Best deal on insurance?

[CrappieAttitude]

It is that time for me to shop around again for insurance for my toys. Currently, I have the house and vehicles with one company and all my toys with another. I have Allstate for the house and vehicles, and the toys are through State Farm. Now after getting two more snowmobiles, I want to see if there is one particular carrier that would be the best fit for me. I would rather have everything together, but both of my current carriers, either have higher rates for one or the other when bundling. Hence the reason for having seperate carriers. I have heard good things about Progressive, but with all the options out there, I would like to limit my search a little. I will have a boat, fourwheeler, motorcycle, and three snowmobiles to insure.

Any suggestions of where to start, and who you have been happy with?

CA

[Chaws]

Check out Country and Farmers. They've always seemed to have had the best rates around. Country's home owners policy seems to be the best in the market with complete home replacement in the event of fire or tornado and not a policy based on percentage of value and what they think it actually would cost to rebuild.

[CrappieAttitude]

Thanks for the suggestion Chaws. Never heard of Country. It has been a long time since I have looked at what is out there.

[BoxMN]

CA, I have similar bundle, and use AmFam. I must admit that I haven't done my individual "checking" in a few years though, so not sure I am getting the "best" on all of them. I know when I thought I had a deal on the boat, that when I asked my agent about the boat, AmFam came in with better insurance, for cheaper. I do get a coast guard class savings (I think 15%) so that helps. My sleds might be quite as cheap, but close to averages for the years and I know I have better than average coverage on everything. Good luck. Let us know what you find!

[CrappieAttitude]

Thanks Box. I will let you all know what i find. I am sure many people just don't go out shopping for insurance that often, but I am sure that we all could be surprised what we can find for deals. I haven't had to make a claim ever on anything, so I found myself getting comfortable with what I had for coverage and never looked for deals. If i can put extra money in my pocket each year, i would be ok with that. I kind of want to still keep and actual " local personal agent" instead of going to the big box types of insurance that you don't get any personal "feel" from. If you know what I mean.

CA

[Tom7227]

IMO talk to an independent agent and see what they come up with. They can write for several companies are have to be competitive. I love being able to call my guy and ask him what is the best move - e.g. should I bother filing a claim for the fender bender the kid had. I would never use one of the online outfits. Cheap insurance isn't the goal IMO. Quality coverage and non-confrontive claims handling counts.

[harvey lee]

I was with Am Family for close to 30 years.

This is what I had insured

House

car

Truck

sled

4 wheeler

Boat

I thought I would check numerous insurance companies last spring to see how I was doing in regards to annual costs.

After checking with about 5 companies, State Farm saved me almost $600 annually. I switched to them and actually increased my insurance for some items.

I did have one claim on my boat for theft of fishing tackle and misc last summer and they were great to work with and I was more than satisfied with the settlement.

Glad I made the move to State Farm insurance.

[Tator2k]

I had AM Fam for 15 yrs. Did some checking around and ended up going with a family friend at Farmers and found out I was way under-insured for almost everything. By the time everything was correctly it still cost me less and added a ton more to all my coverages.

[Walleye Guy]

I had same as Harvey and Tator. Am Fam for 20+ years. House, lake home, two vehicles, two boats, ATV, $3M umbrella policy etc. Took it out for bid to 5 different insurance companies and saved over $700 annually and I now have better, more inclusive policies as well. Ended up with Auto-Owners.

If you bid out your insurance, bid the whole package out, not just your toys.

[Lunch_box]

Do yourself a favor and do some homework on boat insurance before you just take what appears to be a cheaper price for bundling with the traditional property and casualty insurance companies. If you look into what the firms that specialize in boat insurance really provide for about the same money you are really way better off in the event of loss. For example, mine is an agreed value policy, not depreciated like Allstate, it includes specific values for my electronics and other fishing gear so I don't have to claim int separately on my home owners and it also includes flatbed towing for my entire rig. There's actually more to the policy than I can recall here. The firm I use for my boat is American Modern Home Insurance as the agent for Worldwide Marine Underwriters of Grand Ledge MI

[ClownColor]

I've had the worst luck with American Family. But it was probably more of an agent thing then a company thing. When I had to file a claim after a tree fell on my house, car, and nieghbors house, they told us one thing, thenafter most of what was done, they told us a comltete 180 and said well" there's alot of gray area here" and wouldn't cover what they said they did. "gray area?" these contracts should be in black and white plain and simple! Never will use them again!

Okay-that's my rant. We went with progressive. I know they sound like a cheap company but they have been great thus far. Had a car break down three time in a few months and towing was awesome, they even bypassed shops to guy to my mechanic. They offer great multi-policy discounts (as does everyone), paperless discounts, pay in-full discounts, accident/claim free discounts as so on...other then towing though-have not used them for a claim...but there're very good on that so I hope they have just as good CS when things go bad.

[nofishfisherman]

Progressive tends to be cheaper (not always of course) beacuse they pay lower comissions to independant agents and they have the ability to sell direct through their HSOforum. This cuts overhead so they can offer lower rates. Independant agents sell progressive because they know its easy, reliable, cost effective for the customer and they have good claims service. They don't make as much money per policy but they don't have to work as hard to make the money. Not that they are lazy, it just means now they can help 2 customers in the time it normally takes to help 1.

