Dust Off Those Dated Insurance Policies

When was the last time you had your insurance policies reviewed? If the answer is, “I can’t remember,” then you might be losing out on some major savings. My husband and I have had the same home and auto insurance provider for over 30 years.  Can you imagine how many homes and how many cars we have owned over that time?  It is tiring just thinking about it.  In fact, our insurance agent knew us so well he knew our pets by name as well as our kids. You would think that as long time customers demonstrating this kind of loyalty we would have been receiving the very best rates available…think again! Last summer our youngest son’s friend, Tim, asked if he could quote our insurance business. When we look at Tim, we still remember when he learned to drive and when our conversations centered around his curfew. Now as a college graduate, Tim has become a new insurance agent.  So we laughingly and confidently said, “Yes, but you won’t be able to beat our rates.” To ourselves, we thought it would be a good experience for him to see how hard it would be to compete with our rates. We agreed to allow Tim to quote our insurance business on one condition; we wouldn’t have to do anything.  He would have to review our policies and do his homework.  After just a couple of days he came back to report his findings to us.  Here are just a few of the things he learned:

• Our home insurance was quoted based on having a sprinkler system, which we do not have.  We have lived in this house for 17 years.  If we had had a fire, we could have had the claim denied even though we had paid premiums for it forever!
• Our car insurance was quoted on driving to and from work everyday, but we work out of our home.  Our commute is coming down the staircase.
• We were not getting all of the multiple policy discounts we were eligible for. It seems it is a “if they don’t ask, don’t give them the discount” world.
• All in all Tim saved us between $4,000 to $5,000 on our home and car insurance alone.  Unbelievable!
• How much money have we wasted over the years because we didn’t make the call?

We have learned our lesson and will have our insurance reviewed regularly.  In fact, Tim is now checking our policies on all our investment properties.  He has most certainly earned our business. When was the last time you had your insurance policies reviewed?  Just make the call. You may be surprised by how much that one call may save you! This article by Sharon Lechter appeared in Arizona Woman Magazine.