Saving on homeowners insurance?

[forward]

I have gotten 4 quotes on my homeowners insurance and I am surprised at the difference in premium between the quotes.  I was wondering if this is normal and how I should go about choosing the company?  I have heard the stories of people having problems with their insurance or the company demanding that the homeowners make extensive repairs or risk cancelation, I want to avoid all of that.

I have gotten quotes from Allied, Geico, Celina and Amica.

These are all HO3 level coverage with at least 2 of the companys calling it HO5 coverage.  All of them are for basically the same coverage levels and same deductable.

The quotes for 12 months are:
1.  $1008
2. $880
3. $726
4. $530

Any ideas on how I should evaluate these or thoughts on these providers?  I hope this question can help some others as well.

[SunshineGirl]

I'll follow this thread with interest, as I, too, am shopping for home insurance.

I know GEICO has gotten horrible reviews, which it too bad, because they get great reviews for car insurance. I guess they are more middlemen than anything for home insurance. Amica is very highly rated for customer satisfaction.

I figure I know what I'm paying right now, but it's with a not-great rated company, so I will be searching for the same or better coverage and the same or less price, with a better-rated company. It's hard to tell what's biased and not on the internet, so I may opt to pay $6.95 for a one-month subscription for Consumerreports.org, which has a report and rating for home insurance. The report is free, btw. It's the ratings that come with the subscription.

I need to do this this week, actually, so I'll post back here what I find.

[Frankies Girl]

I insure through GEICO, and for my area, that meant Travelers (there will be different home insurance companies affiliated with GEICO depending on area, but Travelers is still considered to be under the GEICO umbrella).
They were and continue to be awesome. I had damage from a hurricane a while back, and they had an agent on site within 3 days and cut me a check right there and never raised my rates.

I think the thing to make sure you're looking is that you're comparing actual apples to apples - are all policies for the same amount, deductable, coverages? Some insurance companies have different levels that they will insure and it may not be the exact same across the board.

If everything is the exact same, then I'd do some light research to see whether the comments are mostly positive, and go with the cheapest that has decent reviews.

[burly]

I currrently use Geico and my homeowners is approx $800, however, that was due to my mutli policy discount.. When I shopped a few other places, it was near $1000 since I did not have auto with them..

That being said, I called esurance last week and they do not scam you with the multi policy discount and provide it as long as you have insurance on your car etc...

So you may be suprised to check them out.. And I will have to check out Amica as that seems quite lower than the others.

[ohyonghao]

I got mine through AAA and it was the cheapest I could find, coincidently it is also Travelers (the company not the insurance).  What I'm looking for now is if I drop my car insurance with them if it will affect my home insurance.  I'm looking to move to a pay per mile insurance, which will be about half what I'm paying now.

[forward]

Some interesting comments on here.  SunshineGirl, thats a good suggestion I may do the same with consumer reports this weekend, I won't have time until then.  I have to have mine done in the next week or two.

The interesting thing for me is Geico where I have my car insurance is actually the highest, thats including the multipolicy discount.  Amica is coming in the second lowest and I know they are rated well.  The lowest is Celina, who I have never heard of and is quoted through a local agent who I do not know really at all.  That always makes me a bit nervous because they come back and say - "the best price I can get you is".  But I don't really know what corners they cut and what the conflict of interest is with an agent.

[Lil_Bit]

You can check your states Dept Of Insurance website.  The website should have Homeowners Insurance guidelines.

For example my state has the following website (TX Dept of Insurance):
http://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb025.html

There is also a way to view sample rate comparisons and ratings for the insurance providers, again this is for TX:   http://www.helpinsure.com/home/index.html

You may need to see if this information is available for your state, at least it would give a good starting point and the information is free.  Hope that helps.

[forward]

You can check your states Dept Of Insurance website.  The website should have Homeowners Insurance guidelines.

For example my state has the following website (TX Dept of Insurance):
http://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb025.html

There is also a way to view sample rate comparisons and ratings for the insurance providers, again this is for TX:   http://www.helpinsure.com/home/index.html

You may need to see if this information is available for your state, at least it would give a good starting point and the information is free.  Hope that helps.

Thanks for the info lil bit.  My states Dept of Insurance information is woefully inadequate!  I poked around for close to an hour and the most I can find is what companys are licensed to do business in the state.  Sad.

[jba302]

I insure through GEICO, and for my area, that meant Travelers (there will be different home insurance companies affiliated with GEICO depending on area, but Travelers is still considered to be under the GEICO umbrella).
They were and continue to be awesome. I had damage from a hurricane a while back, and they had an agent on site within 3 days and cut me a check right there and never raised my rates.

I'm going to be extremely biased in my response, because I was a Travelers property rep. If you have catastrophe exposure, go with a Travelers policy (through Geico, or directly). They train all of their claim reps (auto, GL, work comp) to cross-handle catastrophe claims as well so they never have a pants-down Katrina event again.

If not, then I would go with Amica. I have heard very good things about them through co-workers. Most of the horror stories are going to be from cut-rate companies or someone giving you a line of shit when the actual problem was them trying to get away with something (or not reading their policy. Please read your policy.)