Progressive is actually known for having very good claims service. They are so big and have so much leverage that they can get good rates from mechanics and body shops, plus they have the claim centers set up that make it a little easier.

If you want to make your life simple while shopping around an independant agent is the way to go. I wasn't an agent but I worked for a company who sold only through independant agents and i worked with them at times. They'll be able to slice and dice everything you need covered to find the best rates. Usually it comes through bundling everything together but not always. They'll let you know if bundling everything is best or if you can save some money by splitting some of your toys into another policy.

You'll probably find some companies are outrageously priced for a certain type of policy or to ensure a certain type of vehicle. That is intentional. They techincally offer the poilcy you want but they have no interest in actually selling the policy because its either not profitable for them or its not their core business and they don't want to deal with it. They'll make sure the quote comes back so high that you'd never in your right mind buy the policy. Actually the company that I used to work for would do this on certain types of business and if someone still bought the policy it would be flagged by our system and get a second look by the underwriting team because that can be one sign of someone with fraudulent intent. If someone willingly grossly overpays for a policy they usually are up to something.

One thing to consider when working with an independant agent is that if you do have a claim you generally don't deal with your independant agent much throughout the process. They might get the ball rolling but you'll be dealing with the insurance company who actually covers you for the most part. Maybe there are some agents that get more involved on claims but from my experience most of them do not want to deal with it. So keep that in mind when picking the policy.

For sure most people don't shop around as much as they should - me included. By shopping around you can save yourself some money. The downside is if you know and trust your agent and insurer you might be leaving for a company that is much harder to work with and its tough to know that ahead of time.

[Fish Head]

Why would you have a different agent for your toys than your auto and home? I'm sure the simple answer is that they were cheaper. There’s usually a discount for carrying it all together. Possibly you have the wrong company for your home and auto?

[Dusty]

I have an independant agent who writes for 4 or 5 different companies. He hooked me up with Western National for my home, two cars. travel trailer. and boat. I also have a 4 wheeler and Western was high on that item so he set me up with progessive. I had liberty Mutual prior and I saved a bundle by switching.

[nofishfisherman]

Some companies focus on writing policies for boats/motorcycles/various other toys and some companies either don't offer it at all or shy away from writing the business.

Usually bundling all coverage together makes sense beacuse its just simpler and often can be cheaper but not always.

If you can get a good deal on policy for your toys from a company that specializes in that type of policy then sometimes it can be cheaper to split them up. You just need to run the numbers multiple different ways and with multiple different companies to figure out exactly what is the cheapest.

I think the name of the game is don't assume anything. Don't assume its cheaper one way. Run the numbers and figure out for sure whats cheaper.

Regardless of price bundling does have the advantage simplicity. Having all your toys, cars, houses all with 1 insurer makes life easier.

[harvey lee]

Do yourself a favor and do some homework on boat insurance before you just take what appears to be a cheaper price for bundling with the traditional property and casualty insurance companies. If you look into what the firms that specialize in boat insurance really provide for about the same money you are really way better off in the event of loss. For example, mine is an agreed value policy, not depreciated like Allstate, it includes specific values for my electronics and other fishing gear so I don't have to claim int separately on my home owners and it also includes flatbed towing for my entire rig. There's actually more to the policy than I can recall here. The firm I use for my boat is American Modern Home Insurance as the agent for Worldwide Marine Underwriters of Grand Ledge MI

I have that same coverage with State farm while bundling all my policies.

I have always purchased my insurance from agents I know. If it comes down to push or shove, your agent can go to bat for you. The insurance company only looks at you like another number.

[Tom7227]

The thing that seems often overlooked is the language of the policy. A friend is a plaintiff's lawyer and he tells me that some companies fine print just makes it about impossible to collect in areas like uninsured or underinsured cases. Of course very few people have the skill it takes to read these things and make any sense out of them, much less compare one to another. Price and the level of coverage is about as deep into as most people get.

I'm a lawyer and I did claims for for a bit. Long time ago. I realize that I can't figure it out and so I let the guy who knows give me advice and explain things. Independent agent. I have referred numerous people to him and only one chose to go elsewhere.

[Lunch_box]

Why would you have a different agent for your toys than your auto and home? I'm sure the simple answer is that they were cheaper. There’s usually a discount for carrying it all together. Possibly you have the wrong company for your home and auto?

I do not bundle my boat with my cars and house because it is about the same money to get a much better policy for my boat separately. If you look at the details of the policy from the typical bundlers (State Farm, Progressive, Allstate, etc.) and then compare it to a good marine policy you will see that the marine policy is much better (in the details). bundeling may look easy and save you a couple bucks a year but it may cost you big time in the event of a loss.

[MinnesotaMike]

I have referred numerous people to him and only one chose to go elsewhere.

Tom, Can I get that referal???

Mikes at Parkprint dot com

Thx,

[Tom7227]

I sent you a Private Message.

[MinnesotaMike]

Thank you.

Mike