What Are You Buying Right Now? (non-OT version)

kl8ton

alaskanassasin said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Something super fun, new home owners and auto insurance. Home owners policy rate went up 45% from last year. I figured it would go up, it always does but 45%!?!?! ya, no thanks Liberty Bipperty Mutual. Now with A-Aron Rogers favorite company State Farm. They are giving me way better coverage for about a 10% increase over my last years rate and a lower deductible.

Progressive Auto policy rate was fine, but State Farm offered to beat the rate  I had slightly but I have a way lower deductible and increased perks.

I hate doing this every couple years.

I use a local insurance broker, they shop the cheapest rates throughout a network of providers. Also I can text my agent and ask her questions any time, she was very helpful in showing us where we were under insured. At anyrate i will always pound the drum of local banks/credit unions and local insurance companies. I don’t have to worry about Wells Fargo signing me up for a credit card or State Farm canceling Aaron for not getting the shot.

I second this. For business insurance we submitted a major claim this spring. No adjuster came out no photos were required we sent in estimates and they sent checks.

lousubcap

Ozzie_Isaac said:

lousubcap said:

@EzraBrooks - There are occasional hic-cups with the SRF website and you just found one.  I have always had success with the email alert option so I can't comment.  However, if you have talked with them then I am confident they will get back with you.
A stand up company that routinely sends replacement briskets and anything else ordered that clearly the 5 letter shipping company hosed up with delivery.  
No affiliation here.  

That is tricky wording, sir.  No affiliation with FedEx or no affiliation with SRF?  Because we all know you have an affiliation with SRF as their #1, numero Uno customer.  Single handly helping out their monthly balance sheet.

Would that I were in that stratosphere with SRF but not even a rounding error on their balance sheet.  
My position with the five lettered shipping company is a continuing matter of record.  As you are aware, it is anything but positive.  I have suggested to SRF (just to feel good)  that when the contract is up for renegotiation that they look at their losses made good numbers and include that data when pencil whipping the deal.  Perhaps back to UPS...

littlerascal56

Frank-feel your frustration with the shippers.  I have used UPS for 30 years. I shipped a glass cooktop back to Whirlpool (in original box/packing.  Insured it for $400 to cover top and $98 UPS ground).  They shattered it into a million pieces, and now decline my $400 claim.  Said it was not packed up to their standards, even though it was in factory shipping carton.  So I’m screwed out of $400.
UPS insurance is worthless.   Good luck collecting on a claim!

Botch

TEXASBGE2018 said:

I hate doing this every couple years.

Stick with State Farm and you won't have to.  I've been with them 47 years, save 2 years I mistakenly went with USAA.  

Gulfcoastguy

Botch said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

I hate doing this every couple years.

Stick with State Farm and you won't have to.  I've been with them 47 years, save 2 years I mistakenly went with USAA.  

I hate to point something out. State Farm just settled with the federal government. They were accused of inappropriately denying home wind claims and filing them with federal flood insurance instead of paying them. You can probably Google the story, it definitely made the front page of the Sun Herald many times.

Botch

I will look for that.  

Gulfcoastguy

https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_dda1d866-24ce-11ed-9eae-db37f9eda4ab.html

JohnfromKentucky

Botch said:

Stick with State Farm and you won't have to.  I've been with them 47 years, save 2 years I mistakenly went with USAA.  

I had State Farm for 20+ years and they went up for no reason, so I switched to USAA (better rates and when we made a roof claim, no issues) but last year we looked around and State Farm was cheaper.

But this summer I found out that our deductible is now 1% of the value of the house. Nice if we don't ever have to make a claim, but we did on our roof and so we had to pay $3000. Ouch....cheaper than paying for the whole thing but still.

I'll give it a year and look around again. I'll check out some local insurance agencies too.

alaskanassasin

@Botch I know I can't convince you to shop around but at least make sure your home value has been updated with state farm.

Botch

@alaskanassasin, I do shop around, every decade.  I can find cheaper rates, but a bit of looking into those companies always reveals the shadier tactics.  I've had two concrete experiences with State Farm, and one very negative concrete experience with USAA, that makes me comfortable in my current status.
And I'm old enough now that my own personal experiences are almost as statistically viable as a national survey.  
 
And, I get it; ownership and cultures at all businesses (and even political parties) change over time, sometimes drastically, and you have to look around every once in awhile.  I try to do that.  

alaskanassasin

Botch said:

@alaskanassasin, I do shop around, every decade.  I can find cheaper rates, but a bit of looking into those companies always reveals the shadier tactics.  I've had two concrete experiences with State Farm, and one very negative concrete experience with USAA, that makes me comfortable in my current status.
And I'm old enough now that my own personal experiences are almost as statistically viable as a national survey.  
 
And, I get it; ownership and cultures at all businesses (and even political parties) change over time, sometimes drastically, and you have to look around every once in awhile.  I try to do that.  

