Home Insurance Premiums Keep Increasing - Advice?

I believe I was quoted around $800 annually for the deductible-level I wanted in early 2010 when I first purchased my house. I believe I saw my premium come in for 2013.. It was well over $1300. I have not submitted one claim. The Agent I use assured me (last year) that all companies were increasing. They proactively sent me an e-mail yesterday insuring me that they are going to be looking for better rates. I have a home & 3 cars under Traveler's. Is this happening to anyone else? Seems like I left Farmers a few years ago, because they lure you in with low rates & gradually jack them up.. hoping you won't notice. I think Traveler's is doing this too, which leads me to believe EVERY company does this, and you just have to keep moving your policies every 2-3 years?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Shop your policies every 2 years. Once you endure the pain of doing it once (figuring out everything you need to do it)....its much easier the next time.

IMO - everyone lures you in and then graudually increases rates.

Shop around. I too had Farmers jacking my rates annually for no reason in the past.

What state are you in? Sometimes insurers in a state get hit big a big natural disaster and then turn around and jack rates to compensate for their loses. Least thats my understanding.

My insurance hasn't gone up much at all lately.

jnheinz said:   I am in Minnesota.

What's your home worth?

I moved from Travelers to Amica and saved mony. Also look at the home value and replacement cost value. Some companies add X% every year without any real reason. That increase in protection translates to increase in cost.

dcg9381 said:   jnheinz said:   I am in Minnesota.

What's your home worth?

Depends what you are asking.. It's worth around $193,000 at the moment per the city.. Purchased for $221,500. They claim the replaceable value is $303000.. 3 years ago it was $270000.

minggang said:   jnheinz said:   dcg9381 said:   jnheinz said:   I am in Minnesota.

What's your home worth?

Depends what you are asking.. It's worth around $193,000 at the moment per the city.. Purchased for $221,500. They claim the replaceable value is $303000.. 3 years ago it was $270000.

Wow, this is expensive.
Replaceable value should be your (house value - land value).
For reference, I am in Ohio, $400K house, annual rate is $452, Liberty Mutual.

I don't think that is necessarily correct. Perhaps someone else can chime in. When I filled out the Liberty Mutual application, it magically figured out my house's replaceable value as $273000 or something.

noledude said:   everyone lures you in and then graudually increases rates.

Not true.

evanm said:   Some companies add X% every year without any real reason.

LOL.

That's not the way things work.

Maybe A LOT of Traveler's customers in your area filed claims.

Im in Chicago have a smalk condo. No one came close to shelter insurance.. Easy to work with and are very competitive

I am in a similar boat. I am in PA, homeowners insurance renews in mid-Feb, am sure rates will go up due to Sandy. Not that they need a reason to go up. I have ended up changing 2 companies in the last 4 years due to rate increases for both, home and auto. I have never had luck with the organizations that offer group discounts, have raised my deductible to 1k, wish there was a FW way to save money on insurance. Good luck OP!

tajar96 said:   I remember a couple of topics from a few weeks back

You get to my age, remembering topics from years ago sometimes seems easier than remembering last week.

Btw, I have shopped around.. I am seeing hope at other companies, and that's without a multiple policy discount for my cars.

BEEFjerKAY said:   FWIW, you'll could well be looking at a decade of steadily increasing homeowners insurance prices.

Some increases will be disguised by way of additional exclusions, increased dollar deductibles, or a shift to percentage deductibles. But the short- to medium-term trend is definitely upward.

And that's before you consider that current homeowners policies arguably do an inadequate job of securing the mortgage's collateral. Once lenders start to care about that, all bets are off.
We should expect price increases every year of our life though.

If you expect that on average over a 100 year period, homes move up in value, even if just due to inflation, then the total losses an insurer will have to pay you back for from weather events or any other type of loss like theft increase as well. If the insurer's costs move up, then they have to pass that onto the consumer as increased premiums.

