I have been with my current insurance company since 2010, live in Minnesota.
At first the insurance was reasonable, but would creep up 10 or so percent a year. I have called in several times over the years and asked how to lower my rates, and they did offer some advice, but no real savings. I was pissed they had such a high rebuild cost, as my house was 1.5 stories and only had about 950sq feet, thought their number was way out of line.
Had some hail in 2016, roof fully replaced in 2017, siding damaged by the roof contractor, and that was fully replaced same year as well. (Had asbestos concrete siding, you cant just replace a small section apparently) Rates still increased in 2017 and 2018, but nothing too bad. This year it was about 5%, and I noticed that they had my type of siding and roof age wrong. They HAD been notifying me each year in the renewal paperwork but this was the first I noticed. I called in asking why they had the wrong dates since they paid to replace it, and they told me that's why the renewal paperwork had that information, it was up to ME to change it.
I went online was poking around and found the home characteristics section. I corrected the siding type and roof age, and then noticed the flooring percentages were off, 90% carpeted and we had ripped that old crap out years ago so I corrected that as well. They I looked at the examples of house type and using their examples noticed everything was set to standard instead of economy, general shape and style/exterior and interior finishes and features/kitchens and baths. It looked to me that I could set all to economy.
I was shocked to see their online estimate of my almost $2000 yearly premium drop $400 dollars! I called an agent, and verified the settings were correct and had the agent change my policy. Now they will not backdate any savings, even though I am not sure how they determined them wrong in the first place, I sure don't remember being asked about what types of flooring or kitchen\bath features I had, but I am glad I was able to save something going forward.
I have always heard that you should call your providers yearly and ask for savings\check that everything is right, and did do so when I had cable or satellite TV etc, but thought I'd share so maybe someone else can get some savings of their own.
TLDR: Verified info on my home owners policy and cut my premium about 20%
March 19, 2019 at 06:14PM
