Help with homeowners & auto insurance

[ReadingMama]

We're trying to cut expenses and it was recommended to me to look into what we pay for car insurance. I need some advice so that I can be informed as I shop around.

We have homeowners and car insurance with Allstate and always have. We pay $997 every 6 months for insurance on both cars (2001 and 2002 cars with 100,000+ miles on each; Blue Book value is about $3700 total.) We pay $926 a year for homeowners insurance and we get a 10% discount ($92) for having both our home and cars insured with Allstate.

I got a GEICO quote ($737) and a Progressive quote ($471) for 6 months of car insurance. I was thinking that if we can save $400+ a year by switching car insurance, the $92 discount for multiple policies with Allstate wouldn't be a big deal to lose. My husband wants to keep both policies with the same company. What do you think?

What amount of coverage do you think is necessary for car insurance? What about for homeowners insurance? I just noticed we have $74,000 in coverage for personal possessions replacement. Do we need to insure our possessions (inside the house) for that much? How much coverage do you have?

[Denvergirlie]

Originally Posted by ReadingMama

We have homeowners and car insurance with Allstate and always have. We pay $997 every 6 months for insurance on both cars (2001 and 2002 cars with 100,000+ miles on each; Blue Book value is about $3700 total.)

This sounds a bit high to me unless your driving history is poor.

Originally Posted by ReadingMama

I just noticed we have $74,000 in coverage for personal possessions replacement. Do we need to insure our possessions (inside the house) for that much? How much coverage do you have?

Only you can answer this question. If your house burnt to the ground and everything within was a total loss, from furniture to collectable and clothing and kitchenware. If you lost everything would you be able to replace it all for that $74K?

I would continue to shop around with companies that offer full service combined insurance... State Farm, All American Family, etc.

I personally used to have Progressive and ensurance, both online comapnies that don't offer house insurance. I actually found a better deal with State Farm and included renter's insurance as well and still came out ahead. Likewise, I am about to start this "shopping" process with other full service insurance agencies.

Make sure that you are comparing apples to apples per se. Same coverage limits, deductables, etc, etc.

Good luck

[angelcollector1]

I would definitely shop around, I worked for an Allstate agent who gave up her right to write policies with them because the rates were so high and she couldn't get anyone to take policies with them. You can find insurance agents who write policies for several different companies so that you can keep everything with the same agent. Just as an FYI, Allstate may have been the agent that wrote the policy for your home, but they turned it over to another company as they don't cover homes in almost all states.

[ChattyCat]

We have high insured amounts on our cars with comprehensive coverage ('99 and '04 Hondas). Our total Blue Book values are likely around 20K. We pay about $1K/year total for the car insurance. Paying $1K/6months seems ridiculous, unless you have really bad driving records.

We have around $120K in personal possession coverage on the house, and it's about 1800 sf. There's a lot of stuff that would need to be replaced. Clothes, computers, tvs, furniture, dishes, food, linens, etc. I don't know what kind of house you have (new/old, large/small, etc) or what state you live in, but you may want to shop around for better rates for your house too. We have our primary dwelling well insured, and our second home has a fire/vandalism policy, and we pay less than you for homeowner's ins each year. Our second home is about 2500 sf.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by Denvergirlie

This sounds a bit high to me unless your driving history is poor.

Yes, that. Or you're really young and your car is one that's highly likely to get stolen in your area or something else that would drive up the cost. We have 3 vehicles (an '84 truck for occasional hauling/wood-cutting, a '95 Prizm for hubby's commute, and an '08 CRV to haul the kids around), and only pay around $1200/year in insurance for all of them. We do have minimal coverage on the truck and commuter though - since buying a new one if they were totaled wouldn't take a ton of money ($1500 tops). Of course, we don't live in a metro area like Seattle or LA or NYC where the COL is a bit higher.

Originally Posted by ReadingMama

What amount of coverage do you think is necessary for car insurance? What about for homeowners insurance? I just noticed we have $74,000 in coverage for personal possessions replacement. Do we need to insure our possessions (inside the house) for that much? How much coverage do you have?

Car insurance - that can depend on your financial info, what kind of coverage is mandated by state law, etc. I think we have just collision on our older cars, and both collision and comprehensive on the new car. Also how high of a deductible you have. My IL's had a freakin' $200 deductible for the longest time, not noticing that it made their premium higher. *sigh*

As for possession replacement. Again, depends what kind of coverage you've got. I prefer replacement value to fair market value (I think those are the terms - it's been a while since I've messed around with this stuff).
For example. If our house burned down, our 1yo and 7yo Englander mattresses would go up in flames. Replacement value means we'd be able to go out the next week (or whenever) and just get a new mattress because we'd get the money to buy a new one. Fair market value means you'd get a pro-rated amount. So we'd get maybe $100-$200 for our 7yo mattress, even though it was $1200 new. And good luck finding everything used for the right price if you have to replace a whole house. I myself don't plan to mess around with that just in case.

