does anybody living downtown have renter's insurance on their property? it's a requirement for me and i just now got the bill in the mail today from my insurance agent. my old insurance from columbia was $174 a year and my new rate is $378 a year. now i expected an increase but this seems a little outrageous to me. is that in line with what other people are paying for insurance downtown? for the record i live in the professional building at 11th and grand.
to me my stuff is every bit as secure in my secure entry stone building with a night security guard every night as it was in my wood built duplex with cheap doors. $378 a year seems steep to me for what i have and the actual residence i'm living in.
edit: just looked at my policy. that rate is with a claim free discount and a home&auto discount applied. i wonder what the rate is without the discounts
Last edited by shaffe on Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Renters insurance does much more than protect things from theft, it protects you if your building sprinklers go off and all your stuff is ruined, it protects if you leave a candle lit and you burn down the building, etc etc... It's a very important thing to have and is typically very cheap. I'm insured through State Farm in 64108 for $30,000 and pay $10.50 a month, about $126 a year. $378 is ridiculous, shop around.
If you have a car, check with the company that you use for car insurance. They probably offer renters insurance also, and you will likely get a discount for the two policies.
thanks for the replies, looks like i need to look into state farm. i've been using american family, as has my family for years. i have $16,000 in personal property on premises and $300,000 personal liability. i'm not sure if the liability is high but it seems high to me.
I use USAA and I guess my rate is at the higher end of that's been discussed here at at $386.07 (paid monthly). But I also have higher coverages that what have been mentioned here.... $40,000 for personal property (I have a lot of electronics and antiques) plus a $10,000 of computer coverage.
The computer coverage is about half the bill... if I didn't have that my annual premium would be $198.57.
If you decide to go with State Farm, call 816-861-8600 and asked for Cari.
bahua wrote:
Geez, I had no idea people payed so much for their insurance! I thought it was about $5 a month, in general, across the board.
Its like car insurance, there are different categories and amounts of coverage - the significant difference in prices are probably not for apples to apples policies.
$5 a month would pay to protect maybe your toaster. $20 a month is pretty typical for an average 2 bedroom apartment with standard coverage and a multi-line discount. My State Farm policy also covers off-site storage, which is nice.
Just a bit of drivel here. Kind of apples and oranges, but some hints:
We are currently renting till we find a place to buy here in IN. We got a renter's policy with State Farm last October when we moved here. We have $200k for our home and our off site storage facility combined. It was just under $300 for 6 months when we bought it.
Then, when we renewed when the 6 months was up, we got a credit for $178 which was more than the premium for the next 6 months. So we still have a small credit on that policy. We've been State Farm policy holders for 13 years with cars, house, and umbrella.
Anyway-when I called to figure out why the big credit, they called the home office and found out that they had checked our credit report and our claims report and our rate got lowered to less than half of the original.
Your credit score does make a difference whether it should or not.
It makes a difference if you have all your policies with the same carrier.
Having no claims makes a difference.
It might be good for you to call up and ask them to re-rate you if you think you are getting the shaft.
Keep in mind that insurance in IN is cheaper across the board because MO rates are higher to begin with and we don't live in or near a city so you really can't compare premiums. What you can compare is the reasoning behind the price of your premiums.
