Is there some reason rates have gone up? I found an article online that said they approved a rate increase last december, but that they expected rates in raleigh to only rise 10%. My premium went from $740 to $1025, and a secondary quote from GEICO was $975. Why would rates jump over 35%?

6/25/2013 9:27:45 PM

Depends on a lot of things. Mainly the fact they have spent billions of dollars on the, oh I don't know, enormous catastrophes we've had recently. It's a business so they need to maintain to pay on claims and also make a profit for once. Make sure your shopped price is the exact same coverage and that you're not getting a new policy discount that will fall off on the next renewal. Enjoy.

Did you have a claim? Has your credit score changed? Has your dwelling coverage increased? Protection class change? Etc.

[Edited on June 25, 2013 at 9:40 PM. Reason : Bleh]

6/25/2013 9:39:48 PM

I have had no claims or no changes in credit score (I have had the same NC Farm Bureau insurance for the past 9 years for the same house).

My agent of 9 years also just left (and he was a good guy), and I haven't met the new agent yet. I guess I'll call over there tomorrow.

I was just wondering if everyone's rates went up, or if there was something specific that changed in the last year.

6/25/2013 10:03:42 PM

Mine was going to double. I called my insurance guy. He ran a few numbers. Got comparable coverage with another company and the rate actually is a little less than I'm paying now.

6/25/2013 10:12:01 PM

I had this agent tell me the other day "we are the only job family that works so hard to make less money" cause, you know, they're commission. couldn't convince me to be one.

6/25/2013 10:17:16 PM

So, since my home is now 25 years old, I lose the credit for "carolina partner plus" which was $240 a year.

My agent then said that she could lower my coverage from 221k to 180k which would bring the dollar amount back down to around $850. I have no clue what it would cost to build a new 1,546 sqft home. I don't have anything particularly valuable, hell new tvs only cost $500. My most valuable possession is my laptop or bike, both of which would cost over $750 to replace.

HomeInsurance.com gave the following rebuild estimates for a 1,546 sqft home in Raleigh:
a. Standard ($83/Sq. ft.) $128,318
b. Some Upgrades ($108/Sq. ft.) $166,968
c. Fully Upgraded ($140/Sq. ft.) $216,440

Anyone have any advice? Should I stay insured at 221k or drop back to 180k to save $200 a year?

6/26/2013 2:39:17 PM

i had travelers (through geico, since they supposedly didn't do home owners insurance themselves)...i made a claim of about $2500 (after $1000 deductible) after the tornadoes came through (2?) years ago

travelers sent me a letter at renewal time and i was told that it had nothing to do with my claim, that travelers is not renewing any NC policies because they classify us as "high risk" now

spoke with geico and they went to another company...ameri-something?...but they wouldn't insure me because i have PEX piping

it worked out well, though, because i ended up with amica...lower rate, lower deductible, more coverage

Quote :

"Anyone have any advice? Should I stay insured at 221k or drop back to 180k to save $200 a year?"

$180k seems like enough to rebuild a ~1500sqft home with decent materials

[Edited on June 26, 2013 at 2:44 PM. Reason : .]

6/26/2013 2:42:10 PM

farm bureau won't even insure your home unless you have your auto insurance with them. they don't make any money off home owner's insurance.

6/26/2013 3:52:56 PM

i don't currently have auto insurance with them (and didn't when I started either), I guess they keep me because I am a current customer?

6/26/2013 4:36:26 PM

no, they dropped a lot of folks who didn't want to move their auto insurance over. it could be an eastern NC thing (you're pretty much guaranteed to have wind claims every few years in eastern NC).

6/26/2013 4:55:41 PM

^^^Allstate is the same way. I think it has something to do with insurance laws, as I was told (when I didn't have auto with Allstate) that I couldn't have home owner's through allstate because I didn't have an auto policy. Now that I have both, both are with Allstate.

^^are you sure your policy is a FB policy, or just serviced by FB? When I dropped Allstate Auto, Allstate became the servicer (still had same agent and everything), but the home policy was actually through another company.

[Edited on June 26, 2013 at 5:25 PM. Reason : .]

6/26/2013 5:25:11 PM

it has nothing to do with laws. they just make more money off auto.

6/26/2013 5:30:39 PM

I can't speak for this year, but a few years ago they changed the way the distance to fire stations was measured. It used to be "as the crow flies", but now its driving distance. Mine went up like hell as a result of that, as the classification went from "good" to "poor" as a result.

Call/speak to your agent. If they are worth a damn, they'll be straight up with you. If they aren't, time to look somewhere else.

6/26/2013 10:16:57 PM

i'm over 5 miles from the fire dept and there's no county water where i live, so no fire hydrants. i have the absolute worst ISO rating possible. they informed me of this $1200/year increase in insurance about a month after i closed on my house. my agent emailed me asking how far the fire dept was and how close a hydrant was to my house, and i answered truthfully, but he still fucked it up. of course, when it got to raleigh, they noticed they weren't charging me enough.

[Edited on June 26, 2013 at 10:37 PM. Reason : fad]

6/26/2013 10:36:28 PM

I am 99% sure my policy is with FB (I call a FB office, all the paperwork says FB, and I have never seen nor heard anything other than FB regarding my policy).

6/27/2013 9:19:57 AM

Anyone here ever used Homesite (a vendor through Geico)?

7/6/2013 1:42:19 PM

quagmire02 are you still using Amica? Happy with them?

(i also had farm bureau without auto insurance through them, obviously the discount doesn't apply but that is the only thing they ever said about it)

2/21/2018 8:07:06 AM

I just rent my home so I don't have any experience from the home owner's side, but I worked for a few years in the insurance restoration business fixing/rebuilding homes that were damaged from fire/water/etc. And from that perspective, NC Farm Bureau and Amica were by far the best to work with. Take that for whatever it's worth

4/3/2018 9:01:24 AM