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My husband is currently paying about $1100.00 per year for homeowners insurance for a 1500sq ft 3bdrm 2th built in the early 1990's.
From looking at this forum and also from asking around from coworkers it seems many are getting cheaper rates and I can't understand why - other than perhaps the bankruptcy.
My husband (he is the sole owner) has good credit across the board 720+ FICOs, but even with shopping around and bundling, I cannot get the rate any lower.
Our bk is due to fall off at the end of the year, and I am wondering if anyone has any experience with their homeowners insurance rates dropping after their bk falls off.
That does seem high, but rates vary by zip code and the stats for that zip code - crime rate, quality of fire protection service, etc. I don't know if you'll be able to get better rates when the BK falls off, as mine doesn't come off unitl 2020.
But here's what I found out from my insurance underwriter: I've been with American Family home & auto since 2001. MY BK7 was filed in 2010. I've been satisfied with the rates, have never made a claim. In January 2015 I bought a 2nd car and had my agent add it to me policy, although the rate seemed high. On the next renewal I noticed a line on the coverage page, to the effect of "Your discount was not as much as possible because of factors on your credit report". So I called. It took me awhile to get to the right department, but I finally got an underwriter. He told me that because my home & (1st) auto policies were in effect several years prior to filing BK & the dive in credit score, they were only "minimally" affected by the BK. But since the policy for the 2nd car was taken out only 4 years after BK, the rate was "much more adversely affected". I ended up changing the policy for the 2nd car to GEICO for over $200/yr. less, but kept the home & 1st auto with AmFam. I thought $700/yr. for the home insurance was high, but when I shopped around I got quotes as high as $2500/yr. .
So the question is: Did your husband get the current insurance coverage before or after BK? If taken out after BK you'll probably get a better rate after it falls off. If taken out before the BK, probably not much of a better rate when it falls off, and likely something else affecting it, perhaps the zip code.
@Anonymous wrote:
I had American family my first 2 years in my home and last year my rate went up 400 bucks but they claim it was due to a hail storm.. I did notice at that time I was under insured and after talking to American family the value of my policy was cost to rebuild not what's owed or value so I switched
You should always insure for cost to rebuild only. Remember you aren't insuring the land as no covered peril could destroy the lot. God forbid you have a total loss the insurance company isn't going to cut you a check for the market value of your home. Insurance is to put you back to whole Sit down with your agent and ask them to run your home through a cost estimator, State Farm uses a program called 360Value, I would imagine each carrier has something similar. Most lenders will force you to carry enough coverage through dwelling and extended replacement cost to cover the loan amount though.
Thank you for the information Dave. Yes, the home was bought after the bk, and the rate has not changed much at all over the years despite his improving score.
I am hoping that this is the reason.
I am in a high cost of insurance area (SE Florida). So I have found that it is best to use an insurance broker that can shop many different insurance companies and compare the coverage with the rate.
Our insurance here is expensive. We consider anything under $2400/year to be a good premium but geographic area and condition of the property and age of the property + a host of other factors influence the cost of insurance. Make sure the insurance company you choose is strong. Believe it or not, there are some very weak insurance companies issuing policies that the company may or may not be able to pay off a claim if you ever had one.
Also check for weird things. For example, my daughter and her husband discovered that their State Farm insurance HOI policy doesn't cover plumbing under the slab. They are in AZ and found out the hard way Read the details of your policy for gotcha's because you won't see it in the summary section.
@StartingOver10 wrote:I am in a high cost of insurance area (SE Florida). So I have found that it is best to use an insurance broker that can shop many different insurance companies and compare the coverage with the rate.
Our insurance here is expensive. We consider anything under $2400/year to be a good premium but geographic area and condition of the property and age of the property + a host of other factors influence the cost of insurance. Make sure the insurance company you choose is strong. Believe it or not, there are some very weak insurance companies issuing policies that the company may or may not be able to pay off a claim if you ever had one.
Also check for weird things. For example, my daughter and her husband discovered that their State Farm insurance HOI policy doesn't cover plumbing under the slab. They are in AZ and found out the hard way Read the details of your policy for gotcha's because you won't see it in the summary section.
Ughh, I get the joys of explaining this to many of our customers.. If your daughter is still with State Farm please make sure to have her look into "Back up of sewer and drain" as well. It is not something most agents include during the quote and is very cheap!
^^^They dropped State Farm because they were not told about the plumbing prior to a plumbing incident (read: "big expensive plumbing item").
So they decided to go with USAA instead (I think that's the one) and they read every word of the policy before jumping to another company. I will give them your advice though
It is difficult when the new homeowner, speaking of the OP here, has to learn all about insurance just to understand the quotes. You are very helpful Scupra. I wish there were a website that consumers could go to for a translation from insurance speak to regular English...
@StartingOver10 wrote:^^^They dropped State Farm because they were not told about the plumbing prior to a plumbing incident (read: "big expensive plumbing item").
So they decided to go with USAA instead (I think that's the one) and they read every word of the policy before jumping to another company. I will give them your advice though
It is difficult when the new homeowner, speaking of the OP here, has to learn all about insurance just to understand the quotes. You are very helpful Scupra. I wish there were a website that consumers could go to for a translation from insurance speak to regular English...
USAA has a very broad homeowners policy, great choice. The language is very confusing at times, even I agree with that! Always here to help