Insurance Claims – Know your rights

[Raybyrnes]

You are totally off on your assumptions about the insurance industry. The primary job of an adjuster is to close to file. They do not want to spend hours hemming and hawing over minor bullshit. Show them a reciept and they are going to pay. Use reasonable estimates and they are going to pay.
Start claiming that as a landscaper you have 10 Armani suits in your closet and they are going to red flag and say show me some reciepts or credit cards. The same criteria holds true for your taxes. You want want the write off, go ahead and take it. We ask for recipts, you better have them or yuo face penalties.

The problesm that many older folks will run into is that they have old policies that do not have an inflation adjustment on them. This means that they become underinsured over time. It also means that they were not paying sufficient premiums for the coverage in this type of incident.

I would argue that this is one of the very reasons I choose to buy everything on credit card. I have a paper trail for all of my purchases. Additionally a digital camera or a camcorder is can be used to take pictures of your place. It take s less than an hour to do this and you can put this on a memory chip and hand it to your agent. Again insurance companies just want to keep the file moving forward.

[Bubblesitter]

The personal property claims are generally not the issue, these are small peanuts compared to the structure. CC receipts are certainly a good idea along with video taping of valuables.

IT IS THE PAYOUTS FOR THE STRUCTURES THAT WILL BE THE ISSUE.

I hope you don’t have a naive trust of the insurance companies.

Take some time and read the bloomberg article at the top of this thread.

By the way, filing a claim will impact your Choicepoint insurance score. Yes, this is score analogous to a FICO score that scores your insurance risk rather than credit risk.

In the past, I’ve always maxed out my Homeowners insurance deductible allowable under lender guidelines. Never file any claim unless it is catastrophic. One claim for stolen golf clubs will likely raise your Choicepoint score and result in higher rates or may result in cancellation of your policy at renewal. You may end up paying for those stolen clubs many times over. Catastrophic claims also result in an increase in your Choicepoint insurance score.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

The personal property claims are generally not the issue, these are small peanuts compared to the structure. CC receipts are certainly a good idea along with video taping of valuables.

IT IS THE PAYOUTS FOR THE STRUCTURES THAT WILL BE THE ISSUE.

I hope you don’t have a naive trust of the insurance companies.

Take some time and read the bloomberg article at the top of this thread.

By the way, filing a claim will impact your Choicepoint insurance score. Yes, this is score analogous to a FICO score that scores your insurance risk rather than credit risk.

In the past, I’ve always maxed out my Homeowners insurance deductible allowable under lender guidelines. Never file any claim unless it is catastrophic. One claim for stolen golf clubs will likely raise your Choicepoint score and result in higher rates or may result in cancellation of your policy at renewal. You may end up paying for those stolen clubs many times over. Catastrophic claims also result in an increase in your Choicepoint insurance score.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

The personal property claims are generally not the issue, these are small peanuts compared to the structure. CC receipts are certainly a good idea along with video taping of valuables.

IT IS THE PAYOUTS FOR THE STRUCTURES THAT WILL BE THE ISSUE.

I hope you don’t have a naive trust of the insurance companies.

Take some time and read the bloomberg article at the top of this thread.

By the way, filing a claim will impact your Choicepoint insurance score. Yes, this is score analogous to a FICO score that scores your insurance risk rather than credit risk.

In the past, I’ve always maxed out my Homeowners insurance deductible allowable under lender guidelines. Never file any claim unless it is catastrophic. One claim for stolen golf clubs will likely raise your Choicepoint score and result in higher rates or may result in cancellation of your policy at renewal. You may end up paying for those stolen clubs many times over. Catastrophic claims also result in an increase in your Choicepoint insurance score.

Bubblesitter

[Raybyrnes]

Funny about scores. Insurers use them differently. Some insurers attach the score to the property. Others will attach it to the owner. It is a good question to aske when shopping for insurnace. especaially if you have put in a claim or if you want to find out if the previous occupant put in a claim on the property you are buying.

