Insurance Info

Do You Know Your Homeowners Insurance Cost?

You probably know a lot about your Homeowners Insurance.  Most people are aware that it repays them if something damages their house, like wind or fire.  It’s common knowledge that Homeowners Insurance is required by mortgage companies to get a house, so a lot of people have it.

But do you know, right now, off of the top of your head, how much it costs?

SPOILER ALERT: I give the numbers at the end of the blog!

BONUS ALERT: I give out ANOTHER FACTOR at the end end of the blog!

Do you know why it costs what it does?  What factors make Homeowners Insurance more expensive?  Less expensive?

Do you know why North Carolina is a great state for homeowners insurance – as long as you are in the WESTERN part?  Do you know why the EASTERN part is harder to insure?

You’re probably thinking, “No, dude, that’s why I’m reading this.”  And fair enough.

So let’s get started like this – if you don’t know anything about Homeowners Insurance at all, check out our Ultimate Guide to Homeowners Insurance first.

Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Read it?  Good.

Now that you know your HO-3 from an HE-7, let’s get into what costs what and how much you can expect to pay to get some seriously great coverage in North Carolina.

Cost Factor 1 – Value of Your Home

This is probably the easiest thing to understand when it comes to North Carolina Homeowners Insurance pricing.  If your house would cost more to rebuild, it will be more expensive to insure.

But, the key phrase above is REBUILD.

As I go over in detail in my blog on What Your Home Is Worth, your homeowners insurance policy is concerned with how much your house would cost to rebuild, NOT how much it would cost to buy on the open market.

That means that what your house is made of, how it is made and how much it would cost to rebuild it are the factors that help determine just how much it would be to insure your home.

Insurance is always about helping to restore you back to where you were BEFORE an accident occurred, and rebuilding your house (or repairing it) is the most basic example of this.

The most obvious way this is seen is the size of the house, the square footage.  The larger the home, the more it would cost in materials to rebuild it.  Pretty simple, right?

Materials also matter.  If your home is made of wood and inexpensive vinyl siding, that shouldn’t be too big of a deal to redo.  But if your home is made of hardie board, or stone?  Things can get expensive quickly.

So when you’ve just bought a new house, and you’re furious that your homeowners insurance is twice what it used to be, don’t worry.  It might have something to do with the fact that your new home is bigger, has brick and masonry walls, and a lovely architectural tile roof.

NOTE: Age of home is a factor.  The older the home, the more expensive to rebuild.  In insurance, the goal is to build it as it was.  Rebuilding older homes and trying to use the same materials is often pricey.

Your 1,000 square feet, brick on frame ranch house in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina will be less expensive than your 1,700 square feet stone on frame mountain home in Asheville, North Carolina – no matter what company you are with.

So the rule of thumb: More expensive to rebuild, more expensive to insure.

Cost Factor 2 – Location

This also should make sense to most people.  After all, what is the number one rule in real estate?

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

Location affects your homeowners insurance premium in a few different ways.   Let’s go over the three biggest ways location really matters.

First, the local area where your house, condo or townhouse exists has a rating called Protection Class.  This rating reflects how easy it is for fire trucks and other emergency responders to get to your home and help you if there is an emergency.

It makes sense that the faster firefighters and others could come and help put out a fire, help someone that is hurt, or help prevent other kinds of damage, the lower the rate because your insurance company will be more confident that claims will be lower or less likely to happen at all.

Second, where your home is determines what kind of calamities or disasters could hit your house.  If you live in the Midwest, you could be in the path of tornadoes.  If you are in Florida, you could be subject to hurricanes.  If you’re in California, you may find yourself in danger of earthquakes and wildfires.

The most obvious example of this is if you are in the coastal part of North Carolina.  It will be obvious to everyone in the eastern part of the state that hurricanes and flooding dominate conversations about insurance coverage and cost.

If you’re near the Atlantic ocean in the Southeast, hurricanes are just a part of life.  And as flooding becomes more and more common, this too is a factor (and why you should have flood insurance no matter where you live).

