A good friend of mine works for an insurance agency and sent me this article. I personally know of several people who have had this experience: they filed a "normal" claim and then got slammed with huge premium increases and one of them did get cancelled and had a really hard time getting another company to take him and had to pay through the nose Anybody here have a similar experience?


WARNING:

Homeowners Insurance is a DOUBLE EDGE SWORD. It’s nothing like auto insurance. When you file an auto insurance claim, it could be the other driver’s fault and so they collect from the other driver’s insurance and so your rates won’t go up. In Homeowners any time you file a claim, it is and it will ALWAYS BE YOUR FAULT, even though they don’t say it but the new premium will say it or sometimes they will right out refuse to renew your policy. More than one claim and they will be keeping a close eye on you. Electrical fire, it’s your fault. Winds blow down your fence and knock down your tree and destroy half your house. It’s really not your fault, you didn’t do it but once you file that claim, it’s your fault. Even if you NEVER filed a claim before, your rates will be higher if the previous owner of your newly-purchased house has a previous claim on that property. That house is now considered a risk, therefore, higher rates for you. You get punished for just owning that “at-risk” property. That’s like getting a higher car insurance rate because the previous owner of that car you just bought had previous claims. Why are we held accountable for somebody else’s claim? Because a Homeowners insurance claim is always your fault. You need to write to your State insurance commissioner to end this practice.

Don’t even bother having that $500 deductible on homeowners insurance. I don’t even recommend it. $1,000 should be the minimum. $2,000 deductible is even better and it will save you money. Save that money for future repairs. Why such a high deductible? Remember, every time you file, it’s your fault that is why. You never, ever file a claim unless it’s too much of burden to you financially. $1,000 loss, don’t even bother; the insurance company will make you pay dearly for that claim. $10,000 lost is ok enough to file a claim in my opinion. Damned if you file a claim, damned if you don’t. A true example: a potential client called me up. I quoted him for $400/year on his 1500sq ft home, same amount on what he used to pay for with his previous insurance company. I ran a claim report and found out that he filed a claim, stolen item worth $150 and damages totaling nearly $500, totaling $650. He filed the claim; after the $500 deductible, the insurance company sent him a $150 check. At renewal, he found out that his insurance company raised his rates by almost double what he used to pay. He got angry and canceled the policy and called my company for a quote. Due to his claim, Preferred Rating Insurance companies refused to insured him, including my company. My insurance company does not like to receive new business that have THEFT and FIRE claims no matter how small the claim was. He became a high-risk client and falls into the standard market and so a friend of mine insured him for close to $1,000 year. In the end, he got a $150 check from the insurance company but lost thousands of dollars later on due to rate increases by filing that claim. He will continue to pay double or triple his original premium until he is no longer considered a high risk. So only use your homeowner's insurance when you really have to or you could end up paying that much too. It is up to a customer to file a claim or pay for the repairs themselves, I always let them know the consequences if they do go ahead with filing the claim.

I haven't had a similar experience, but I've heard this advice since I first bought a house 20 years ago.

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

I agree. You pay for insurance but are afraid to use it.

We have high deductibles on our house, cars & health insurance. We have no interest in having every claim paid in full. It's way more cost effective to have higher deductibles, save the money you'd be paying in monthly premiums and then you have the insurance when you need it - in case of higher cost damage or issues. We aren't afraid to use our insurance and do file claims when we need them and we haven't had any ill repercussions because of it.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Not only do we pay for insurance and are afraid to use it but we are FORCED to pay for it or the bank will not give you a mortgage. Just another industry screwing hard working people and the all the regulators and government agencies and everybody else whose job it is to protect us from getting screwed don't or won't or can't or don't give a damn to do anything about it.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

We've owned a house for 29 yrs and have filed 4 claims, one on the first house and three on this house. Three of the claims were for hail damage and one was a liability claim. We've never had our rates go up because we filed a claim. Rates have went up for the whole area when there were so many claims because of the hail storm in April 08. However, we've never been singled out with higher rates because of a claim.

My parents filed a claim after their vehicle was broken into and my dad's wallet was stolen in which he had a large sum of money. (I'm not certain why this was covered under their homeowner's insurance but it was.) Anyway, when they purchased another home they were only able to qualify for high risk insurance at a very high rate due to filing that one claim.