Annual INSURANCE costs - ugh

[Sumacaroni]

I am really serious about trimming the bills and one of our major household expenses - albeit a necessity, I know - is insurance costs!!! I looked at what we spend annually and it just makes me sick to think of how much goes out to pay insurance premiums, to the tune of about $8950/year for health, dental, auto, home, umbrella liability and life.

I'm going to post what we pay here and would like to get other people's thoughts....

Health: $5240/year, family of five, $3000 x2 deductible plus co-pays

Dental: $303/year, family of five, fairly good basic coverage at Tier 1 (cleanings, etc.), Tier 2 is paid at 80% (fillings, etc.), Tier 3 at 60% (crowns and such)

Home: $556/year for a modest ranch home and pole building/barn

Million Dollar Umbrella Liability: $408 for farm property, used to have horses here, no longer though, have ATV's, tractor

Auto: $1950 for three vehicles - 96 VW, 97 Chev truck, 2005 Dodge van - 19 year old boy in the home = expensive

Life: $480/year for basic term life insurance, not that great limits (that we are looking to renew, nearing the 20 years)

What are people's thoughts on umbrella insurance? dental? life insurance limits? Just thoughts on insurance in general? To me, it's just so frustrating.....

[sinopa27]

I can't help you with this but this thread is awesome. I will be keeping up with it so I can get some advice. I pay too much on insurance and want to know what others suggest.

[Sumacaroni]

I'm doing some comparison shopping on the home, auto, life, and umbrella. I just switched 3 years ago and this place *was* lower at the time. Called the insurance guy today to see what I could lower immediately...

• I dropped our horse trailer insurance now ($60) cuz we sold it this weekend.
• I took off the comprehensive coverage ($79) on our Chevy truck since it will not be used to drive thru the woods to the horse trails and now will mainly be used in our driveway to plow snow and to run to town for stuff that won't fit in our van. We're less likely to hit turkeys, deer, or anything like that anymore.
• I took off the comprehensive ($263) on my DS19's car because the deductible was $500 and it's only a $1500 car at best -- not even sure why we had it at that rate?!?
• We have all the discounts we qualify for with our home insurance but he'll look again after December when some rate stuff is changing - hopefully DOWN not UP!

Total change to auto = $402 annually : That's a start!

• The health coverage is what it is through my Mister's work and it has covered nearly $100,000 for my breast cancer treatments this year so definitely glad we have it!
• The dental insurance already covered almost $500 for just two of my kids single visits - worth the cost in my opinion. We had nothing left to cover.
• We're due for a life insurance review since our 20-year term policies are nearly 20 years old... but I'm afraid they either won't cover me due to my cancer this year or that it'll be so gawdawful expensive to make it not worthwhile - will decide if the money is better invested after we hear the verdict on coverage/cost. At the very least, we need to figure continued coverage for my Mister, though.

I'm curious to know what others think about the Umbrella Liability policy, $1,000,000 policy coverage. ??

[dancemommy]

We pay more than you and I hate it too. Our Health insurance alone is $1200 a month as my husband is self employed. We are working on a solution. We pay $200 a month for auto insurance. Just went up as we have a teenage driver but only 2 cars ....we are shopping for a third so thst will go up. I don't even know how much we pay for house insurance as we pay with mortgage. We pay $1000 a year for good term life insurance. Then we have malpractice and disability insurance for my husband. Dental insurance is about $100 a month too. Ugh....Hate Paying for it, but gotta have it all!

[Sumacaroni]

Yeah, wow, that sucks even more - we have a less miserable amount for sure, sorry about yours!!

[OOwl]

We pay about what you pay for all those, but our house insurance is DOUBLE that for a very modest stone new home, only 2281 square feet and with good credit ratings. Lots of friends pay even more. Not sure why it's higher here, maybe all the hail storms.

This is an interesting thread. Looking forward to the replies, too.

[Sumacaroni]

We pay about what you pay for all those, but our house insurance is DOUBLE that for a very modest stone new home, only 2281 square feet and with good credit ratings.

Hmmm... Home is 1400sf and 18 yrs old, barn is 50x70 about 10 yrs old, we have $500 deductible for general, $1000 wind/hail deductible. The premium has gone up over $100 over the past 3 years and he told me claims have been up so everyone pays more based on their calculated risk Yadda Yadda Yadda - we have made 0 ZERO claims in 18 years here.

[Russ]

What are people's thoughts on umbrella insurance?