The third factor is the urban vs rural divide.  This is more of a general rule than an absolute, hard and fast rule.  But the gist of it is this: if you’re in a city, you are more exposed to certain risks than you would be in the country.

Houses are more vulnerable to fire since they are close together.  Even in the safest cities crime rates for property crimes are usually higher.  And more people means a greater chance that one of them will do something thoughtless and damage your property.

That being said, some cities are incredibly safe – shockingly so considering the press they get and what those cities used to be in the 70s and 80s.  New York City, for example, has a lower crime rate than the national average.

While other cities are so spread out that they barely deserve the name in the outer reaches.  Los Angeles, CA is 503 square miles, but has densely populated cities all around it.  But Houston, TX is 669 square miles, and while it is surrounded by smaller suburbs it feels more like a giant Greensboro at times than a downtown Charlotte.

If you were curious, Charlotte, North Carolina comes in at a slender, elegant 297 square miles.  But the traffic still stinks.  (Sorry Charlotte, we love you!)

Cost Factor 3 – Claims History

If you’ve read any of our other blogs, you knew this was coming.

Having claims in the past is a sure fire way of paying more for your insurance, no matter what you’re insuring.  A lot of people think that this isn’t fair.  But look at it this way:

Let’s say you’re a mechanic who has agreed to fix the cars for two of your neighbors for a flat, monthly price.  Each pays you no matter what happens, you work if something needs fixing, no worries.

Sounds great, right?  Except one neighbor has problem after problem, while the other hardly ever uses your service.  Charging them both the same seems wrong, doesn’t it?

That’s why insurance companies changes what insurance costs based on how much you “use” it (though using it isn’t the right term, since it’s used in an accident or emergency – and you don’t exactly plan those).

If you have a lot of claims, there tend to be reasons behind it.  You can just be extraordinarily unlucky, of course!

But sometimes people who have lots of homeowners claims either don’t take care of the property, or act in reckless ways that invite accidents, or are just in terrible locations that have lots of natural occurrences that cause damage.

Regardless, insurance companies try to make money to be able to pay out on the claims they do have, while also staying in business to keep paying out claims in the future.

So, if you’ve had several claims and you wonder why your insurance premium is so high, all those accidents are probably your answer.

Real North Carolina Quotes

To prove to you that this stuff matters, I’ve got three real, honest to God quotes that show what I mean.

The first one is this:

In the (only slightly redacted) quote above  you can see that in a home that would cost just under $200,000 to rebuild (check out Dwelling, that’s the coverage for the house itself) we will pay $865 a year for full reconstruction cost coverage on the home.  That’s a stellar deal.

In the next quote we see a larger home that is more expensive to rebuild.  We still have the older home price adjustment but we have discounts for claims free, insurance score (a hint about the last hint at the bottom of the blog), and Protective Devices discount – TIP: if you have a security system you get a discount!

And lastly, the big boy.  This policy insures a much more expensive home in terms of replacement cost, and the premium is a lot higher as a result.  All the same price adjustments are there from the last couple of quotes, but the major this is the cost of rebuilding the home.

Now, for our last tip!

Credit is a major factor in determining price in North Carolina – or anywhere!

That’s right!  Your credit score is a big part of how much you pay for homeowners insurance, whether you live in North Carolina or anywhere else.

Check out our blog on How Does Credit Affect Your Insurance Price and get wise to this very important piece to what you pay.

If you look at the quotes above, you can see “Insurance Score.”  That number is based on your credit score and adjusted for each insurance company’s internal system.  But if you see insurance score on your quote, you know what it is.

So what now?

You should know a lot more about why you pay what you do for homeowners insurance in North Carolina.  To make sure you’re getting a great quote in this great state, double check with Alliance Insurance to see that you have the right coverage AND the right price.

Click the link below and let’s start the process of getting you taken care of like you deserve to be – like family.

And the problem isn’t that your Auto Insurance is too expensive.

