Home and Auto Insurance

**Shelli_wnj** · 01-25-2010, 03:26 PM

I am thinking of switching my home and auto insurance to save money. Problem is that I don't know a lot about insurance. I do know that when I switched to the plan I am on now, the agent was a real charmer, gave us an excellent plan, got it for us cheaper than we were paying, then dropped off the face of the earth. he is not there to answer questions, etc about the current plan. I have a copy of it, and I remember a lot about what the plan is that I learned from our original talks, however I am so afraid to mess it up.

I want to go with esurance because it seems that the policy would be cheapest that way. One thing I remember is that the policy I have now will pay for what we owe on the car, rather than what it is worth if it is totalled. Does anyone know what that is called? Also, for homeowners, I did a check off of what the policy is on paper to the check-off was on esurance and it came out a whole lot cheaper.

do the companies prices vary by that much, or am I missing something? Thanks!

**Contrary Housewife** · 01-25-2010, 04:22 PM

They can vary a lot. Call around and ask for a quote for your house and car. I changed companies a few years ago and saved $350 a year and have more insurance now than on the old plan.

**kita** · 01-25-2010, 05:58 PM

They can vary by hundreds of dollars. Despite (or because of) their ads, I have always found esurance to be expensive.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 01-26-2010, 12:47 AM

We were paying a lot before for our insurance.

We then switched companies and added more deduction incentives. We found that we saved a lot of money over the course of a year with switching to the same insurance that we had on our house... but also including our auto.

I feel that each company, while it may have its own bells and whistles, really does matter when it comes to both customer service and the amount warranted to keep coverage for that company.

**frugalfranny** · 01-26-2010, 01:00 AM

Originally Posted by Contrary Housewife

They can vary a lot. Call around and ask for a quote for your house and car. I changed companies a few years ago and saved $350 a year and have more insurance now than on the old plan.

I changed too and have always saved money doing it. (or, obviously, I wouldn't have switched - but it pays to shop around is my point!)

I call three to fours companies and get estimates. I have my current policy in front of me and make sure I will get the same coverage, or more, with the new company. Only twice has it been beneficial for me to insure the car and house under the same company......the second time came this year when I just recently switched. Will be switching my car in March to the same as the house insurance.

Among other things, the one thing I have been told was to make sure there is 'debris removal' on the policy of the house.

A friend got caught in our fire storm years back, the insurance wouldn't pay for the removal of the house debris, that burned to the ground and it cost them over $8000 to haul it to the dump!!

**Greebo** · 01-26-2010, 05:20 AM

The insurance you're talking about that pays off the balance of the loan is called "Gap insurance".

You don't need it unless you are actually underwater on your car. If you are in the last couple of years in your car loan, you may not need it - and if you can accelerate your debt reduction and reduce the amount owed on the car quickly enough, you needn't bother.

Go to http://www.kbb.com/kbb/UsedCars/default.aspx and find your car to get an estimated value on the market of what your car is worth now.

To make sure you are comparing apples to apples, find OR request from your insurance provider a copy of your "declarations pages" for your homeowners and your car policy. Your declaration pages define the limits on the policy by category. FIRST - get quotes that compare apples to apples with your existing policy. Only when you've found the company that gives the biggest bang for your buck do you want to start making changes.

Areas you do not want to skimp are on liability - if you go low on liability coverage and there is an accident where you are found at fault, you will have no protection against someone who decides to sue you for a couple hundred thousand dollars. The minimum liability coverage required before you can get an additional umbrella policy is frequently in the $300k range, so I'd get at LEAST 300k liability protection on your auto.

If you have a $1,000 or more emergency fund, increase the deductibles to $1,000. You will pay more in an accident - but that's why you have the EF - but your overall annual budget will be greatly eased.

**mombottoo** · 01-26-2010, 09:34 AM

I would get quotes from more than one company. Around here esurance isn't the best deal. Liberty Mutual has saved us hundreds of $$ on both our home owners & auto policies.

**qiaodigg** · 02-18-2010, 11:41 PM

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**Darlene** · 02-19-2010, 09:59 AM

I see that you are in the Eastern PA area, I have a son (he's a charmer but a cute and honest one, lol)who sells insurance for Liberty Mutual & would love to give you a quote and answer any questions you may have.

His office is in Binghamton NY but he's also licensed in PA. Just pm me if you'd like info for his # or email addy.

**Shelli_wnj** · 02-20-2010, 04:15 PM

Darlene, thank you for the offer

We are actually already with Liberty Mutual... I do need to have it re-evaluated soon, however, so if you want to PM me his info, that would be a good starting place. Thanks again.

**Darlene** · 02-21-2010, 04:32 PM

Pm'd you, glad to help.

**McD** · 02-21-2010, 10:28 PM

Something to check is to see if either your or your dh's employer has an insurance company that offers a discount due to affliation.

We had some bad experiences with Farm Bureau when our agent left and decided to drop them due to lack of service. We asked around with some of the other police officers and found out that there is an insurance company that offers a 15% discount to all members of the police union. Prices were better all the way around, but for better coverage, with the discount, our homeowner's dropped from almost 800$ annually to 480$.