Due to even 1% inflation alone, we should always expect insurance prices to go up. It's happened for the last 100 years and I would be shocked if it doesn't occur for the next 100 year. Will we have a few years where they don't, or few years where they move faster than before? Absolutely. I'm no good at predicting those though.

I've been able to get my HO insurance at rates 75% less than my parents were paying 30 years ago, for more coverage .

Pore through your dept of insurance premium comparison list and find the carriers with the best rates in your state

One thing you can do is lower your coverage amount. You can choose any coverage amount you want - the one they recommend usually comes with some kind of bonus ie: if you insure at this level you get 120% of the insured amount to rebuild.

You can also ask them to reassess your home. When I tried to lower the coverage amount, pointing out the rebuild cost was more than I paid for my house, the agent triggered a manual reassessment, which obviously dropped the rate by a large amount.

I suppose they make money by people not paying attention.

Now if I could just get an accurate rebuilding cost estimator I'd be all set.

BEEFjerKAY said:   SUCKISSTAPLES said:   Beef , please we gotta do some auto and home insurance threads

Do you recall the thread(s) from a while back where we discussed the recent history and future of homeowners insurance rates?

There no doubt were a few different threads. The one I'm thinking about was the one where I was talking about the coverage no longer being sufficient to protect the collateral ... and my prediction of a slow migration of homeowners to the 2% of insured value level on an all-risks basis.

It might have been as long ago as 2007 or 2006. And it might have been from that other guy who did those bad things and got banned.
No don't recall that one . Beyond "trends of the industry " type threads fw really seems to need some basic threads on what the various ho and auto insurance coverages actually cover , how to select limits and deductibles etc

My Agent is Jansen Insurance in Burnsville, MN.

http://www.jansenins.com/Contact_Us.shtml

Well, they basically said I have any and all applicable discounts for fire extinguishers, dead-bolts, smoke detectors, being within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant (funny my house actually has one ON the lot in my front yard), and being within so many miles of a fire station..which I am. I have a surveillance system that would be considered unmonitored... CCTV cameras with infrared (for night vision) hardwired going to a DVR in my basement to a 250GB DVR...currently only 2, but I have plans for 4 more. A crook would have a heck of a time finding the DVR. I guess security motion lights and 12V landscape lighting don't count for anything. I have the theft element of my home covered. Hard to believe I'm being quoted at $1350 with a 10% discount already in place, in addition to a multiple policy discount.. This policy would cost like $2000 with no discounts. I have $500,000 in liability on it.

What are the most reputable 10 home insurance companies? I got decent rates from a quote at Amica.. Nationwide, not so much. Haven't tried others yet.

jnheinz said:   My Agent is Jansen Insurance in Burnsville, MN.

http://www.jansenins.com/Contact_Us.shtml

Well, they basically said I have any and all applicable discounts for fire extinguishers, dead-bolts, smoke detectors, being within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant (funny my house actually has one ON the lot in my front yard), and being within so many miles of a fire station..which I am. I have a surveillance system that would be considered unmonitored... CCTV cameras with infrared (for night vision) hardwired going to a DVR in my basement to a 250GB DVR...currently only 2, but I have plans for 4 more. A crook would have a heck of a time finding the DVR. I guess security motion lights and 12V landscape lighting don't count for anything. I have the theft element of my home covered. Hard to believe I'm being quoted at $1350 with a 10% discount already in place, in addition to a multiple policy discount.. This policy would cost like $2000 with no discounts. I have $500,000 in liability on it.

What are the most reputable 10 home insurance companies? I got decent rates from a quote at Amica.. Nationwide, not so much. Haven't tried others yet.

Why is the fire hydrant thing funny? You either get the discount or you don't. Theres no 'hydrant on my lot' rate.

Amica is a highly rated insurer. We use them and we're happy. They may not be the cheapest in the world but they have good service.

Here is JD power list of the top home insurerswhich lists Amica #1 service.

I agree, I just know if you combine a burglar system with a surveillance system.. along with 12V landscape lighting and a motion detecting security floodlight, you have a really effective combination of theft deterrence.. but correct, insurance companies don't give a crap.