If you have a car, you have auto insurance.  It’s the law.  But, odds are you are completely unaware about a big problem with your auto insurance.

Now, most people probably assume that the problem is the cost.  The thing we hear the most is that people feel that they are overcharged for what they have, or at worst, “ripped off.”

But that isn’t the real issue.  And, I’m going to be honest with you, the rest of this article may not be popular with some people.

But we pride ourselves on honesty, whether it is what someone wants to hear or not.  We tell people that they DON’T need an insurance policy or a particular coverage rather than selling them something that they don’t need.

And it’s in that same spirit of candor that I say what I’m about to say.

So buckle up.

You are buying auto insurance like you buy a toaster.

What?  What does that mean?

If you are buying a toaster, and you have only two things to think about: how many slices of toast can it handle at once, and how much does it cost?

For most of us, the number of slices and the sound it makes when it is finished toasting are exactly where the phrase bells and whistles comes from.  It’s all fluff.

So ultimately it’s all about price.

We want the cheapest toaster.  We want a toaster on sale.  And we want it free if we can get it – even if we have to start a new checking account.*

*For young people, banks used to give toasters as a freebie for starting a checking account back in the olden days before Instagram and banking apps and Lizzo

And we think about insurance the same way.

We want CHEAP insurance.  We want DISCOUNTS.  We want to SAVE MONEY.

Now a part of you is going, “Of course we do!  I need to save as much as possible.  Why would I pay more for something if I don’t have to?”

And you’re right.  Overpaying is financially irresponsible.  But here is the point I’m making.

Insurance is not a toaster.

On the surface that’s obvious.

But the fact of the matter is that most people don’t think about insurance as all that different than a toaster.  They want to know what it costs.  It’s the first question we get.

When we ask what their driving record is, or what kind of car they have, some people are annoyed that we can’t just tell them what the price is.  Isn’t all that just bells and whistles?

Coverage options are just how many slices of bread it can make at once, right?

WRONG.

Insurance is not a toaster.

It is a financial reimbursement device.  What does that mean?  Insurance is a financial service that pays you back when something happens, something that costs you money.

So how can we think of insurance that can help us understand the difference between insurance and a toaster?

Look at it this way.

Insurance is like a home security system.

That’s a little different, isn’t it?

Buying a home security system isn’t just going down to your local Best Buy* and picking up a camera that goes over your door.

*For young people, in order to buy something you used to have to go to stores to buy something in person.  See: Blockbuster.

Security systems have different levels of security.  If you just want the cheapest option available, there are still numerous places in your house that are at risk.

But, for the top level, elite protection, you have to pay more.

And it changes depending on the house.  If you have a small house with only a few entrances, it will be less expensive to protect.

But a large, sprawling mansion could require dozens of points of protection in order to keep you absolutely secure.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Insurance is a tailor-made product designed for each customer.

There is no one size fits all for a certain price when it comes to auto insurance.

As consumers, we have been TAUGHT to buy based on price.  GEICO and State Farm have told us that cheaper is better, that discounts and deals are the way we should find value in insurance.

But look at this – I can lower your liability from 100/300 to 50/100 (check out our Ultimate Guide to Auto Insurance to find out what this means) and yeah, you’ll save money.

But if I took away half of a meal you ordered and charged you less, would you be satisfied?

This gets to the heart of what I’m saying.  People typically just look at the price.  So an agent or company that only wants to get your business, not do what is best for you as a person, can “save” you money by giving you a fraction of what your old policy used to be.

An old customer of ours said we “ripped them off” because we charged a hundred dollars more than her new company.  But we don’t sell anything lower than 50/100 limits for insurance.  Period.

I’d love to see their new policy and compare to what we had for them.  It’s what’s inside the policy that counts.  As we say at Alliance, we don’t mind getting beat on an “apples to apples” basis.

But we don’t like it when someone goes somewhere and buys less insurance and thinks they are saving money.

When we do an auto insurance quote, we look at your driving history, your vehicle type, the drivers you have, and consider what risks there are out there in the world that you have to deal with – the “how many doors” scenario from our home security system metaphor.