 Don’t quote me on the timeline but swmbo was a loyal geico customer for decades,  I called 4-5 years ago and added myself and my vehicles  to her policy no problem. A few years later we are shopping insurance and upping our coverages. We had geico on speakerphone and the first red flag was the lady asked why i wanted to raise our coverage and told us she would have to get it approved by a supervisor, naturally this irritated us so swmbo spoke up, the insurance lady said “who am I speaking with?” swmbo told her…. Insurance said ma’am  your not listed on this account and therefore can’t speak into it.  Omg I didn’t know whether to laugh or run!   Finally she came back and said well they do have her license on file so if something would have happened they probably would have been able to cover it…

Botch

alaskanassasin said:
...Finally she came back and said well they do have her license on file so if something would have happened they probably would have been able to cover it…

Yikes!    

fishlessman

deal with federal flood insurance, they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. bailed and bought a lloyds of london policy for about ten percent of the federal policy cost, 8k down to 800 bucks approx

Botch

fishlessman said:

...they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. 

Well, that stinks.  

Ozzie_Isaac

fishlessman said:

deal with federal flood insurance, they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. bailed and bought a lloyds of london policy for about ten percent of the federal policy cost, 8k down to 800 bucks approx

Thank you for the reminder.  Emailed my local agent just now.  Last year they f'd it up and didn't cancel my old flood policy when they signed me up for a new flood policy.  Took about 6 months to get that $1700 back.  Wanted to confirm I wouldn't have this issue again this year.

fishlessman

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

...they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. 

Well, that stinks.  

they said i was grandfathered in with 25 percent and that was the most they could increase it til it caught up with cost. they would not tell me what that cost would be. they rezoned my yard after i bought the house, it wasnt in a flood zone when i bought it.

Ozzie_Isaac

Well f'me.  My email to my local agent bounced back as "undeliverable".  That can't be good.

fishlessman

Ozzie_Isaac said:

fishlessman said:

deal with federal flood insurance, they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. bailed and bought a lloyds of london policy for about ten percent of the federal policy cost, 8k down to 800 bucks approx

Thank you for the reminder.  Emailed my local agent just now.  Last year they f'd it up and didn't cancel my old flood policy when they signed me up for a new flood policy.  Took about 6 months to get that $1700 back.  Wanted to confirm I wouldn't have this issue again this year.

dont know what it is with those guys but my policy was paid when i refinanced with a different bank, they sent a bill to the new bank and it was paid again, months to straighten it out and then they want to prorate the new cancelled policy and give half the money back, oh no you dont......

Langner91

Insurance!  One of my least favorite parts of being an adult.  I have been with State Farm for 31 years, and 22 years before that on my parents' plans.

I am shopping next year, after my last auto claim (hail) comes off my record with them.  They made that claim a pain in my backside, so I will take my dollars elsewhere if I can find a better rate.  My agent retired, and the new one told me to report my claim online, so I am left to wonder what her job is...

We pay these companies every month without fail and they look for every excuse to not cover the claims.  What a racket!

/rant

HeavyG

We've been with State Farm for about 40 years. Have never bothered to shop around as occasional conversations with friends and coworkers over the years showed that rates among various companies were never significant enough to bother switching.
Only had one claim - somebody hit my wife's car a few decades ago - and State Farm took care of all that quickly and easily.

fishlessman

one of the best body shops in the boston area has this on their site about allstate. worst ins company ive ever dealt with

Please note: Allstate, Ameriprise, Nationwide & Sedgwick: Due to certain circumstances, we are currently unable to accept Allstate, Ameriprise, Nationwide & Sedgwick claims.  We apologize for this inconvenience.

alaskanassasin

HeavyG said:

We've been with State Farm for about 40 years. Have never bothered to shop around as occasional conversations with friends and coworkers over the years showed that rates among various companies were never significant enough to bother switching.
Only had one claim - somebody hit my wife's car a few decades ago - and State Farm took care of all that quickly and easily.

Here say is a good unit of measurement!

Botch

fishlessman said:

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

...they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. 

Well, that stinks.  

they said i was grandfathered in with 25 percent and that was the most they could increase it til it caught up with cost. they would not tell me what that cost would be. they rezoned my yard after i bought the house, it wasnt in a flood zone when i bought it.

That was actually a Dad joke on your typo, but actually I was in a similar situation.  
I bought a house in Grand Forks ND, and after signing and moving in, noticed the water line halfway up the basement wall.  Called State Farm, and learned I was not in the flood plain (and so couldn't purchase flood insurance); the border was the street I lived on, I was just on the wrong side.  Hmm.  Sold the house at the end of my assignment with no issues.  
 
There was some nice karma, however.  I put the house up for sale for, $102K?  Got an offer for $60K, rejected.  A few days later, same party offered $60.5K.  Rejected.  Then, $70K.  That $&%*#!! a**hole!  A second party offered $100.5K, and I told my realtor to accept that (I was living in UT by then); he told me ND law required him to let the original party offer my asking price, and I had to sell to him if he did, and he did.  I didn't want to sell to that a**hole but I had to.  Paperwork signed in January.  April, the mighty Flood of 1997 hit.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fityxkpqIXc
 
(cool, I recognized a couple faces in the GFAFB auditorium shots.  There was also a basement blues club that I frequented in the burned-out block, saw "Kid" Jonny Lang a couple times there, 13 years old).  I did learn that my former house was destroyed, and that A**hole didn't have flood insurance (no idea if he rebuilt, sold, got FEMA assistance, or what).  I dodged a bullet by four months.  Sometimes, there is some good karma.  

