Home Insurance – Find The Best Coverage
You’re paying for the service, but they hold all the cards. What home insurance companies aren’t going to tell you is that you’re paying too much for the premium or that they could drop your coverage arbitrarily if you file one too many claims.
Five Things you’ll Never Hear Insurer’s Say:
“We have our own caste system.”
The terms of your home insurance coverage may change at renewal time if you’ve filed more than the average number of claims within a short time period.
The insurer will offer this new coverage so that they can continue to cover you even though your risk profile has increased. All insurers slot clients based on a variety of factors including where customers live, credit history, and occupation.
Even if a customer’s risk category doesn’t change significantly, they might still be moved from “preferred” status to a more expensive one.
Tip: If you’re no longer in the “preferred” category, ask them, “Why?” The insurance provider may be able to move you back to “preferred” status, or you might decide at that point to shop around at other companies. Remember that while your home might be considered “high risk” to one carrier, another might see you as a “preferred” customer. more here @ https://falconins.com/
“Anything out of the ordinary makes us really nervous.”
It’s common knowledge that if you live near the water or in an earthquake riddled area; insurers won’t be climbing all over each other to get to you. While regulations can’t force an insurer to work with you, some insurers use illegal underwriting guidelines that immediately redline or discriminate against groups or specific locations.
Agents have admitted that they get memos from corporate identifying “undesirable” zip codes or tips on how to avoid people going through traumatic times such as divorce or separation.
Tip: Don’t be afraid to complain if you think you’re the victim of discrimination. An elderly woman felt she was denied coverage because she applied for insurance with “an additional non-relative listed as the name insured.” She felt all other information was acceptable to the insurer except for her buying the home with a companion. The woman hired an attorney and with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union was suddenly insurable.
“One wrong move and we’ll drop you…”
Insurance providers seem to be tightening the proverbial belt, narrowing the kinds of claims they’ll cover. You may find yourself in a situation where you file just one claim and get dropped. In some cases insurers don’t wait for a claim to drop clients. The trouble is, once you’ve been dropped, you’re less desirable to other insurance companies.
Tip: Insurance companies don’t make it personal. They crunch the numbers and know that if you get hit with disaster once, you might more easily get hit again.
“Especially now that Big Brother is watching.”
In an age of informational overload, you might feel that nothing about you is sacred to anyone. Home insurance companies have access to a version of your credit report that gives them insight into your current and past behavior patterns. Insurers say these kinds of reports help them eliminate unwanted customers who might try to falsify their claims history.
Insurers see customers as guilty until proven innocent. Once an individual is categorized as a “high-risk” applicant and rejected by one insurer, another is not likely to provide coverage.
“We’re more secretive than the CIA.”
Try this experiment. Call your provider and ask them how many claims you would have to file in order to be categorized as “risky.” You’ll probably find that they won’t give you a straight answer. Despite any written guidelines, insurers are not charged to share that kind of information with you.
Tip: Be careful. If a provider doesn’t have written guidelines, they can make decisions much more subjectively.