Then we offer you a policy based on what is best for YOU.  Not what is best for GEICO.  Not what is the cheapest.  What is the BEST.

Auto Insurance should be personalized.

If your auto insurance policy looks like your neighbors’, something is wrong. Unless your neighbor is your twin sibling with identical vehicles, identical credit scores and identical driving records.

Minimum limit, cheapest-is-best insurance just doesn’t cut it anymore.

I can even use full coverage to prove my point.

If you have a four year old car that is paid off, having only liability is crazy.  You would owe a ton of money to fix your car if you get into an at-fault accident.

BUT – if you have a 17 year old truck that you drive around to haul things or go fishing in, having full coverage is a waste of money!

We advise people all the time to drop full coverage on vehicles over 15 years old because the cost of repairing the vehicle isn’t worth the value of the car.*

*And no, I’m not talking about a vintage car or a 15 year old Lambo.  Nobody likes a smart aleck.

It’s time to treat your auto insurance like a parachute.

Nobody wants to jump off a plane with the cheapest, rat-chewed parachute they could find.

If you have a policy that you bought because it was the least expensive one, you need a new quote.

Right now.

Click on the link below, get a new quote, and talk to someone at Alliance.

We do everything on an individual basis so that each individual is properly covered.

And if you want minimum limits or you want to cut a big coverage item because it’s cheaper, we will say no.

Life is too important to lie to your clients and not look after their own best interests just to make a little money.

So get into a new way of looking at things.  Get a new quote, and make sure you can jump off of a plane with confidence.

Claims are the entire reason you have insurance – and they shouldn’t be confusing.

But the fact of the matter is that many people in North Carolina have a difficult time knowing what to do after they have suffered a loss.

When something happens, you are already in a distressed state of mind.   Trying to figure out the correct way to tell your insurance company that you’ve had something bad happen can be one more hassle that you have to deal with.

If you have a forward thinking insurance agency (like, I don’t know, your awesome local/everywhere in North Carolina agency Alliance Insurance), you might have several different ways you could file the claim – or at least it looks that way.

Do I call my agent?  Call my insurance company?  Call the number on my ID card?  Do I report online?  Do I use the insurance agent app?  Do I email?

And what do I do if it’s another person’s fault?  Do I call their agent?  Or their company?  Or them?  Or my agent?

What the heck do I do?!

Let’s all slow down, take a breath, and go over each circumstance and what to do if you need to report a claim.

What To Do If You Have An Auto Claim in North Carolina

If you’ve been in an accident, or had an auto fire, or found that someone has broken into your car, you need to report a claim.  So what is the best way to do that?

1. For starters, make sure you aren’t in any immediate danger.  Your safety and the safety of those around you is the most important thing.
2. After that, take pictures of the damage and get any other info that you can.  If it is an accident, exchange information with the other person involved.  Make sure you include the police in this if they are present.  And get photos of the license plates – just in case someone tries to say they weren’t actually involved in the accident later.
3. Next, call your insurance company – like Progressive, Auto Owners, Travelers, or whoever you may have.
   NOTE: It doesn’t matter who is at fault.  It doesn’t matter how much damage is involved.  It doesn’t matter if you aren’t sure what happened or if it is covered.
   While it may seem logical to call your agent since they are the ones you know and speak to more often, it is your insurance company and their claims department that will be handling the claim.
4. The claims number for your insurance company will be on your insurance ID card, on the company’s website, or listed in your insurance app.
5. If you’re more tech savvy and it isn’t an emergency, you can also report on the company’s claims website (links to our company’s claims pages are here).
6. Once this has been done, it is generally a good idea to let your agent know as well.  But if you can only make one phone call, make sure it is to your insurance company.  The company will let your agent know there has been a claim.

And why should you call your company and not the other person involved in a claim, even if it is their fault?

Because your insurance company will contact their insurance company and work out the details.  Your company has a right to act on your behalf and resolve claims for you, even if you aren’t at fault.

