Insurance. The industry we all love to hate. No let me preface this by letting you know that I am a licenses insurance agent and can sell both property insurance and life and health insurance. I have worked for State Farm, Allstate and Farmers.
During this time, I have only been insured by State Farm, even when I worked for Allstate and Farmers. But this year my rates went up by about $600 per year on our homeowners policy! Wow! That was a crazy high increase. Of course State Farm sited the recent hurricane Ike damage and expenses as the reason for the rate increase. I understand from a insurance industry stand point. I know what I would be telling my customers if they were calling me asking why their rates went up so much.
But as a consumer I have to wonder if I am making the right decision by keeping loyal to State Farm. Now there are reasons that I stick with them. First of all they have always paid claims on time and paid them properly. Never making me feel like I got short changed.
The other reason is that our State Farm policy includes wind and hurricane coverage which is rare in the Texas Gulf Coast.
So because of the price I sent shopping for insurance. I began by typing in Google, " car insurance ". It brought me to a great site called Net Quote that allowed me to enter my information once and get several quotes for insurance for several companies. It worked great and I was happy with the response.
I found some companies that were a little cheaper, but in the end my loyalty to State Farm because of my treatment during hurricane Ike and previous claims won.
But if you are ever in need of insurance be sure to use a site like Net Quote to help you find competing quotes.
-Spark Dad
