwide, so no thanks. The guy talked and talked and talked more than a timeshare salesman, finally getting the price down with some stupid large deductible like $30K. Cliff finally told him to stop talking (we'd already missed our early bird dinner out) and put it in writing and email the quote. That quote came in at $847, and now Cliff is pissed because I said no way I'm going with oversized deductible and I sure as heck am not calling back to talk to the motor mouth sales person again. The Nationwide insurance originally came from an insurance broker, so next step is to go back to her to see who else she might recommend.
 

Bucky

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The Carolina’s
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To get the best deal with USAA you need to also put your auto ins with them for the best discount.

We shop every year. We don’t believe in blind faith to any one company. We went from USAA to Liberty Mutual and when their premium started going up we went back to USAA which was cheaper than when we left them. This years increase was minimal (<$100) but will be shopping every year it’s not. Every time I see the USAA commercial that says member for life, I get a good laugh.
 

jimf41

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The only reason to buy insurance from any particular company is to protect yourself from financial loss in a disaster. I've had two such disasters in my 50+ years with USAA. They are definitely not the cheapest out there but all the contractors who worked on my home after a recent flooding incident caused by a cold weather pipe break were amazed at what USAA's initial coverage included. My home was built in 1957 and they paid for code upgrades for things I never even thought of. It wasn't without some haggling entirely but in the end I essentially got a brand new home.

They are picky about where they cover and in some areas they do not write new policies but they grandfather in existing policies. I think they are very hesitant to write new policies in FL or CA due to the increase in claims.
 

DaveNV

TUG Review Crew: Expert
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My suggestion, if you are a Costco Executive member: Look into Ameriprise Insurance through the Costco website. It's under the Services tab. After shopping around quite a bit, we bundled Home and Auto with them, and we're saving a fortune over outside companies, including having a substantial add-on Earthquake policy on the account. Their rates were better than everyone I spoke with, including USAA. (I am also a USAA member, so I gave them a chance - must have received the same motormouth guy you got - at the end of the day, their quote was higher than Ameriprise.)

Good luck!

Dave
 
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