So the next time you have an auto claim, follow the above rules and you should be good to go.

Oh, and whatever you think, don’t try to fix it yourself and then turn in the claim.  You’ll probably get denied.

What To Do If You Have A Homeowner Claim in North Carolina

Whether you’ve had lightning hit the roof, or a break in, or frozen pipes that have burst, sometimes you just have to file a claim on your homeowners insurance policy.

So let’s go through the steps you’ll need to file a claim correctly.

1. Make sure you and your family are not in danger.  If there is a fire or another danger, get out!
2. Do your best to prevent future damage.  If there is a hole in the roof, try to cover and prevent rain getting in.  If there is a small fire, spray with your fire extinguisher and call the fire department.
3. Take pictures of any damaged property or damaged and/or missing items.
4. Call your insurance company and report the claim – like ASI, Auto Owners, Travelers, or whoever you may have.
5. The claims number for your insurance company will be on your insurance ID card, on the company’s website, or listed in your insurance app.
6. Or report the claim on the company website (you can find our company’s claims pages here).
7. Lastly, report the claim to your agent.  Again, if you are pressed for time, don’t feel that this is a necessity, as your company will report the claim for you.

The most important thing to remember is to be safe and let your company know what happened.  They will let your agent know, have a claims adjuster contact you, and start the process of getting you the financial resources you need to get back on track.

And, again, don’t try to do the work yourself.  And don’t try to put out a fire or any other dangers task if it puts your health at risk.

What about boat, motorcycle, or RV claims?

For any other vehicle claims, follow the rules of auto claims reporting above and you should be good to go.

And if you have some sort of weird situation (my RV hit a boat while on the water with a motorcycle on the roof because we were all picked up by a UFO), just call your insurance agent.

Also, probably not a good idea to report “Aliens” as the cause of a loss.  Just saying.

What about…

For anything else, just contact your agent.

In fact, if you have questions or if you’re too emotionally upset to deal with calling a 1-800 number, call your agent.

Part of what we do is to make sure you are safe, happy and protected.  Dealing with claims is one of the primary ways we do that.

While the company needs to get your information first, as they are the ones handling the claim, your agent is your I-can’t-deal-with-this panic button no matter what.

If you’ve had a claim, follow the steps above and click HERE to report it with the company.  Or call us immediately.

Claims are really what insurance is all about.  They get you back to where you were before an accident.

So make sure you know what to do so you can get the help you need.

If you’re not one of our North Carolina customers, and you found this helpful, maybe it’s time for a new look for your coverage?

Click below and let’s get you the protection you need.

But I thought my Homeowners policy covered that!

This phrase is all too common in our industry – but it doesn’t have to be.  Part of what we do as insurance agents is tell you what a policy (like Homeowners) covers to keep you safe.

But that shouldn’t be all we do.  You need to know what a policy does NOT cover so you can be aware of the gaps in coverage and decide if you want another policy to bridge that gap.

Or if you’re just going to risk it.

So what am I talking about?  Let’s get into what your Homeowners policy doesn’t cover and get you all caught up.

WEAR & TEAR – Not Covered

Once this door falls down I’ll file a claim.

I’ve been over this extensively in another blog, so I won’t bore you with more details.  But I still need to mention that wear and tear, or the gradual breakdown of your home, is not covered by your homeowners policy.

So things like rot, aging, gradual water damage from a leak, and equipment breakdown are all examples of this.

If you’ve got a leak or a roof that’s about to collapse, and you think your homeowners policy will take care of it, you’re in for a rude awakening.

Try a Home Warranty instead.  Those offer lots of protections for these kinds of risks.

FLOOD – Not Covered

Does my policy have submarine towing?

Flooding is not a “covered peril” in insurance.  What does that mean?  It means that if flooding damages your house or belongings, your homeowners policy will not pay for the damages.

What exactly is flooding, then?  Flooding is when a body of water rises and water invades and damages your property.

If heavy rain causes a nearby creek to rise and water gets in your house, that’s flooding.

