I disagree with some points in your article/guide - independent agents don't sell higher priced policies - even direct writers such as Allstate, State Farm etc are paid commissions to the agents that peddle their product - if you want the best rates for home insurance you need to simply shop it or have some one do that for you. There are for most states up to 60 different insurance carriers the rates change all the time, sometimes an independent agent company is very competitive sometimes a direct writer - it depends on several factors such as the type of house, location, age, brush exposure, wind exposure, etc. It can be a lot of work to shop your insurance - it is why clients hire us to do it. But you would be mistaken not to look at all markets not just the direct writers. Those well known names like Geico are well known for a reason - it's called advertising to the tune of $400 million dollars a year and consumers buy it because advertising works. It does NOT mean they are the most cost effective, rarely do we recommend them as the most competitive.

Second area is deductibles - I have a client that took a $5,000 deductible and yet she was paying the most anyone was charging for home insurance - so why go with such a high deductible - I prefer to take a reasonable deductible such as $1,000 and then if you do have some losses/claims if the carrier is considering dropping you - you have a negotiating tool as in increasing the deductible up to $5,000. If you start at that level you have nothing to negotiate if you have some losses/claims problems in a single year. We use this tactic all the time for personal insurance as well as business insurance and it works. Leave yourself areas to negotiate what can be negotiated.

Andrea Luoni
RateCraft.net