And no I am not naive about insurance. In fact I am very knowledgeable on this area. I also know that insurance is a promise that is sold. You don’t go building and retaining customers by not paying claims.

Additionally, people don’t buy newspapers when it says thousand of claims paid successfully. They sell when the Front cover has an orphan child with his puppy in his lap and a woman stating they are homeless becaue of the insurance company. Whay they leave out is the fact that they did not pay their premium for the last 3 years.

For a better idea of good insurance companies and how they rate I suggest using AM BEst, Consumer Reports, and JD powers. Might be able to get a nbetter idea of how well a company deals with crisis.

[Raybyrnes]

Funny about scores. Insurers use them differently. Some insurers attach the score to the property. Others will attach it to the owner. It is a good question to aske when shopping for insurnace. especaially if you have put in a claim or if you want to find out if the previous occupant put in a claim on the property you are buying.

And no I am not naive about insurance. In fact I am very knowledgeable on this area. I also know that insurance is a promise that is sold. You don’t go building and retaining customers by not paying claims.

Additionally, people don’t buy newspapers when it says thousand of claims paid successfully. They sell when the Front cover has an orphan child with his puppy in his lap and a woman stating they are homeless becaue of the insurance company. Whay they leave out is the fact that they did not pay their premium for the last 3 years.

For a better idea of good insurance companies and how they rate I suggest using AM BEst, Consumer Reports, and JD powers. Might be able to get a nbetter idea of how well a company deals with crisis.

[Raybyrnes]

Funny about scores. Insurers use them differently. Some insurers attach the score to the property. Others will attach it to the owner. It is a good question to aske when shopping for insurnace. especaially if you have put in a claim or if you want to find out if the previous occupant put in a claim on the property you are buying.

And no I am not naive about insurance. In fact I am very knowledgeable on this area. I also know that insurance is a promise that is sold. You don’t go building and retaining customers by not paying claims.

Additionally, people don’t buy newspapers when it says thousand of claims paid successfully. They sell when the Front cover has an orphan child with his puppy in his lap and a woman stating they are homeless becaue of the insurance company. Whay they leave out is the fact that they did not pay their premium for the last 3 years.

For a better idea of good insurance companies and how they rate I suggest using AM BEst, Consumer Reports, and JD powers. Might be able to get a nbetter idea of how well a company deals with crisis.

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

Raybyrnes … I agree with you 100%. Thanks for providing balance to this.

Bubbleguy, you are clueless here and stirring the pot with much too much pessimism as usual. Your link provided insight to the worst side of the insurance industry that any major industry has on the record, if you spend the time to research in order to provide a biased report. By and large, as the CA DOI Commissioner Steve Poizner stated himself, only 10-15% of the carriers have negative trends in their claims practices worthy of his office looking into.

A least a part of the problem in 2003 (Cedar Fire in San Diego) rested on the dramatic increase in construction costs and the consumer for not questioning coverage levels for fear of having to pay additional premium.

On your comments regarding underwriting, the actual score driven database is C.L.U.E.® (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report (yes, this is owned by choicepoint) and this remains but only one aspect of risk evaluation and not always entirely accurate. It would be difficult to find anyone that was non-renewed for a single wildfire loss event.

Additionally, carriers cannot simply raise rates without first going through a lengthy rate increase filing with the CA DOI that is scrutinized at many levels.

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

Raybyrnes … I agree with you 100%. Thanks for providing balance to this.

Bubbleguy, you are clueless here and stirring the pot with much too much pessimism as usual. Your link provided insight to the worst side of the insurance industry that any major industry has on the record, if you spend the time to research in order to provide a biased report. By and large, as the CA DOI Commissioner Steve Poizner stated himself, only 10-15% of the carriers have negative trends in their claims practices worthy of his office looking into.

A least a part of the problem in 2003 (Cedar Fire in San Diego) rested on the dramatic increase in construction costs and the consumer for not questioning coverage levels for fear of having to pay additional premium.