If a high tide and a storm make the ocean swell and water damages your garage and car, that’s flooding.

Water damage is NOT flooding if the initial cause is something that is covered.  So if, for example, lightning puts a hole in your roof, and rain soaks and damages the floor of your house, that would be covered since the water was caused by the lightning strike – a covered peril.

Of course Flood Insurance is it’s own thing, and if you don’t have it you should seriously consider getting it.  It isn’t expensive, it’s federally backed, and flood damage happens in places you never think it would.

EARTHQUAKE – Not Covered

I hope the beer in the fridge is okay.

Like Flooding, Earthquakes and other “earth movements” are natural disasters that are NOT covered by your homeowners policy.

Like flooding, most people assume that this is something that they will never have to deal with, and in some sense they are correct.  Earthquakes are largely in areas on the West Coast near major fault lines, especially in California (the most seismically active state is actually Alaska).

But earthquakes do happen in every single state.  They happen in the East Coast and there is even a hot spot in the Appalachian Mountains on the North Carolina/Tennessee border.

Virginia had a 5.8 earthquake in 2011 that damaged property and  was felt from NC to Maryland and beyond, causing millions of dollars in property damage and even threatening our national monuments in the capital.

Check out THIS MAP to see local frequencies of earthquakes.  Some will surprise you.

Not only that, but “induced” earthquakes are on the rise as well, with some research indicating that water injection from natural gas and oil extraction helps to cause these quakes. (Good article HERE)

In previously quiet areas like Oklahoma there have been hundreds of such quakes, usually around areas of heavy fraking.

So even if you don’t live in LA, you still may want to consider earthquake insurance.

ENFORCEMENT OF LAW OR ORDINANCE – Not Covered

This typically refers to EMINENT DOMAIN, the process where a local government authority needs the land you happen to own for a construction project like a highway.

Insurance does not cover the loss of your home in this way.  However, as part of eminent domain, the government body is supposed to compensate you to make up for your loss.

However, this can also be for something like condemnation or another type of forcible closing.  So making sure you’re home is up to standard and free of catastrophe is a big deal.

But you probably already knew that if you live in it.

MUDSLIDE OR LANDSLIDE – Not Covered

What was that rumbling sound, Francis?

Most people assume that a mudslide or landslide would be covered – if they think about these things happening at all.

But surprisingly they aren’t covered!

The main reasons is that, in the eyes of the insurance companies, a mudslide is a kind of flood, and a landslide is a kind of earthquake.

Whether you agree with that or not, the fact of the matter is that they aren’t going to be covered by your homeowners insurance policy.  So if you live in an area where things like this happen you definitely need to get either a Flood or Earthquake policy, pronto.

What does your policy cover?

If you’re not sure, there’s no time like the present to schedule a review and make sure you are 100% covered.

Click on the link below and let us know you need a review to see where the gaps are in your coverage.  You may not have the right homeowners policy, or need flood or earthquake to be really protected correctly.

So what are you waiting for?  Let’s make sure you know exactly what your complete coverage looks like, and how we can make it even better.

Wait, credit affects how much I pay for insurance?

Amazingly, a lot of people don’t know this.  But if you start to think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Credit, and by this I of course mean your credit score, makes a big difference in a ton of things in your life.  I could go on but this isn’t a financial literacy blog.

I’m no Dave Ramsey.  Though I do have better hair.

Sorry, Dave.

Regardless of follicular superiority, credit does indeed help your insurance costs.  Let’s go over the ways that good credit can save you a bundle.

Credit determines the kind of auto policy you can get.

A lot of people aren’t aware that insurance companies break customers into one of two camps: Preferred and Standard.  There is nothing wrong with being standard – it literally means you’re like most people.   But preferred customers get better rates, and therefore pay less for insurance.

People are usually put into one category or another because of their driving history.  If you have lots of accidents, you are probably going to have more accidents, so you’re put in Standard.

If you have no accidents or tickets, you’ve got a great chance of being put in preferred.

