Home and Auto Insurance

[chas22]

Wanting to change my home and auto insurance company. Can anyone recommend a good one to go with?

[nathanm]

A friend of mine had an excellent claims experience with State Farm when she had a house fire (neighbor's house was destroyed, catching her attic on fire in the process) last year. Her agent was over there the night of the fire to give her cash to get her through the next few days and sympathy.

It still took a couple of months to get everything fixed, of course, but by the next day they had one of those recovery specialists out there drying everything out. They were happy to provide their own people or have my friend get whomever she liked to do the work. They even paid to board her dogs the entire time.

My SO and I switched to State Farm after that, actually. It ended up being cheaper than Farmers with mildly better coverage. Their rate for comprehensive and collision coverage on my SO's car was about 60% of Farmers'. The only downside is that they're better than Farmers about digging up almost-three-year-old out of state tickets that aren't on your Oklahoma record. 

[Hoss]

A friend of mine had an excellent claims experience with State Farm when she had a house fire (neighbor's house was destroyed, catching her attic on fire in the process) last year. Her agent was over there the night of the fire to give her cash to get her through the next few days and sympathy.

It still took a couple of months to get everything fixed, of course, but by the next day they had one of those recovery specialists out there drying everything out. They were happy to provide their own people or have my friend get whomever she liked to do the work. They even paid to board her dogs the entire time.

My SO and I switched to State Farm after that, actually. It ended up being cheaper than Farmers with mildly better coverage. Their rate for comprehensive and collision coverage on my SO's car was about 60% of Farmers'. The only downside is that they're better than Farmers about digging up almost-three-year-old out of state tickets that aren't on your Oklahoma record. 

That has nothing to do with the insurance company 'digging'.  If you do as you're supposed to and provide all DL numbers, present and former, they'll be able to get those because the MVR's they get from their vendors provide up to three years of violation data in every state.  Insurance agencies, however, never get the full record.  That's why some police will knock a speeding ticket down to under 9 mph over because that's the filter in place for insurance agencies.  They cannot see violations of speeding tickets under 10 mph over, and cannot see non-moving violations.

Oh, you're being facetious...   

[Red Arrow]

My SO and I switched to State Farm after that, actually. It ended up being cheaper than Farmers with mildly better coverage. Their rate for comprehensive and collision coverage on my SO's car was about 60% of Farmers'.

Your SO must drive a car with "most favored status".   When I bought my BMW in the fall of 1994, Farmers was the only company that charged less than $2600/yr.  Farmers charged $1600/yr.  I later move the Buick to Farmers.  A newer Buick got hail damaged which was fixed without any hassle.

The house, in mom's name, is also with Farmers.  I have mixed feelings there.  It seems that our house is the only one in our neighborhood that didn't get more than 5 shingles worth of hail damage a few years back.  At least 2 roofers disagree.  

[nathanm]

If you do as you're supposed to and provide all DL numbers, present and former, they'll be able to get those because the MVR's they get from their vendors provide up to three years of violation data in every state. 

I've never been asked for past license numbers, only my current license. That's part of why I was surprised they had a record of the ticket from New Hampshire, which never showed up on my Arkansas record. Not that it matters much, it raised our rate by about $12/6 months, it was just weird.

My SO's '08 RAV4 (V6, 4WD) runs about $80 a month for 100/250/100 liability and a $500 comprehensive/collision deductible. That's after the multi-policy discount, of course.

[Red Arrow]

My SO's '08 RAV4 (V6, 4WD) runs about $80 a month for 100/250/100 liability and a $500 comprehensive/collision deductible. That's after the multi-policy discount, of course.

When I started looking at buying a BMW (540i), I was with AAA.  I asked about a 1994 540i and they said $1600/yr.  A 1995 was available so I called to confirm the insurance price and put it on my policy.  Then the price went up to $2600/yr because it was a "performance car".  There were no significant changes between the 1994 and 1995 model years.  I left AAA after more than 20 years with them.  Several other companies had the same line.  Farmers classed it as a 4 door sedan worth a lot of money but not a street racer.  They have gotten their money's worth out of me since the only claim I've had with them is for the hail damage on the Buick about 7 years ago.

