Insurance Rant and Question

[OK Yankee]

Just got off the phone with the new ins. person. We are in the process off changing ins. companies, so we called for a quote. They are very nice on the phone and are nice as long as you are sending money to them. BUT....if you have a claim or two they can cancel you at any time they feel like it. We live in OK and we have tornados and high winds quite regularly. If you make 3 claims on your ins. they will cancel you. Then to get new ins. you have to pay more, much more. Our ins. for our house will cost $210 a month. And for what? The next high windstorm or such and we are cancelled again.

My question is how does everyone else handle their ins. needs? Just not have it? Pay the house off and not have ins.? What is the answer other than starting your own ins. company and collect money from other people.?

We have 2 houses for sale, 1 tiny one that's paid for, and our farm/ranch (with only 2 horses). Any ideas?

Yankee

[Trixie]

We don't pay that much at least for house insurance, probably our house is not as nice - but we do pay more than I think we should. Although, we had a hailstorm come through about 2 years ago, and the claim for the roof and windows equalled about 7 years premiums.

Would you still need insurance even if your home is debt free?

[Trixie]

Oh, I'm sorry - I do sympathize. It sounded like I didn't.

[Dubai Vol]

Unless you owe the bank you always have the option of carrying your own risk. Personally I am healthy, so I see no ned to pay $1000/mo for health insurance. I can put $12,000 a year into a savings account and do what I want with it. if you're sickly, pay $12k /yr for ins if it's a good deal. Don't expect me to be the one to pay your bills by wasting money on premiums for coverage I don't need.

My house will be paid for without borrowing, and foot-thick stone walls and a reinforced concrete roof are hard to damage, so exactly what would I want to insure? The contents? The only things worth insuring are irreplaceable, like family photos. The clothes and furniture can burn and who wold care?

Insurance is good for people who live dangerously. For those of us who don't take silly risks, what is the point?

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." Turn that on its head and you may get an idea of what I'm saying.

[OK Yankee]

I really wasn't looking for sympathy, just answers. I didn't want to sound like I was whining,(but I was!). But thanks for the reply.

Our house is just a 3 bedroom brick ranch. Maybe 2500 sq. ft. if you add the extra room on the side that was built to be a garage that never was. I think the lady used it for her painting room. It is just a plain rectangular house.

Yankee

[Dubai Vol]

hey, I should probably apologise too, you can probably tell insurance is a sore pont for me. You ask a very fair question. It boils down to this: is $2520 per year a fair price to pay versus taking that money and sticking it in the bank and carrying your own risk? That's a call only you can make.

For most people that's a month's salary, near enough after taxes. Do you really want to spend a month every year working for the insurance company? You already spend several months a year working for the government to pay your taxes.

Mrs Dubai is the risk-averse sort: she has every form of insurance known to man. She buys vacation insurance when we travel. I always offer to take her money and give her the same coverage, but she just doesn't get it....

[Ross]

I guess in that position I'd over build a house to survive extreme weather pay it off as fast as poss, then go with a $5000 deductable and insure for total loss and no small claims. Not that a roof is a small claim!! There was a fellow in California that made the news, he built a concrete house with a steel roof. People thought he was nutz but his was the only house left standing when a fire swept through.

[OK Yankee]

If I had my druthers, I would like an earthship. DH thinks I'm nutz! At least in an earthbermed house with a cement roof or even a dirt roof, there isn't much to burn, plus it's a whole lot more tornado friendly!

I like the idea of putting 12k in the bank and having 5k deductible. First we have to pay this one off. That would be easier if we could sell the other two. I would like to rent the tiny one to pay for our ins. on this house, but it needs so much work done to it.

Thanx for your replies.
Yankee

[zookeeper16]

It's not just homeowners insurance that is a joke. We were dropped by one auto insurance company because of 5 claims in 6 years (4 were deer and one was hail).

Health insurance can be just as much of a joke. I had needed surgery for at least two years but the insurance company wouldn't cover it unless it was "life-threatening." Well, it became life threatening and I ended up in emergency surgery in October, then the surgery I needed in November.

But I got the last laugh...so far the total medical bills they had to cover is over $25K. All I needed in the first place was a surgery that would have cost under $8K!