I have one and I say keep it! If somebody gets hurt on your farm they may be advised to sue you to cover their medical expenses. Now that said, I wouldn't tell anyone you have the policy. But the cost does seem a bit high. I think I pay about $13/month.

[Handy Andy]

I used to work for my family's independant insurance agency. An independant agent can write insurance for several insurance companies. An advancaage of this is they can shop several different carriers to see who will give you the best rate. Insurance companies change their underwriting guidelines all the time. Some years one carrier might give you the best rate, they next year (or two or three) it might be a different company. Also, some companies target certain demographics (ie - families, farm owners, motorcycles, ect.) and will create certain programs to cater to that demographic.

For example, Travelers Ins Co. has a really great program right now called "Quantum". It is targeted towards people who have really good credit. My brother told me people have been saving on average 30% off the next best rate he could find them.

I guess my point is that you should ask your agent to quote you with everyone they write for every three years or so. It's just the nature of the business and your independant agent should be happy to help you find the lowest rate.

Also, if there are lots of overall claims it is true that everyone pays more based on their calculated risk (I have had that same conversation with many people over the years). It is unfortunate, but its just how it works It's kinda like how retail stores work the cost of theft into their prices.

If you have any questions, or there is anythign I can answer, please let me know!

[patticakes]

Your umbrella does seem high, I pay less than $300/yr for a $2M policy.

[Sumacaroni]

Well I am now officially shopping around. Got my home insurance bill and it is now $649 compared to $507 two years ago when we first took out the policy. Have made no claims, ridiculous. I sure hope we can find something more reasonable.

The umbrella policy was $396 two years ago and now it's up to $421 annual premium. And from what others have said here, I tend to believe this is billed highly at a ripoff cost.

Umbrella
34.91+38.91+322.18=396 (2010)
36.73+371.27=408 (2011)
421.00 - proposed for 2012
+$25 in two years

Home
507.00 (2010)
568.00 (2011)
649.00 - proposed for 2012
+$142 in two years

[hmcart]

I will tell you that I dont love paying for insurance but I am so grateful to have decent medical coverage after going almost 2 yrs paying super high premiums for my young ds who was considered uninsurable. We are now on Dhs work insurance and it is so much better!

[MomToTwoBoys]

Our insurance is actually pretty reasonable, considering what we were paying before and how much of a house we got since we moved.

House insurance only went up about $25 a month, but we're no longer living in a duplex and the entire lot is ours.

Car insurance is the same as last year. It only really goes up a few bucks a month each year, so I consider it the same.

Health insurance is a blessing for us. We have two coverages (one through DH's work and the other through provincial health care) and we don't pay a dime.

Mortgage insurance is something that we're looking at ditching. We have life insurance for DH and he pays $12.95 a month. Once I give BMO a call tomorrow, I'll be able to start finding out how much term life insurance is for myself. If it's cheaper than the $65 a month we pay for mortgage protection, we'll be better.

Our dental is packaged into our health insurance and I pay maybe $9 for a $190 cleaning. The kids are covered as well. I still get frustrated because if we have any other major dental work to cover, there are limits via the work insurance that DH has.

I'm hoping once I go back to work and get dental benefits, I can roll those into DH's insurance and then be able to pay for the $9k in dental work I've been told I'll be looking at.

[Telephus44]

Health insurance we pay $3250 a year. deductible is $500/person and $1000 per family. Family of 3.

Dental insurance is about $160 per year.

Homeowners is about $550 per year. 1532 sq foot Colonial built in 1950.

Car Insurance is $1660 per year. Two 2004 Honda Civics, 2 adult drivers.

Need to get more life insurance, but right now we pay about $275 per year.

So total is almost $6000. It's money well spent, for the most part. We don't abuse it or carry unnecessary insurance, but we also don't take risks to save a few bucks, either.

[MaryinFL]

I am covered well in some areas, and not so good in others.

Here are my rates

Home $2200yr 1800 sq ft built in 1986

Auto 496yr one car with comp and coll. $500 ded

Health 3564mo 10K annual deductable, would love to
have lower deductable but rate not
do-able

Life 324 mo term policy
Dental dont have


No matter which health policy I took out, high or lower deductable, it would cost me $10K per year if I got sick or injured. Figured I would take the lower deductable policy and benefit from the years I did not need it. $850 per month policy had a $1000 annual deduction, $550 per month was a $5000 deductable.