Posted on 04/11/2017 4:56:17 AM PDT by MissEdie
Need help from my Freeper friends with business and legal expertise. Have recently had my all of my insurance policies with State Farm go up with no explanation.
Did you ask them?
I used to have State Farm as an insurance carrier. I answered all my questions of State Farm with two words: Farm Bureau
Don’t have a great answer for you. We have had the same agency for over 30 years. Every year they look over our policies and they deal with a slew of carriers for home and auto. No fees ever. They look for the best rates and coverage. We are in Michigan if the matters. So if you have agents there I would contact one.
You should do make up a spread sheet with each item that you are charged for - How much coverage, for what, do you really need it, etc. Then schedule a meeting with your insurance agent, ask him for his itemized list, justification, etc., and confront him with the increased costs. It is fair to ask the question, why did it go up 20%? etc., Also, as he prepares his list, inform him that you will be comparison shopping. He will try to convince you that State Farm is ‘premium’ insurance and that is why you are charged more. It is utter nonsense. Get an evaluation from any qualified rating service - go on line and just google insurance ratings, etc. It is easy to search. Make that Agent work for you..you don’t need a salesman, you need an agent that works for you. Then, if he is unable to convince you that he is better than at least two other evaluated companies that you present him with, change insurance. The new insurance will make adjustments and State Farm will have to reimburse you for any term left on your current policies. If you do a little work on your part, you can save hundreds (or thousands) of dollars per year. Work for yourself, not for your agent.
Why should they have to explain anything? You’re just the idiot customer, they are the INSURANCE COMPANY, the all wise and all knowing.
I had State Farm for a few years quite some time ago. I loathe that company.
We have our home and autos with Ameriprise through Costco - saved us a lot of money over our past carriers.
For business we have a local carrier.
Best.
Can State Farm (or any other insurance company) raise rates in South Carolina? Of course they can. Why? Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Matthew. Also rising auto accident rates, unscrupulous contractors chasing storms, the time of day, etc. .
If you are a veteran, check USAA.
Shop around, yes they can raise rates but you don’t have to accept them. Not a fan of Buffet but try GEICO online. Get some quotes and go back to State Farm and see if they will beat them.
I was recently hit by an aggressive driver who cut me off while attempting to pass me from the right lane of a duel lane highway . My car ( a Jeep Grand Cherokee ) had literally no damage at all but the aggressive driver wiped out his left rear fender . I reported the accident with no claim of damage to my car and when my State Farm policy was up for renewal the company canceled me . I have had no claims against the policy which I had for over 37 years . I cancelled all my S/F policies and have moved on to Nationwide .
Insurance is highly regulated. If they raised rates across the board (ie - no accident, etc), they would have had to file and had a rate increase approved by the Department of Insurance.
Run away from State Farm.
Wherever I have lived they have proved themselves not to be trusted.
If there’s a huge hailstorm, they will try to fix only one side of the roof, crap like that.
Farm Bureau is better. Others may know better than I but GEICO used to stand for Government Employee Insurance Company-—to hell with that, if that’s still who they are.
I’ve been with Safeco for decades, and they have always been service-oriented.
In certain states they can raise insurance costs, and in others, they have to work out those increases with the state, depending on the laws. My state used to regulate rates (the insurers had to request rate increases and provide rationale) but it was deregulated back in 2008. Personally, I hated having the state regulate rates, and that was on principle alone. I believe insurance should charge what it wants, and let the market decide if they are too high.
Bottom line, if you don’t agree with the rate increase, you can look elsewhere for insurance...as it should be...:)
Put those who raise their rates to gouge their customers out of business. It is a capitalistic concept.
Yes I did, and their response was that the company had a “General Across the Board rate increase at the end of October.” Funny how this corresponded to a couple of weeks after Hurricane Matthew!
Thank you for your advice, sounds great and I’m going to give it a try!!
Same thing with me years ago, I called and they said oh, it’s the black mold issue. I told them that 10 years paying $1000 a year and no claims and I’m not worth a phone call or letter to explain? Been with Allstate ever since.
Do you have both home and auto with SF? You mentioned “all of your policies”, so you probably do.
There was a move by Allstate (in NC) several years ago to force people to “bundle” those two policies together. If you didn’t, they cancelled your single policy. They did that to my mother (home policy). She was 88, didn’t drive, no license, no car, no auto insurance. The lying agent (whom mom and dad did business with for 40 years) said Allstate had been hit hard with coastal storms and was trying to alter their business method to better handle the costs of the devastating storms. I called the insurance commission. The consumer guy laughed and said that was BS.
Allstate did provide an alternative insurance company with little effort on our part to change over...although more expensive. We knew we would be selling her home in the near future, so we didn’t fight it. But, mom had some investments thru Allstate that we immediately yanked.
Sorry for the run-on story. But there are other companies out there, and if you have two or more types of policies, your business should be attractive to them.
Our financial planner says change insurance carriers every three years. We had policies with NO CLAIMS for 30 years that inexplicably recently went up. We re-insured elsewhere for lots less and will do it again soon.
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