State Farm HO Ins. in midwest US

[Puddin' Man]

I have a tiny brick bungalow in a very quiet neighborhood in a large midwest city.

Crime is down. Weather damage is minimal. There's really nothing goin' on here.

Haven't had a claim on my homeowners policy in 10+ years.

State Farm automagically jacks my HO coverage up 3%, and the premium 10%. I can find no rationale for such increase.

I think they wanna be like health ins., have a "License To Kill" re premium increases.

Anybody know of HO ins. companies that are -not- commiting unnatural acts with premium increases?

Thx, Puddin'

"Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens!" -Friedrich Schiller

[dpb]

...

I suspect if you look into it you'll find they received a general approval from you State regulators of the class, not just you.

You don't _have_ to take the additional coverage if you don't want to, you obviously have to pay premiums at the going rate (w/ whatever discounts you can qualify for, of course)...

As for who else, no suggestions; we've been Farm Bureau for 70 years combined and no intent/need to consider otherwise.

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[<kjpro]

Everything is going up, if you don&#39;t like their pricing check with a few other companies.

[Mr.E]

Someone has to pay Florida and Louisiana insurance costs..

[Vic Dura]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:35:26 -0500, Puddin&#39; Man wrote Re State Farm HO Ins. in midwest US:

Profit is the rationale.

Yes, this is true IMO.

No.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I&#39;d gladly swap your increase for mine. We got hit with 20%. Those hurricanes hit all of us a bit.

Ever notice the buildings that banks and insurance companies own? We have to pay for that too.

[Puddin' Man]

No doubt.

Perhaps you&#39;ve got a lovely, lively ocean view. Enjoy ...

IIRC, we are landlocked for a 700+ mile radius. Hurricanes are slightly more rare than gold falling from the sky, here.

Not sure what you mean. The ins. co. facilities cost has always been part of premium pricing. Commercial ins. premium pricing is supposed to be separate from residential premium pricing.

P

"Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens!" -Friedrich Schiller

[Dottie]

I am in FL and we pay our own way. My insurance went from $450 in

1992 (pre-Andrew) to $2500 current year. Next year I will almost certainly be dropped and go into the state insurance pool. I have been with the same company for over 40 years and never made a claim.

[Tom G]

I would assume that the 3% increase represents the annual inflation increase in the cost to rebuild your home and of course, at least part of the 10% premium increase is to cover that cost. As someone mentioned, you can elect not to accept the 3% coverage increase but there will be a point at which, if you have a claim (probably total loss only) that they will not pay out because you didn&#39;t maintain the 80% (I think) coverage limit on your property. You have to have enough coverage to cover the rebuilding of your home if it burns down to the ground, you can&#39;t just cover yourself for 40% and self insure for the balance, I don&#39;t believe. Of course, you don&#39;t have to insure the ground it sits on unless your in a flood zone, maybe.

Tom G.

[Walter R.]

In this here USofA, the price of everything, absolutely everything, goes up by 5 - 7% every single year. Therefore, all prices, including your insurance, have to go up at the same rate. It&#39;s called inflation and guess what creates inflation: Our government. Has nothing whatsoever to do with profits.

How much did the value of your little bungalow increase in the last 10 years? It doubled. With inflation at 7% per year, the price of everything in this country doubles every ten years. Your income should have doubled, too. If it did not, you are falling behind.

[newman]

I am in FL and we pay our own way. My insurance went from $450 in

1992 (pre-Andrew) to $2500 current year. Next year I will almost certainly be dropped and go into the state insurance pool. I have been with the same company for over 40 years and never made a claim.

[Kurt Ullman]

FL requires most insurance companies doing business in Fl to be domiciled in the state. In most cases, this is through a subsidiary set-up for that reason. Also FL has all sorts of hoops the FL company has to go through to remove profits from the state. The good news is that is probably about the only reason some insurance companies are keeping ANY presence in FL. The bad news is that they are also loathe to bring money INTO FL to even out losses like they can in some states.

[sym]

well it is the hurricane season

[RickH]

For 8 years Nationwide kept raising my coverage and premiums, partly my fault because the payment is automaticly drawn from escrow and I&#39;m too lazy to check it. Well it finally got to around $2500 when I noticed it. Turns out I was way overinsured because apparently I signed an "automatic adjuster" of some kind in 1998. Have another company re-analyze your coverage to make sure it is "right sized", I was paying for more coverage than they would have ever paid out anyway based on market/replacement value caps. I re-signed with Farmers and have all the same coverage and riders without being over-covered above what the cap clauses would pay anyway, at probably half the price. I also added my cars to Farmers and got a substantial discount for insuring both with same company.

[TH]

[Richard J Kinch]

The rationale is simple. As civilization and the economy advances, not everything stays the same proportionate price. Some things get proportionately more expensive and some cheaper. Intangibles and services become more expensive, while hard goods get cheaper. Cheap insurance/banking/lawyers/doctors are a sign of a bad economy.

[Puddin' Man]

How &#39;bout "Situations, conditions etc prone to natural disasters attract folks with poor credit." A horse/carriage, chicken/egg type of thing? :-)

My FICO is in the upper 5-10% of national scores.

P

"Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens!" -Friedrich Schiller

[Dottie]

The price of replacing houses has increased a lot since my home was built. Two years ago I checked with some local builders to find out what it would cost to replace my home if it had to be rebuilt....we have a stricter building code in FL now . I increased my insurance accordingly but I also elected to pay a larger deductible. Helped a little ... not much.

[Kurt Ullman]

I would argue the opposite for insurance companies. When the economy is really good, rate tend to go down to get more money because they can make more off of investments then underwriting. The economy goes South the rates go u.

[Kate]

We have Allstate, same sort of situation as you. No claims, no damage, no problems, and our swent up too.

I personally think they are making up fr Katrina.