[TheArtist]

  I have been noticing some cracks on the inside of the house in spots lately.  There was a crack on the brickwork and foundation when I bought the home and it was "repaired".  I hadn't thought much about it, just spackled over the places and went on and thought it might be the house settling a bit.  Just went outside this morning though to take a look around the foundations and at the old crack and OMG, the crack had expanded by easily half an inch wide on the outside!  The neighbors had also mentioned they were having some issues.  The house has been here for 50 years and the old cracks hadn't seemed to have moved in ages, I have lived here for about 6 years and until this past year hadn't seen anything.  

 Will have to check on my homeowners policy to see if its covered, but not sure if it will be.  Any advice?  

[sauerkraut]

I have State Farm for my cars but I have another company for my home-owners coverage. Seems even with my multi- policy discount at State Farm  my homeowners will still cost more than what I found at another agency. I also learned that in Oklahoma home owners coverage is not cheap, in other states it's a fraction of what insurance companies charge in Oklahoma. I have lived in 5 states.

[Red Arrow]

I have lived in 5 states.

In addition to the State of Confusion?

[sauerkraut]

 I have been noticing some cracks on the inside of the house in spots lately.  There was a crack on the brickwork and foundation when I bought the home and it was "repaired".  I hadn't thought much about it, just spackled over the places and went on and thought it might be the house settling a bit.  Just went outside this morning though to take a look around the foundations and at the old crack and OMG, the crack had expanded by easily half an inch wide on the outside!  The neighbors had also mentioned they were having some issues.  The house has been here for 50 years and the old cracks hadn't seemed to have moved in ages, I have lived here for about 6 years and until this past year hadn't seen anything.  

 Will have to check on my homeowners policy to see if its covered, but not sure if it will be.  Any advice?  

WoW That does not sound good- I'd have that looked into, it'll only get worse with time check your doors & windows and see if they all work freely. This clay soil is hard on foundations. I bought a house here in 2009 built on a crawl space, no problems but about a year ago the one bedroom door started to stick suddenly, the other doors were fine- I took the door  off and sanded it down and so far it's still ok... I kept wondering what happened, what caused it, since  it was  fine when I bought the house then it suddenly starts to stick. The joys of home ownership.

[sgrizzle]

I've used about 6 different insurance companies and I've had more pleasant experiences with state farm than the other 5 combined.

[Breadburner]

 I have been noticing some cracks on the inside of the house in spots lately.  There was a crack on the brickwork and foundation when I bought the home and it was "repaired".  I hadn't thought much about it, just spackled over the places and went on and thought it might be the house settling a bit.  Just went outside this morning though to take a look around the foundations and at the old crack and OMG, the crack had expanded by easily half an inch wide on the outside!  The neighbors had also mentioned they were having some issues.  The house has been here for 50 years and the old cracks hadn't seemed to have moved in ages, I have lived here for about 6 years and until this past year hadn't seen anything.  

 Will have to check on my homeowners policy to see if its covered, but not sure if it will be.  Any advice?  

The very dry hot summer is what caused this....Unlikely your insurance company will cover any claim.....

[Hoss]

The very dry hot summer is what caused this....Unlikely your insurance company will cover any claim.....

Why I'm glad I don't own a house on a concrete slab but instead one on pillar/beam (crawl space).  Not sure that William is on a slab, but that's usually the result of the heat.

[Townsend]

The very dry hot summer is what caused this....Unlikely your insurance company will cover any claim.....

I've been told to water on a regular basis when weather is like this to help with foundation, etc.

That advice should be passed around like the whole "candy from a stranger in a windowless van" advice.

[Conan71]

I've been told to water on a regular basis when weather is like this to help with foundation, etc.

That advice should be passed around like the whole "candy from a stranger in a windowless van" advice.

The drought of 1980 wrecked a lot of foundations around Tulsa.  When you find a 30+ year old home that's been piered in this area, it's most likely from that year.  I've been moving soakers around the foundation for weeks at my place.