Credit is the other huge factor in determining where you go.  If you have great credit, you’ve got a good shot at Preferred.  Bad credit?  Nearly no chance.

If you combine the two you see the real power.  A good score and a great driving record gets you into Preferred and gives you the best rates a company will offer.

For your auto policy, this is crucial.  The kind of credit you have can drastically affect how much you pay every month (or every year if you get that sweet paid-in-full discount).

NOTE: Most companies do not call their groups Preferred and Standard.  Each company has its own name for their version of Preferred or Standard, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find that kind of language anywhere on your policy.

What if you don’t have credit because you live off the grid?

It helps you get great homeowner rates.

Just like auto insurance, insurance companies split up their customers into different groups for homeowners insurance, too.  But it’s a little more complicated than just Preferred and Standard.

Most companies have at least two groups for homeowners.  Some have three or four – or seven.  The point is that there are other factors besides just “Average” and “Above Average” that goes into determining where you’re put.

But the same rule applies.  If you have good credit, you’re put in one of the better groups.

Couple this with a great claims history, a house in a safe place that is at least a couple of hundred miles from the ocean, and you’ve got a great chance of getting into the best group possible.

A good score can lead to other benefits in homeowners insurance besides just good rates.  You can also qualify for better policy types as I describe in our Ultimate Guide to Homeowners Insurance.

This can have a big impact on your coverages, providing better base protection and giving you more coverage on things like jewelry, firearms, and electronics.

So the formula is simple. Good Credit = Good Homeowner Group = Good Rates.

You’ll be strutting your stuff knowing how good you really are when you see your quote with that awesome credit score you’ve earned.

I’ve got good credit.  So what do I do about it?

Most people do nothing.  They assume that their insurance is good because, let’s face it, who wants to talk about insurance if they don’t have to?

But if you notice your credit score going up, and you haven’t talked about insurance in a while with someone, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Having good credit means that companies now WANT you to be their customer.  Just like as I talked about how loyalty is important in my blog and video on Package Policies (also called Bundles), good credit makes you a valuable commodity to insurance companies.

But why?

Well, think about it.  Why do mortgage companies give people with good credit better rates?  Why do banks want to loan you money?  Why do you get 1.5 Million credit card offers a week?

Because people with good credit are reliable.  They pay what they owe.  They aren’t late with payments.  They have a history of financial responsibility.

And, it turns out, they are less likely to have claims.  Insurance companies are math driven.  They’ve done their homework, and they’ve discovered that not only are people with good credit more likely to pay their bills and be on time, they are less likely to get involved in an auto accident or have their house burn down.

Crucially, it also means if they do have an accident, they can be trusted and the money they are given will go straight to fixing the problem.

Put simply, people with good credit are great customers.  Period.

Admit it. This is you checking your credit score right now.

Am I getting the best deal with my credit?

That’s the big question, isn’t it?

When is the last time you go a new quote from your agent?  Or have you talked about your new credit score in your annual insurance review?

To be honest, you probably haven’t.  And you could be leaving money on the table as a result.

If you’ve got good credit, and you haven’t had a new review of your insurance in a while, talk to Alliance.  We can look over your policies and run some numbers that include your awesome credit score, making sure you get the best rates possible.

NOTE: When we check your score, it is a soft hit.  It will not negatively affect your score!

So fill out the very quick form below.  It will take you six seconds.  And you’ve earned it.

Life Insurance was the last thing I needed.

This is a more personal blog than I have done before, so please accompany me on a real life journey through some serious ups and downs.  At the end, you will understand why I have changed my mind about a very important topic: Life Insurance.

Like many of my peers in my twenties and into my thirties, I never thought about life insurance.  I had rent, student loans, auto insurance, a healthy going-out budget – I was leveraged about as far as I could go.  Besides, what was life insurance to me anyway?  It seemed like paying hundreds of dollars a month so that someone in the distant future could pay for my funeral when I was gone from this world.  And at that point, I would hardly care about that, would I? [Read more…]