Yesterday I met with my insurance man. This meeting was brought about because of my recent experiences with insurance in general. At the first of the year, I decided to get price quotes on my insurance policies. This need was brought on by the additional cost of adding a 16 year old male driver to our car insurance policy. I have been shocked at how much this basic rite-of-passage costs.
In getting quotes,I learned a lot about insurance. I had several people who gave me quotes and what I found is some were lower on some policies, some were higher, no one was able to provide a lower quote on all of my policies put together. For me, I am speaking of a home owners, rental dwelling, car, general liability, business liability, workman's comp and an umbrella policy. I consider this a good bank of business.
I found in order for an insurance agent to give me a quote they wanted the front page of the policy they were quoting against. To me this felt like cheating, but they all explained that they needed to compare apples to apples. I had an expectation that the agents would be full of information. I was looking for someone to say, I recommend this...and found that only 1 person who quoted my policies who actually did this.
I found that my current insurance agent didn't/couldn't provide any better pricing when given the opportunity because he knew I was price shopping.
I found that most companies tie the homeowner's and the car insurance policies together when giving price quotes. That to get a good price on one they want to insure both.
I found that you have to know what you want for insurance. I was asked how much my contents needed to be insured for, what deductibles I wanted to pay, what riders I wanted to purchase. When I would ask the insurance agent for a recommendation they would start to do the I am worried about a lawsuit dance and go into a spill about doing what is best for me and my family. Basically, they do not ever want to be responsible if I actually had to use this insurance I am paying for! I found one agent who was willing to work with me on this.
I have found that reading the fine print is boring, confusing and that amazingly tons of things are excluded from policies. I am also amazed at how many riders one can purchase.
I found 2 additional agents that I would like to do business with. One gentleman's pricing just didn't touch any of the pricing I currently had~~but I loved his service. He made recommendations and provided information that my current agent had not done. The second lady was fun to work with and also helped me dance thru the questions in an interesting and informative way. She beat the price quotes on 2 policies, my home owners and my general liability policies. I knew that the home owners couldn't be moved because she was more expensive on the total package and they had to be tied together; but, I decided to move my general liability policy. I felt good about this decision, and I called the current holder on the policy to let them know I would be cancelling.
Then the most amazing thing happened. I received in the mail a cancellation notice for my workman's comp insurance! It seems that it is company policy to only insure workman's comp if they hold the policy for the general liability! I was angry, very angry. They did not tell me this when I called to cancel, they did not provide this in the very small print of the policy and yet they stand by that in order to have one you have to have the other!
So, I called my current agent and I let him have it! I was angry and very unhappy. I informed him that if I were wealthy I would move all of my policies. Unfortunately this isn't an option right now, so I told him that he would have my business until I could afford to move the whole insurance package somewhere else. I told him that he had the opportunity to earn my business and that if he did so I would stay.
He managed to keep my workman's comp in place, but on the next renewal I will either have to give him the general liability policy or move all of my policies. I have decided that since the agent is making money off of me every month or every time I pay a premium that it is okay to demand some service in return. I have also decided that what I would really like is an insurance policy that would cover everything! One policy, one bill, and covers every imaginable problem, that I am sure is too much to ask for. But I can dream.
If you want recommendations for insurance based on my experiences I would be very happy to talk to you and help you with your insurance needs!
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