Insurance Agents Complain Too…

I have a confession to make...
 
I complained mightily when my Homeowners Insurance rates went up last month. Ilea listened to my complaints and promised to “re-shop” my Homeowners Insurance. (Re-shopping basically means she looks at all the different insurance companies to see if someone else has a lower premium for me.)

The bad news…. anywhere else I could get insurance was even higher priced.

The good news… it’s a really good price compared to the others.

The question is – why is my price going up?

There are several factors for that:

1. Inflation (of course)
2. Fraud – Unfortunately whenever someone cheats the system or exaggerates a claim, it affects us all by raising our rates.
3. A limited number of companies willing to cover my house.

So why are there a limited number of insurance companies willing to cover my house?

• I live in a very rural area.

In this area fire protection is not as good as say, the City of Spokane. We have only volunteer firefighters, less equipment and less training. The State keeps track of all these factors and gives each area a rating. This rating is based on their ability to successfully fight a fire.

My insurance price is higher because more damage is likely to happen to my house in a fire than if it were sitting in the middle of Spokane. Our fire rating is significantly lower than Spokane’s. Since I am unwilling to move, I must deal with it.

• I have a horse and some alpacas.

Now this doesn’t seem like a big problem to me, especially since she’s a miniature horse. But some insurance companies don’t want to deal with horses or livestock at all.

Apparently they can cause claims by hurting someone outside of my family or by damaging other people’s property. I know it seems logical, but there are people out there that don’t realize that a 300lb horse stepping on your foot can do some real damage. And since she can’t see your foot, you’d better watch out for hers. (And that’s a miniature weight. Regular sized horses weigh 1500lbs and up!)

As for the property damage…. (Sparkler, quit leaning on the fence! You’re going to break it again!)…. well, they may have a point.

• I have dogs.

All insurance companies have rules about dogs and they vary all over the place.

Some companies don’t want certain types of dogs. Typical restrictions are for wolf hybrids, Pitbulls, Rottweilers, Doberman etc.

             I have Chihuahuas so, no problem there. Yes, Chihuahuas can be aggressive, but                            generally can’t do much damage.

Some companies don’t want more than 2 or 3 dogs in a household. Seems silly to me but that’s what they say.

             I have 4.

​And some companies won’t make exceptions.

             I was lucky: the company I’m with made an exception to their 3-dog rule because they                    are so small.
 
It is important that the insurance company makes sure it has enough money in its coffers to cover a major event. Such as a wildfire, like the many we’ve seen lately that take out whole neighborhoods. They need to be able to cover rebuilding all those houses.

Each insurance company must get permission from the State Insurance Commissioner to raise rates…. or to lower them. In fact, the Insurance Commissioner has been known to require an insurance company to raise its prices because they did not have enough money saved to cover the losses that may happen.

All of these factors are included when insurance companies figure out prices for a particular area. So I complain, even though I know they have reasons.

I will continue to complain when my prices go up and ask my insurance agent to look for a better price. And I will remember that there are good reasons for the prices and not yell at her when she tells me: “No, we don’t have a better price.”

Posted by Lara Wilson, Mount Spokane Insurance - MountSpokaneIns.com

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