[gccrook]

Last year, we increased our insurance deductible to $2000. Shortly thereafter, we recieved a call from the bank telling us we could not have that large of a deductible. My DW ended up talking to the vice president of the main bank before getting them to aknowledge that we were only required to have enough insurance to cover the amount of our mortgage if something catastrophic should happen, and the $2000 deductible did not keep us from that. I chose $2000, since a claim for anything less than that is just going to get us cancelled or increase our payments by more than the amount we would save.

[CraftyDiva]

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/h...ays/12ways.htm



.

[PineRidge]

Sorry they want so much, I thought our quotes were bad when they asked for $1400.00 a year. We have been here 14 months and have no insurance yet. I am very risk averse too, but I don't like being ripped off either. As it is, we own the house and figure if we lost the house totally then it would be our excuse to build on another location on the property. Meanwhile we would live in a very cheap trailer to still be debt free.

I guess the risk of tornadoe damage is why yours is higher. Is the quote for just damage to the house, or does it include personal property loss too?

[OK Yankee]

The quote is for replacement value, personal property, and stuff like a place to live in case of a disaster. Sounds like a lot, but how often do you think they'll shell out cash for that stuff. One time if you are lucky, (or unlucky).
I think I'll ask for a higher deductible. They don't tell you that you can do that. I had a choice of 500 or 1,000. $2,000 or even $5,000 would be a whole lot easier on the pocketbook.

Thanx again,
Yankee

[lmnde]

$500 and some odd change for a 1800 sf house, s.e. GA. Had more or less the same rate for the last 8 or so years, but will probably go up as our real estate values have gone up a lot the last 2 yrs. I am guestimating around $600 or so after I request them to adjust the value... Was complaining - but not any more, LOL!

[Pouncer]

I've heard it said that a homeowner should be self insured to at least $5000. A few people have even advocated $15000.

For myself, I never intend on making a claim unless I experience a catastrophic loss. If you make one too many claims, you will get dropped and the house known as a "problem" which can be a real issue getting other insurance-which is often required by lenders. I personally think it should be the mortgage holder that pays to protect their interest, LOL, but I don't see that happening, ever.

[Jena]

You can make your deductible higher, play with what is replacement cost. I have replacement cost, except for a total loss. They are paying replacement cost for my roof and siding, but if my house burns to the ground I only get the max of the insurance....$75K. You can have replacement on your personal stuff or not. You can lower the total amount of insurance.

My house was paid for and I felt insurance was just as important. I could not afford to build another one if it goes down.

I pay $658/year. They paid my claim this year of $13K...all the siding and half the roof. It would take me 19 years of premiums to equal that one claim. This is the first claim I have EVER made to a homeowners policy and hopefully it will be another 20 years before I make another one.

Jena

[ET1 SS]

I bought our property using money we already had.

I paid for the well, driveway and foundation likewise.

I bought our building in like manner and I erected it myself.

Why do I need insurance?

[neolady]

If you don't have house insurance, what do you do for liability insurance? You can lose EVERYTHING with one suit against you if someone slips and falls on your doorstep.

[Trixie]

If we could get the fraud out of insurance, it would cost us a lot less. I am not talking about any fraud by the insurance companies.

Texas insurance jumped drastically when everyone and his dog got black mold that costs thousands of dollars to clean up. Isn't it funny how many houses don't have black mold now????

Also, around here, there was a plumber who went around talking to people about replacing their shower pans. I know a lady whose shower pan was rusted out when she bought the house - yet 20 years later, she filed a claim on her insurance company for water damage. Everyone around has new shower pans - paid for by the insurance company - that's mean us.

A doctor removed a large, deep skin cancer from my husband's shoulder. It required a lot of work, biopsies, and stitches - with follow up visits. We were still under my husband's retirement insurance. The doctor charged $1,000.

He went back to have a small one cut from his nose and from the top of his ear. We now have medicare - the bill was $4,000!!! He is gouging medicare, and that means everyone is paying for that.

[ET1 SS]

Doorstep?

We have no doorstep.

From the moment you step out of your car, you are on the driveway gravel, then mud, then deeper mud with a base on ice underneath it, then up onto loading pallets with planks on top as a boardwalk and you follow that over to the house.

Careful of the goats [they will eat your coat and yank hard on your beard], and the chickens [they hover around your feet thinking that your going to give them food, they are dumb], and the dog [she don't bark, but she does yag a mean powerful tail].