Just got my renewal from American Family and they raised my homeowners 45%! Plus raised wind and hail damage deductible an additional $1,000. That was on top of raising it 34.25% last year. Up 79.25% in two years. That's BS. Cars went up 28% this year for a 2 year total raise of 43.5%


I haven't a a single claim in 30 years. Tell me again how they try to keep good customers by not taking advantage of them.


Meeting with agent next week and see if it's time to move on.

My home went up 26%, auto went up 9%, and I work for them.

Most of the insurers are not profitable in recent years. They've struggled to figure out how to properly underwrite/price in the post-covid era, in particular with auto. Auto claims costs have increased a ton, and continue to go up. Bad pricing + more expensive claims = what you're experiencing. Home is a complete train wreck in some states, especially FL and CA.

I could have lived with 26 and was expecting 20 something but not 45,

They really are robbing Peter to pay Paul when it comes to home. It's a total mess, and consumers are getting stuck.

Try hiring a contractor to fix or replace anything. It costs about twice as much as it did a few years ago. Materials are way up, labor is way up. That drives the claim costs way up which drives premiums up.

Maybe they spend too much $$ on stupid TV commercials.

Ain't that the truth

If house is paid off, at what point does it make sense to self-insure?
After the hurricanes in the 90s, I remember a father in law went that route.
They had, at that time, a $500k house near the beach.
Insurance was going to be $30k, he bailed.
Not sure how long he stayed without insurance, but never had a claim in the 30yrs since.
He died 5 yrs ago, but the wife is still there.

Not advertising is a surefire way to make a bad thing worse. :shruggy; The advertising budgets are a drop in the bucket compared to the real problems I mentioned above.

🎯

Thats a good question and it also carries over to our cars. About 3 months ago USAA self adjusted my auto policy for the miles driven per car to there std. setting where in reality out of 12 vehicles I drive a total of less then 6k miles per year. I also had been keeping full coverage and all that goes with it one some old drivers just because it has not been that costly until the last few years as everyone knows.

So I sat down and did the math for what a windshield for this car or what this would cost if I had a deer strike ect. To sum it up for me it has meant a $2600 cut in my auto insurance policy every six months to what really fits my needs and ive taken the saved money the past few months and put it in an drawer to cover what some of the smaller things would be that I might encounter and will for a few more months.

I sorta feel USAA screwed themselves because ive had two claims in the last 20 years a $1600 deer strike and a windshield. So while im putting more of the risk on me I can only go by the past and what I see are my needs. Had they of left me alone they would of been still collecting over 5k more per year from me with no claims. Ive had USAA since the late 70-s and really dont want to shop around but like many things current it looks like the ins. industry needs a serious evaluation and changes made.

That's nuts for a two year increase. By my math, if it went up 34.25% last year and another 45% this year, that's an increase of almost 95% from what you paid two years. That's just stupid. May be time to start shopping for a new carrier.

i had the same experience with Am Fam. 4 cars ( two classics) house, business, life, workman's comp. only a few hail claims in 25 years. They jacked me 35+% on th e house alone, I bailed to Nationwide and got 25% back. Cars about the same. I asked them to add up what I had paid them vs what they paid out to me, WHAH WHAH we lost money. Not on me you haven't.
So what about all the years they made $$$$. Oh that went to the exec's for doing such a good job BTW they expect that same level of compensation now as well.
So why not raise rates in areas that have cost more than stabbing everybody in the shorts? UHH then the exec's compensation would have to drop.
It's a scam right up their with loan sharking or running numbers IMO.
I write this as tornadoes ripped through here ~ 5 hours ago. Damage you bet. Did it flatten the town? NO but they'll cry and say they lost $$ Cumulatively, if one looks at the total they pull in annually in Omaha over 5-10 years, I'll doubt it
lets not even discuss fire insurance in parts of Ca. or who was responsible for those fires but barely got a finger pointed at them.

Glad to see our resident expert chimed in once again.

Agree that it's crazy high 2 years in a row. The problem we face as consumers is that everyone is raising rates, and by a lot. It's still worth shopping around for sure, but the chances of finding a better deal for comparable coverage are lower than they would normally be.

Insurance is like a big hole in the ground that you throw money in and get nothing out. When super storm Sandy hit the insurance companies had a heart attack. They screwed over most if not all of their claims. I sometimes think you have better odds at a roulette table than paying insurance companies. If i invest the money i spend on insurance for 30 years at least i get to keep it. I'm not advocating the government should take over but should some how oversee how they operate. What's the percentage of fairly reimbursed claims vs the people getting screwed? By the number of insurance commercials i see it explains who it's working out for.
linky

The root cause of problems like what was experienced after Sandy is that flood insurance and home insurance aren't the same. Home insurers will try to blame everything on flooding so that they don't have to cover the loss. In reality, most of hurricane related water damage issues are wind driven, which is covered by your home insurance. But the insurers are counting on you not fighting back or understanding the difference. Water damage does not necessarily equal flooding. This is why you really don't hear an abundance of complaints about car/motorcycle/rv/whatever claims after a hurricane, but you hear endless complaints about home claims. The other claims are straightforward. Home claims are not.

You do not want government controlled auto or home insurance. Regulated, yes. But we already have that. Government controlled? Definitely not. It would be infinitely worse for consumers. Government has made the insurance market in Florida untenable, and consumers are getting screwed. It's beyond repair at this point.

You guys keep complaining about advertising costs. Do you know how much is actually spent on advertising? It's nothing in comparison to claim costs and employee costs. Paying claims and running the company are the 2 big expenses, not the TV commercials you guys are railing about.

The insurance industry is one of the most highly regulated businesses in the US. There exists layers upon layers of protection for the customers. One issue is that when people file a claim, and the insurance company tries to short change them, most folks don't have the knowledge or the gumption to exert their rights and get a fair settlement. Why aren't the the attorneys all over property claims with TV ads and billboards, harvesting victims like they do with liability claims and class action suits? Because there is no jackpot for them. Property claims have very low payouts compared to tort claims.

Thinking of self insuring? What about liability coverage? Can you get it without property coverage? I can't. And liability is by far your biggest risk. Your risk is unlimited.

If someone came to me and said, Joel, if I give you $5000 a year will you pay any and all liability claims against me, including attorney's fees to defend against false claims, pay for any damage to my home including fire, tornado, wind, hail, sewer backup, or a tree falling on it, and pay for any damage to my cars - anything from a chipped windshield to a total, and pay for any damage I do to others vehicles or property, and pay my medical bills and those of anyone I injure, and the death benefits and liability of anyone I kill, I'd say you are out of your fricken' mind!

i wouldn't buy insurance from "FLO" if it were the LAST company on earth, and i faced the death penalty if i didn't buy some !

LOL they're doing just fine without you as a customer.