And seriously, do an inventory of your house. Things add up. Sure, a pair of socks may not seem like much, but add up the cost of replacing your entire wardrobe (work clothes, possible maternity clothes, 5 pairs of good shoes, underwear, etc.) as well as a partner's and then children's wardrobe, and furniture including dressers, possible antiques, bed frames, couches, appliances, etc. Even when I was back in college I had probably $50K worth of goods in my apartment between me and my ex.

[CarrieMF]

to know how much you'd need for possessions, go around your house & add up every computer, tv, set of sheets, books, fork, pair of jeans, socks, etc.

Most people do not have enough possession insurance.

your current vehicle insurance is high. I'm in Canada so things are typically higher than in the US. We have a 2000 Camry & a 2004 Tundra & a 2007 Quad. For the 3 of them we pay just under $2000/year. Without the quad it would be $480/year cheaper.

We no longer have our vehicle insurance at the same place as our house insurace because we shopped around a couple of years ago & the deal we got on our vehicles more than made up for the discount we were getting. Where we have our house insurance they have it set up with the discount as if the vehicles were still there. Our house is also technically a mobile home but since it sits on a full basement(and therefore no longer mobile) it is classed as a house but not all insurance places will recognize this so we leave it where it is.

[Natsuki]

Also make sure to check out the ratings of the different insurers from JD Power and Associates - some give very bad customer service and some our excellent.

We have Erie Insurance and I cannot recommend them highly enough - I got into an accident in September (first one ever) and they were SO FAST with the claim checks, fully covered all repairs (from our car's dealer collision repair center - they didn't make us go to one of 'their' places where you get a lower estimate), replacement carseat, and rental car no hassle within just a week or two we had the checks. And our rates didn't go up b/c we had first-time accident forgiveness policy due to our good history with them :.

[34me]

Just my 2 cents on the posession coverage. We had a house fire last year and lost almost everything so I saw it all in black and white. My 11 pairs of underpants @ $7 a piece plus everone else's unmentionalbles added up incredibly fast. We maxed out our policy and lost about $20,000 according to our insurance company 9not us - I realized how much crap i had that I never used and didn't replace, so we wound up with money left over ) We have a very small house and I never would have thought we had that much.

[travlr]

The personal possessions coverage on your homeowners policy is often just a percentage of your dwelling coverage- often 50 or 70% and companies either won't reduce the coverage or the savings isn't significant. And as someone else mentioned, be sure to get replacement cost coverage for your belongings. I second the suggestion to check around with other insurance carriers and independent brokers to see what rates you can get- either as a package deal or seperating the auto and home. Be sure to check the company ratings with AM Best.

As for the car insurance- make sure that you know your driving records to be sure that you're getting the correct rate from your carriers. Make sure the coverage is the same. Personally I'd be uncomfortable with less than
$300k liability on either the car or the house. If you're not making payments on either car you might consider going with liability coverage and skipping the collision coverage for your cars based on the values you listed. Car insurance varies a lot state to state and city vs. suburb and young drivers pay a lot more than experienced drivers and a lot of states use credit ratings so it's really a waste of time to compare with friends and family. Spend your time shopping different insurance companies instead.

[AuntNi]

I applied for new homeowners & auto through http://www.insureme.com/ this year. I wound up saving over $800/year combined. I was thrilled! : The company we chose is very well-rated everywhere I checked, with a long history. I really like the simplicity of having both policies at the same place.

Re: personal property insurance - we just went with the flat % of the home's insured value. I know we have a LOT of crap in here that I wouldn't want to replace. Doing a complete home inventory has been my New Year's resolution for the past three years, but it's still only partially complete. I really need to get on that.

One other suggestion about your car: it made a big difference in our premiums that I was working at home, and drove around 500 miles/month. If one of you stays home, that might be info you'd want to include with your quote.

[ReadingMama]

We're both in our mid-30s with pretty good driving records and good credit. (I don't know if our credit is going to stay that way though. It depends on if we can afford to keep paying cc payments.) My husband might have gotten a speeding ticket in the past 3-5 years and I rear-ended someone (a couple thousand in damage) in 2006. Our insurance rate didn't go up with Allstate after my accident, though. I will do a home inventory.

[angelcollector1]

The majority of companies will forgive you one accident, and they may ask you about what you have for accidents and tickets for the past 5 years, but the majority of companies I've written policies for only go back 3 years.

The companies also use a special program to determine your credit score- they don't actually use your specific score, it usually grades you a specific way, and be sure to have them run the reports using whichever one of you has a better credit score, it can make a very significant difference in the cost of the insurance.

Good luck with whatever you decide.