On your comments regarding underwriting, the actual score driven database is C.L.U.E.® (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report (yes, this is owned by choicepoint) and this remains but only one aspect of risk evaluation and not always entirely accurate. It would be difficult to find anyone that was non-renewed for a single wildfire loss event.

Additionally, carriers cannot simply raise rates without first going through a lengthy rate increase filing with the CA DOI that is scrutinized at many levels.

[CarlsbadMtnBiker]

Raybyrnes … I agree with you 100%. Thanks for providing balance to this.

Bubbleguy, you are clueless here and stirring the pot with much too much pessimism as usual. Your link provided insight to the worst side of the insurance industry that any major industry has on the record, if you spend the time to research in order to provide a biased report. By and large, as the CA DOI Commissioner Steve Poizner stated himself, only 10-15% of the carriers have negative trends in their claims practices worthy of his office looking into.

A least a part of the problem in 2003 (Cedar Fire in San Diego) rested on the dramatic increase in construction costs and the consumer for not questioning coverage levels for fear of having to pay additional premium.

On your comments regarding underwriting, the actual score driven database is C.L.U.E.® (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report (yes, this is owned by choicepoint) and this remains but only one aspect of risk evaluation and not always entirely accurate. It would be difficult to find anyone that was non-renewed for a single wildfire loss event.

Additionally, carriers cannot simply raise rates without first going through a lengthy rate increase filing with the CA DOI that is scrutinized at many levels.

[Bubblesitter]

Carlsbad dude,
Why are you defending the insurance industry so much? You aren’t an insurance agent are you?

Selling “peace of mind” is great, but only if you can deliver.

The Bloomberg article was not mentioning some second rate, 3rd tier insurance companies, but big industry heavyweights with sizable market share, Allstate, State farm, etc. They are systematically trying to minimize payouts. They are using every technique to achieve this goal. This happened with the Cedar fires, Katrina and now it will happen with the great 2007 San Diego fires.

You are either an insurance indusry hack or very naive.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Carlsbad dude,
Why are you defending the insurance industry so much? You aren’t an insurance agent are you?

Selling “peace of mind” is great, but only if you can deliver.

The Bloomberg article was not mentioning some second rate, 3rd tier insurance companies, but big industry heavyweights with sizable market share, Allstate, State farm, etc. They are systematically trying to minimize payouts. They are using every technique to achieve this goal. This happened with the Cedar fires, Katrina and now it will happen with the great 2007 San Diego fires.

You are either an insurance indusry hack or very naive.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Carlsbad dude,
Why are you defending the insurance industry so much? You aren’t an insurance agent are you?

Selling “peace of mind” is great, but only if you can deliver.

The Bloomberg article was not mentioning some second rate, 3rd tier insurance companies, but big industry heavyweights with sizable market share, Allstate, State farm, etc. They are systematically trying to minimize payouts. They are using every technique to achieve this goal. This happened with the Cedar fires, Katrina and now it will happen with the great 2007 San Diego fires.

You are either an insurance indusry hack or very naive.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Carlsbad dude,
Why are you defending the insurance industry so much? You aren’t an insurance agent are you?

Selling “peace of mind” is great, but only if you can deliver.

The Bloomberg article was not mentioning some second rate, 3rd tier insurance companies, but big industry heavyweights with sizable market share, Allstate, State farm, etc. They are systematically trying to minimize payouts. They are using every technique to achieve this goal. This happened with the Cedar fires, Katrina and now it will happen with the great 2007 San Diego fires.

You are either an insurance indusry hack or very naive.

Bubblesitter

[Bubblesitter]

Carlsbad dude,
Why are you defending the insurance industry so much? You aren’t an insurance agent are you?

Selling “peace of mind” is great, but only if you can deliver.

The Bloomberg article was not mentioning some second rate, 3rd tier insurance companies, but big industry heavyweights with sizable market share, Allstate, State farm, etc. They are systematically trying to minimize payouts. They are using every technique to achieve this goal. This happened with the Cedar fires, Katrina and now it will happen with the great 2007 San Diego fires.

You are either an insurance indusry hack or very naive.

Bubblesitter

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