HeavyG

alaskanassasin said:

HeavyG said:

We've been with State Farm for about 40 years. Have never bothered to shop around as occasional conversations with friends and coworkers over the years showed that rates among various companies were never significant enough to bother switching.
Only had one claim - somebody hit my wife's car a few decades ago - and State Farm took care of all that quickly and easily.

Here say is a good unit of measurement!

So is hearsay.

Ozzie_Isaac

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

...they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. 

Well, that stinks.  

they said i was grandfathered in with 25 percent and that was the most they could increase it til it caught up with cost. they would not tell me what that cost would be. they rezoned my yard after i bought the house, it wasnt in a flood zone when i bought it.

That was actually a Dad joke on your typo, but actually I was in a similar situation.  
I bought a house in Grand Forks ND, and after signing and moving in, noticed the water line halfway up the basement wall.  Called State Farm, and learned I was not in the flood plain (and so couldn't purchase flood insurance); the border was the street I lived on, I was just on the wrong side.  Hmm.  Sold the house at the end of my assignment with no issues.  
 
There was some nice karma, however.  I put the house up for sale for, $102K?  Got an offer for $60K, rejected.  A few days later, same party offered $60.5K.  Rejected.  Then, $70K.  That $&%*#!! a**hole!  A second party offered $100.5K, and I told my realtor to accept that (I was living in UT by then); he told me ND law required him to let the original party offer my asking price, and I had to sell to him if he did, and he did.  I didn't want to sell to that a**hole but I had to.  Paperwork signed in January.  April, the mighty Flood of 1997 hit.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fityxkpqIXc
 
(cool, I recognized a couple faces in the GFAFB auditorium shots.  There was also a basement blues club that I frequented in the burned-out block, saw "Kid" Jonny Lang a couple times there, 13 years old).  I did learn that my former house was destroyed, and that A**hole didn't have flood insurance (no idea if he rebuilt, sold, got FEMA assistance, or what).  I dodged a bullet by four months.  Sometimes, there is some good karma.  

If the other buyers had offered full price, would the first buyer have still had a chance?

If so, I would just low-ball every single house in town.  Then I get first dibs every time.

alaskanassasin

HeavyG said:

alaskanassasin said:

HeavyG said:

We've been with State Farm for about 40 years. Have never bothered to shop around as occasional conversations with friends and coworkers over the years showed that rates among various companies were never significant enough to bother switching.
Only had one claim - somebody hit my wife's car a few decades ago - and State Farm took care of all that quickly and easily.

Here say is a good unit of measurement!

So is hearsay.

Being murdered by honey bees no time for proof reading!

Gulfcoastguy

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

...they aromatically increased the policy 25 percent a year. 

Well, that stinks.  

they said i was grandfathered in with 25 percent and that was the most they could increase it til it caught up with cost. they would not tell me what that cost would be. they rezoned my yard after i bought the house, it wasnt in a flood zone when i bought it.

That was actually a Dad joke on your typo, but actually I was in a similar situation.  
I bought a house in Grand Forks ND, and after signing and moving in, noticed the water line halfway up the basement wall.  Called State Farm, and learned I was not in the flood plain (and so couldn't purchase flood insurance); the border was the street I lived on, I was just on the wrong side.  Hmm.  Sold the house at the end of my assignment with no issues.  
 
There was some nice karma, however.  I put the house up for sale for, $102K?  Got an offer for $60K, rejected.  A few days later, same party offered $60.5K.  Rejected.  Then, $70K.  That $&%*#!! a**hole!  A second party offered $100.5K, and I told my realtor to accept that (I was living in UT by then); he told me ND law required him to let the original party offer my asking price, and I had to sell to him if he did, and he did.  I didn't want to sell to that a**hole but I had to.  Paperwork signed in January.  April, the mighty Flood of 1997 hit.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fityxkpqIXc
 
(cool, I recognized a couple faces in the GFAFB auditorium shots.  There was also a basement blues club that I frequented in the burned-out block, saw "Kid" Jonny Lang a couple times there, 13 years old).  I did learn that my former house was destroyed, and that A**hole didn't have flood insurance (no idea if he rebuilt, sold, got FEMA assistance, or what).  I dodged a bullet by four months.  Sometimes, there is some good karma.  

I sold a half acre lot in 2002. During Katrina it was 10 feet underwater. I invested the money in a house over 3 miles from the beach and about 28 feet in elevation. During Katrina I had one tree leaning over my back fence and lost power for 2 days. Emptied out my meat freezer and carried it to work where I had previously installed a large diesel generator. We lived in the office until we got power back and worked 80 hour plus weeks but we ate good, salmon, leg of lamb, etc.

alaskanassasin

Nothing gets bees more fired up than stealing their honey and slapping a couple of formic acid patties in between their boxes

alaskanassasin

After and before 

lousubcap

@Botch- another confirmation of "Better to be lucky than good any day."
Why are real estate rules/requirements so different by state...because they can be.