Lava vs fire insurance? (contractor, college, costs)

[terracore]

California is another state that legislated some of the discounts away, so that is why your insurance is comparable to San Francisco. California and Hawaii are two of three states that forbid insurers to offer a discount for having a high credit score. The intent of the law was that it would be more "fair" to people with low credit scores, but in practice the insurers just eliminated the discount, they didn't lower the rates for people with low scores. In other words, we all got dragged down to the low credit-score rate. Hawaii is also one of 12 states that make auto insurance "no fault". That means if you are injured in an auto accident through no fault of your own, YOUR insurance pays your medical bills even though the other driver caused your injuries. So safe drivers who never cause injury accidents have to be calculated at the same rate as the people that cause frequent injury accidents, because your insurance company will have to pay for your injuries caused by somebody else. You may be getting a safe driving discount, but that is based on your claims for property damage. You are still paying more overall because Allstate has to reimburse your medical expenses if somebody insured by USAA plows into your car and injures you.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by terracore

California is another state that legislated some of the discounts away, so that is why your insurance is comparable to San Francisco.

I pay less than San Francisco - and comparable to Portland, OR.

Originally Posted by terracore

Hawaii is also one of 12 states that make auto insurance "no fault". That means if you are injured in an auto accident through no fault of your own, YOUR insurance pays your medical bills even though the other driver caused your injuries. So safe drivers who never cause injury accidents have to be calculated at the same rate as the people that cause frequent injury accidents, because your insurance company will have to pay for your injuries caused by somebody else. You may be getting a safe driving discount, but that is based on your claims for property damage. You are still paying more overall because Allstate has to reimburse your medical expenses if somebody insured by USAA plows into your car and injures you.

I'm not an expert on "no fault" rules - When I got t-boned by a red light runner a few years back, indeed, my insurance paid for everything up front. However, after lengthy interviews with me and witnesses - they did assign fault to the other driver - and the other insurance company agreed and paid my insurance company - which in turn reimbursed my deductible.

[terracore]

As I understand it in Hawaii "No fault" only applies to personal injuries, not property damage. And only up to the limit of the policy. If you get a million dollar injury and have a 100k policy, your insurance pays you the 100k and you seek the remainder from the other driver through a lawsuit.

[Islandbound4]

Originally Posted by terracore

Lava is considered "earth movement" similar to riders they have for earthquake or landslide damage which is not covered in normal insurance. If lava causes your house to catch fire then your homeowners insurance covers it the same as if the fire was caused by a space heater. If the lava destroys your house without igniting it, then it's "earth movement" and not covered unless you have lava insurance. There were a lot of homes made unlivable in Leilani due to giant cracks or fissures and no lava. This is another form of earth movement.

You might need to call an insurance broker who can arrange to have a standard policy through one company and hurricane or earth movement coverage through another, which is sometimes cheaper than getting both coverages from a single company.

"What I am really in need of is reasonable Auto Insurance." Unfortunately Hawaiian politicians have made this impossible. They made it illegal for insurance companies to offer any substantial discounts because they thought it was discriminatory against the people who didn't get the discounts. So everybody pays the higher, undiscounted rates. For example in every other state USAA is the cheapest, but still best, automotive insurance you can get, so much so that other agencies won't even offer you a quote when they learn you have it. In Hawaii, USAA is one of the most expensive because they can't give the good discounts.


"Has anyone had difficulty get paid out due to lava/fire/hurricane from any of these companies?"


There are different types of hurricane insurance. The cheapest and most common type only cover damage to the structure. So for example if the hurricane blows your catchment tank over they won't cover it. Most people who have hurricane insurance only have it because their lending institution requires it or if they live in an area (like near the beach) that is more likely to get hurricane damage.

Thank you Terracore for explaining lava insurance and all of your knowledge. So many things to research for lava insurance, it gets confusing. It is pretty overwhelming to learn.

[teeej]

My insurance went up when I moved from California to Arizona.

As far as USAA having terrible rates in Hawaii, that doesn't appear to be the case according to the state:

https://cca.hawaii.gov/ins/files/201...ublication.pdf


There are similar comparisons for renters, condo's and homeowners and USAA seems pretty competitive to me.


Insurance | Insurance Division Resources

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by teeej

As far as USAA having terrible rates in Hawaii, that doesn't appear to be the case according to the state:

https://cca.hawaii.gov/ins/files/201...ublication.pdf

Maybe you are looking at the chart wrong - USAA more expensive on Oahu than:

Allstate, Geico, Progressive, Liberty Mutual - just just at a quick glance.

[steiconi]

We had USAA for house and car for 20 years on the mainland. When we moved to Hawaii in 2005, they told us to keep a renters policy with them, because they don't accept new applicants here. We did that, but bought in zone 3. They would only write policies for zone 4 or higher, so we went with Allstate. Geico had a better deal for car insurance, so we switched there, too.

They may have changed their rules since then.

[Amadrid]

Yes, as far as homeowners insurance it's difficult to say which company is cheaper or better than another because so much of it is dependent on your driving record and what you are driving (yeah I know, stating the obvious). I have called State Farm, Allstate, Geico, Farmers, Progressive, and USAA for homeowners insurance - Farmers, State Farm, and Allstate wouldn't even write b/c I'm in Lava Zone 2. Geico and Progressive don't offer it at all. I went with Hawaii Property and Casualty through Mutual Underwriters. They were fairly reasonable and their homeowners insurance by default include lava insurance in addition to fire insurance. However I found that 2 different agencies quoting the exact same policy from the same company can be different.

So going back to the auto insurance, I've always had high limits - mostly because California is a "sue-happy" state. Look the wrong way at someone at they'll sue you. Also because my job requires it. Now that we are relocating, does anyone want to share good or bad experiences with insurance companies. Currently we have State Farm, but we aren't happy with their pricing or our agent and since I can't get a bundled discount anymore with my homeowners insurance, we are happily going to jettison them out the escape hatch.

[terracore]

"Now that we are relocating, does anyone want to share good or bad experiences with insurance companies."

I did complain about the USAA rates, but I will not complain about their service. My wife was involved in a 2 vehicle accident (she got hit, no injuries) and they made every effort to make us whole as quickly as possible. It's one of the reasons why we have not switched to a different/cheaper company. Maybe the only reason. Their service can't be beat, IMHO.

The problem is, I've been driving/had car insurance for 34 years- NEVER made a claim. Is it worth it to have excellent claim customer experience and much higher rates with those odds? Probably not. I feel like I've been throwing money into a shredder going on four decades now, such is my criticism of auto insurance rates.

[terracore]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

Maybe you are looking at the chart wrong - USAA more expensive on Oahu than:

Allstate, Geico, Progressive, Liberty Mutual - just just at a quick glance.

This is true. USAA explained this to us- their home insurance is more expensive but it is BETTER.



I believe them, but I've never made an insurance claim, and I have no reason to believe that I will ever need to. I would rather pay 50% less and fight the insurance company to make them pay, rather than pay 50% more for something I will statistically likely never need in exchange for an easier customer service experience. I understand that this is different than what I said about their auto insurance (for now), but they are apples/oranges examples: I can't drive my house into traffic.