I'm not the kind of guy who, whenever
things begin to go wrong, thinks the moon and planets are aligned
against him. But sometimes it feels like anything that can go wrong
generally does.
My issue du jour is a little dust up
with State Farm over my home-owner's-insurance premium....from last
year.
Here's the 411: My HO premium increased
from between 10% and 15% each of the past three years. It's gone up more than 30% from the time I bought the policy eight years ago to last
year. One of the reasons I moved from South Florida was insurance
premiums that were guaranteed to go up year after year no matter
what. In the four years I owned my home in Boynton Beach, my HO
premium went from about $100 per month to $600 per month – per
M-O-N-T-H! I had never filed a claim.
So, you might imagine my unhappiness
when my HO premium on my little hovel in SC began escalating. When my
premium notice arrived last year, I had enough and called my agent
requesting an explanation for the ever rising premiums. The person I
spoke with – you never seem to get to talk to the agent in a State
Farm office – gave me a song and dance about State Farm changing
its formulas for HO policies that made everyone's premium spike last
year. It was about 14% in my case.
I have Greenville friends who own a
half dozen or so rental homes – most of which are in Greenville.
Not only do they have their insurance on these homes with State Farm,
but with the same agent as I. They saw a 20% spike in the premium on
the policy for one of their Greenville houses and a notable jump in
the others.
Apparently State Farm found a creative
new path to stick it to its SC clients.
After some discussion with the contact
at my agent's office, I decided to increase my deductible in a feeble
attempt to drag my premium back to some degree of affordability. In
doing so, she told me she thought I could save around $80, or about
the amount of last year's increase. She asked me to call back the
next day and get the exact amount of savings after she submitted the
request to State Farm.
Calling back I learned the savings
wasn't as much as predicted, but would still be $62. I offered to run
a check to the agency, so the new paperwork and my premium payment
would arrive at State Farm in a neat little bundle. Oh no, she told
me, you can either send in a check for the original premium amount,
in which case State Farm would refund the $62, or send the revised
amount and it would all work itself out at corporate.
I chose to send the revised amount.
After sending off my check, I immediately received a notice from
State Farm demanding the difference. I didn't think much about it,
figuring the paperwork was still working its way through the system. Two weeks
later I received another notice and had the same reaction. After the
second notice, I never heard another word. Figuring the paperwork had
finally entered the State Farm circle-jerk maze, I promptly forgot
about it.
Fast forward to nine months later.
Meandering out to my mailbox on Friday, I discovered a love note from
State “We Don't Know Our Ass From Our Elbow” Farm demanding the
$62 or face cancellation effective June 1.
Because of my travel schedule over the
next couple of weeks, I'm not going to be able to address this for a
while, but when I do, it will be to look for another insurance
company. I made a couple of calls for quotes last year and neither
company I called could beat my State Farm premium. As unhappy as I am with State Farm, I wasn't going to cut off my nose to spite my face. I stopped at two
because I was busy then as well. But this year I'll call every
company that has even thought about insuring homes in SC. My goal is
to have a new policy in place by June 1.
Meantime, I will contact my agent, or
more likely his lackey, to try to find out where the breakdown
occurred. I may have to pay the $62, but it will be the last I pay
State Farm for my HO insurance.
The “man” won't hold me down.....
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