It took 45 mins, but just saved 64% on my home insurance. If, like me, you haven't shopped your insurance...do so.

[MLAA]

I’ve had a lot going on the last few years caring for my wonderful husband. I also have all our bills set up for autopay. It just hit me that our home insurance had more than doubled just in the last few years. I printed our current policy and then went to another, frequently advertised insurance company and in minutes I had a quote. I’d been with my current company for 10 years without a single claim. I do not live in a flood risk or Forrest fire risk area. I live in a desert. The online quote was about 45% less for the same or very nearly same coverage. My next step was to contact the current company to see if they wanted to compete or be cancelled. I called the number on my policy. After going through all the automated choices and provided the 11 digit policy number and being offered to be given their wonderful website I waited for a live agent. One came on just a few minutes later. They informed me I had the wrong number and gave me the correct number then transferred me. Again, the automated choices and providing the 11 digit policy number, the kind offer to push me to the website and another short wait, that person said, again, I was in the wrong place and gave me yet another and transferred me. I’m on number three now who said yet again they did not service my policy and gave me another number and I said that is the very first number I started with. She kindly went on to do a little google investigating and ultimately suggested I call a local authorized insurance agent. I reached a very kind man who said he had a number for the companies headquarters and he would call and try and find someone for me. He put me on hold and finally, the right representative came online. She could not explain why her departments number was not on my policy or the website. Insurance companies have relationships with other insurance comapnies and depending on who sells the policy and what type home it is (an agent, online sales or their call center, a single family home, condo or mobile home) who services it becomes complicated. Turns out while the policy is from Liberty Mutual but sold to me by Geico via their call center. Bottom line after finally reaching the right group, they ran a search and found a policy from a reputable company with the same coverage for 64% less. Damn, that’s a huge savings and damn there seem to be insidious relationships between insurance companies. I’m delighted with the savings but disgusted that I paid so much more than I needed to for so long.

If you haven’t done so lately go home insurance shopping. My next shopping expedition will be for car insurance which has also been increasing despite not a single claim in my 45 years of driving.

[in2herbs]

1. My H was so proud he found a company for less but when I compared his quote to reality it

turns out the money we'd be saving on premiums was because they had lowered the amount of coverage from $1.2 M to $289,000.

Make sure this is not happening to you.

[MLAA]

3. Thanks, I did. I triple checked by printing them and comparing side by side.

[bob4460]

2. And get reviews of the cheaper company

My insurance company, Nationwide, treated me very fairly when I had a loss. Several people I know have had really hard times with the claims and the cheaper companies denying things that should be covered.

[MLAA]

4. Thanks for the tip.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Safeco just hiked my Mom's homeowner's policy coverage by 150%, no real explanation given.

Her agent tried to find her a better deal, but the best they can find is a policy that raises her monthly payments by $200, which is unaffordable. I'm trying to find a cheaper policy from another company, but can't seem to get it done during office hours because of my chronic sleep disorder. OF COURSE they gave her hardly any notice, and it took several days just to get in touch with the agent, the company, look at the quickest alternatives (none of which works), renegotiate lesser coverage, talk to another insurance agent we've gotten homeowners' insurance form before, and end up having to start payments on the new, doubled payments to avoid losing coverage altogether. You'd think that somewhere along the way SOMEONE would try to explain why this beat-up, 45 yo house with a crappy floor plan is suddenly declared to be worth HALF A MILLION DOLLARS when even the brand new, larger houses in the neighborhood are selling for 30-40% less than that.

My planned next step is to starting asking around about FUNCTIONAL replacement value, to see if we can get a break that way. There's no way she'd want to buy a house this large again. Much of the extra floor space is there because my dad wanted a huge, high-ceilinged living room for his stereo and a huge workshop downstairs for his woodworking projects. All inefficiently used storage space now. She could get a house with 2/3 the floor space and not feel any squeeze at all. Probably 1/2 the floor space would be perfectly livable. Of course she really doesn't want to move if she doesn't have to, so that doesn't really help. She has to pay to insure what she got in the divorce, even if she probably won't live to enjoy it for many more years.

[MLAA]

6. That is terrible. I feel like all the hikes have been based on increasing the pool of homes they base risk on in order

to mitigate the costs of the highest risk areas. I’ve done no research and have no proof other than the agent telling me my home risk for fire and flooding was a 5 of 10 when I live in a very safe suburban area far from any forest and far from any flooding zone. My neighborhood has 550 homes. I walk 3-4 miles a day in the neighborhood. Not once in my 15 years here has there been a flood or a fire except one home had a fire in their kitchen.

I’m so sorry about your mom’s situation. We down sized when I retired, but I’m considering doing it again once it’s just me. I can’t do it now since my husband has severe short term memory problems and going to a new home would be too disruptive for him. I understand moving isn’t something she would prefer, but as things continue to worsen with climate change. Depending on where she lives, if you think her home will be at further risk due to extreme weather escalating and you think she could sell her home, it might be worth a discussion with her.

Sending you hugs for your chronic sleep disorder, that must be so difficult. 🩷

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Thanks for the sympathy. I keep hoping I'll hear from Medicare (registered 3 wks ago, heard nothing since) ...

so I can get a sleep study done (~$20k w/out insurance, and I have no insurance) and get some treatment. There are several drug treatments for narcolepsy and similar disorders, but they all have side effects, are Rx only, and have major interactions with other drugs I'm prescribed for (I'm only on two, just bad coincidence there). As much as neither of us wants it, Mother is going to have to move into a "facility" within a few years. I can't take care of her myself very well now, and as she gets worse (memory loss is already really bad) I won't be able to do it full-time. Her mother lived to 90, IIRC, and her grandmother to 95, so that seems to run in that family (at least for women) but she's not having a comfortable old age.

It sure doesn't help to have an insurance company blindsiding her out of the blue, with no reasonable explanation offered why her home suddenly doubled in replacement value in less the past year, and very little advance notice. We're definitely dropping that company ASAP. They don't deserve to stay in business. (Safeco is a "sister company" of Liberty Mutual.) Life has enough challenges without corps dropping crap like this on the "little people" with such short notice. My waking hours are pretty well spoken for by all the problem I'm dealing with already. Anyone who adds to them earns a special serving of intense loathing in my book.

Apparently, LiMu is retiring the Safeco brand. Recently, they acquired all the booked policies of two different insurance companies. I strongly suspect that has some connection -- they're dumping the less profitable policies, or forcing them to drop coverage.

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2025/03/04/814036.htm
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2024/11/13/800889.htm