Did your HO insurance go up much this year? (Austin: condo, good credit)

[JohnHenrySDM]

Mine jumped up close to 30%. My agent claims rates went up across the board, but that seems unreasonable. Did anyone else see a large increase?

[G Grasshopper]

Mine stayed the same as last year.

[CarnivalGal]

Ours didn't. I thought for sure it would because of the wild fires we had here in Steiner. My sister-in-law is an attorney and does a lot of insurance law. She told me to expect an increase because of the large number of claims in this zip code last year, but it didn't happen.

I had an insurance company jack my rates up for no reason one time. When I called them about it, they said they were doing it across the board. Funny, because all of the other people I knew that had them, like the rest of my family, didn't have an increase. My same sister-in-law said that insurance companies often raise rates like that on long-time customers. They are banking on the fact that you will trust them when they say everyone's increased and/or you don't feel like going through the hassle of switching companies so you will just deal with it. How nice of them. I would start shopping for another company. That's ultimately what I ended up doing.

[EzPeterson]

Quite a few people will see some rather substantial rate increases in Central TX this year. The past 3 years have been particularly rough from a loss perspective (Mar 2009 Hail storm, 2011 fires), and Austin has been a traditionally fairly "safe" environment for insurers to play in, which has left premiums here rather low compared to the rest of the state.

That said, there is no arbitrary "jacking up" of insurance rates on one particular customer vs. another. Every insured is lumped in with others and segmented based on risk characteristics and loss history, this can cause rate changes on a segment level, couple this with a base rate change and you could be in for a HUGE bump if you're in a segment/territory that your insurer doesn't like, at a time when premiums are increasing. Other insureds may see no change, or even a rate decrease - even when the insurance company DID raise base rate "across the board". The myth that insurance companies raise rates on long time customers is just that - a myth - the market has become so commoditized and the cost to procure new customers has risen extremely fast in the past 5 years that companies understand exactly what will happen when they raise rates dramatically. In the OP's case, that's likely their intent - they don't want that particular risk segment anymore, so they price themselves out of the market in the hopes of no longer retaining said risk.

FWIW, this year has been particularly volatile from a rate perspective. Some major players in the market took quite a bit of rate - my agencies have been fielding more calls this year of people looking to shop their HO premiums than any year prior. My recommendation, and the practice in my agencies, is to shop every one of your lines of business at every renewal.

[Dyltex]

This year, the insurance on my condo went up by 34%- Travellers purchased through Geico. When I called Travellers for an explanation, I was told that rates in Texas went up across the board. Called Geico for a new quote and recieved the same coverage through Liberty Mutual for 50% less than my original premium. So I take the claim that rates went up across the board with a large grain of salt.

[Trainwreck20]

Ours went down an insignificant fraction, for whatever reason.

[Aquitaine]

If they're telling you that they went up across the board, then verify what you've been told and go get some quotes from a few other companies just as Dyltex did. The insurance industry can't collude and 'raise rates across the board,' though certainly there could underlying causes that affect the business and could produce that result...but if they can't tell you what those are, chances are they're hoping you'll just pay the bill.

[pjoseph2]

Farmers actually sent me a renewal with a 14% increase for the home (no claims).

Our rates are 17% lower because i switched to AAA-Texas and consolidated home and automobile policies. Very happy to go local and get away from the big evil insurance companies. Although i miss GEICO's nice web portal. My rates with them were bumping the bottom of their underwriting models regardless of the scenarios i ran.

Also got a few unsolicited quotes in the mail with drastically lower rates. Times must be tough in the insurance industry. One can find lower rates if they take the time to shop around. Having good credit and no recent claims would help too.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by pjoseph2

Farmers actually sent me a renewal with a 14% increase for the home (no claims).


Also got a few unsolicited quotes in the mail with drastically lower rates. Times must be tough in the insurance industry. One can find lower rates if they take the time to shop around. Having good credit and no recent claims would help too.

Among the 'quotes' we've received, unsolicited, were two from Farmers. Interesting marketing scheme. Letter #1 states boldly: "IF YOU'RE PAYING MORE THAT $737/YR FOR HOMEOWNERS' INSURANCE--YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH!" Letter #2--from Farmers--was a quote for $908.53 !!!

I think it's done by the same folks who send out the "Your vehicle warranty may be about to expire" 'notifications' every month--on our new car with FOUR years of warranty left!

Apparently, we obtained our marketing degrees from different schools.

[JohnHenrySDM]

Excellent information! Thanks as always CD Austin.

I called around today and had some progress. I got a quote from GEICO which was pretty close to my original quote from Travelers. I then contacted AAA-Texas and got an excellent rate, about 25% less than everyone else for similar coverage.

Originally Posted by pjoseph2

Our rates are 17% lower because i switched to AAA-Texas and consolidated home and automobile policies. Very happy to go local and get away from the big evil insurance companies.

Thanks for the tip. AAA Texas has the best rate so far. Have you been happy with their service, if needed? Anything out of the ordinary with them? I'm new to all this... and just naturally skeptical especially when the price is so low.