Home insurance recommendations needed ASAP - thanks! (car insurance, calculator)

[Shane_Rives]

With home owners insurance you need to look for 2 important things.

1) Is your home covered on an all risk baisis? Many companies sell named peril plolicies in order to get you a slighly lower price, but this leaves you with some serious exposure.

2) Are your home and belongings covered at replacement cost. Some companies use actual cash value (aka ACV) in order to get you a slighly lower rate, but this leaves you with some very serious exposure. Think of your $1000 TV. If you have replacement cost you will get $1000 to go to an electronics store and buy a new $1000 TV, but with ACV you will only get the used value of maybe $100.

There are some other options that you can add to your policies to make them stronger, but if your base policy isn't an ALL RISK - REPLACEMENT COST policy you need to find one that is.

[texdav]

From the hurrricane claims made I learned these are good;Farmers;Travelers and Hartford. State Farm and All State were probably the worse.Also check that the policy is repalcemant and exactly what it covers.In some instances you may want special provisions for collections and such.

[woodinvilleguy]

Recently I called around for our new house and the quotes ranged all over the place. We ended up with Nationwide insurance. My only suggestion is to call around and get quotes for the same coverages so you are comparing apples to apples.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by texdav

From the hurrricane claims made I learned these are good;Farmers;Travelers and Hartford. State Farm and All State were probably the worse.Also check that the policy is repalcemant and exactly what it covers.In some instances you may want special provisions for collections and such.

One reason we're still with Germania after 12 years is what happened when the F5 came through Jarrell.

We were on the other side of the highway, got a little hail. Three days after the tornado, when I KNEW they were extremely busy, my agent called me and said, "I know y'all had some hail there; would you mind terribly if I brought an adjuster over to look at your roof and make sure there's no damage?"

That's right - my agent called ME to make sure everything was okay and did they have a claim they'd need to pay.

If they hadn't been wonderful in every other way, that right there would have nailed it. When we DID have a claim some years later on our rental house in Austin due to the wind picking up a tree and leaning it against the house, we had a check in 3 days. (Had to coordinate with the property manager to go look at the place.)

[Shane_Rives]

texdav is right, Replacement cost on your home and stuff is a must. By having an ALL RISK policy, you will know you are covered. You only have to look at the hand full of things that are excluded like war and nuclear explosion and flood.

Flood can be purchased from FEMA though which is definetly a good thing to have.

[rridgeback]

I will put in another good word for Germania. I've had home insurance with them for many years and just recently put my auto insurance (moved from USAA) with them and and added an umbrella policy.

The reason I did so is because they offer all risk insurance, and a simple-to -understand policy. The other policies I compared to Germania seemed to make use of some easy to miss exclusions - and that included USAA.

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

One reason we're still with Germania after 12 years is what happened when the F5 came through Jarrell.

We were on the other side of the highway, got a little hail. Three days after the tornado, when I KNEW they were extremely busy, my agent called me and said, "I know y'all had some hail there; would you mind terribly if I brought an adjuster over to look at your roof and make sure there's no damage?"

That's right - my agent called ME to make sure everything was okay and did they have a claim they'd need to pay.

If they hadn't been wonderful in every other way, that right there would have nailed it. When we DID have a claim some years later on our rental house in Austin due to the wind picking up a tree and leaning it against the house, we had a check in 3 days. (Had to coordinate with the property manager to go look at the place.)

[sweetrai]

Since this thread is a year old, I'm bumping it up.

Does anyone have any reccomendations on home insurance? I'm in the process of buying a house. We talked to Geico,Allstate,Progressive and State Farm.

We are leaning towards Progressive since it has the lowest deductible, and next in line is Allstate. I believe all the quotes my husband got was Progressive deductible is $500 and I believe it is covers all risk/perils basis (need to double-check with hubby).

Most of our family (they don't live in Texas) has Allstate, and they said they had good experiences. However, the quote we have from Allstate has a deductible that is $2000 (which seems high to me).

I don't know anyone with Progressive, so I'm sort of hesitate to use them.

So, long story short. Does anyone have reccomendations for home insurance companies? The house is in the 78759 zip code.

Also, if you have Progressive, what has been your experience?

Thanks.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by sweetrai

We are leaning towards Progressive since it has the lowest deductible, and next in line is Allstate. I believe all the quotes my husband got was Progressive deductible is $500 and I believe it is covers all risk/perils basis (need to double-check with hubby).

If you get confirmation of this, I'd like to know if it truly covers all perils. I've been told it is next to impossible to find a policy with less than 1% deductible on wind/hail damage. Other types of damage, yes... but the policies seem to all have a different deductible for wind/hail. And that's the most likely peril; everyone pretty much has to replace a roof every 5-10 years because of a hail storm. The 1% deductible hardly makes it worth the claim going on your record, sometimes.

[sweetrai]

Originally Posted by atxcio

If you get confirmation of this, I'd like to know if it truly covers all perils. I've been told it is next to impossible to find a policy with less than 1% deductible on wind/hail damage. Other types of damage, yes... but the policies seem to all have a different deductible for wind/hail. And that's the most likely peril; everyone pretty much has to replace a roof every 5-10 years because of a hail storm. The 1% deductible hardly makes it worth the claim going on your record, sometimes.

When I asked my husband if this is an all replacement quote he said yes.
The actual quote says:
Deductible-Other Covered Perils $500
Wind/Hail Deductible $500

In the actual contract it reads:
[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]

Reasonable Repairs.

[/SIZE]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]In the event that covered
property is damaged by an applicable Peril Insured
Against, we will pay the reasonable cost incurred
by you for necessary measures taken solely
to protect against further damage. If the
measures taken involve repair to other damaged
property, we will pay for those measures only if
that property is covered under this policy and the
damage to that property is caused by an applicable
Peril Insured Against.
This coverage:

[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]

a.

[/SIZE]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Does not increase the limit of liability that applies
to the covered property;

[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]

b.

[/SIZE]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Does not relieve you of your duties, in case of
a loss to covered property, as set forth in

SECTION [/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]I [/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]– [/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]CONDITION [/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]2.d. [/SIZE][/SIZE]

(Section 1-Condition 2d deals with loss of use)[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
[/SIZE][/SIZE]

[TexasHorseLady]

Get a second opinion from Germania.