I don’t know about you but my social media lately has been flooded with ads telling me I can get my auto or homeowners insurance in 60 seconds and save a ton of money while I do so.
Wow! Sounds great…until you stop to think about it…
Let’s just think about your homeowner’s insurance. Can you list off all of the details of your home that would determine it’s value in 60 seconds? Probably not. I do this for a living and I couldn’t.
Your home is more than a year built, square footage and type of roof. It’s more than what type of siding you have and whether you have a finished basement or a crawlspace. It’s even more than how many bathrooms and fireplaces do you have.
A good homeowner’s policy and more importantly a good Insurance Agent will help take into account whether you have laminate countertops or granite. Is your finished basement just some drywall on the walls and a drop ceiling or a fully furnished media room and wet bar? Do you have a collection of jewelry that would go above what would be covered under the standard limits? Are you covered if your kids have a party and someone gets hurt?
When you use one of these 60 second apps you are basically using a “bot” or script that a developer has set up to check online rates for multiple insurance companies. It isn’t a person reviewing what is right for you it is just a piece of computer code spitting numbers back at you. It isn’t checking for discounts you might have missed. It isn’t asking questions to see if there is an important coverage you might need or should have but never knew wasn’t included in the policy you are being sold. It is something you could do yourself if you really wanted to.
But here’s the best part of what they don’t want you to know….they are probably charging you more than if you went out and did the online quotes on your own. If you use one of these insurance apps and they spit out a rate for a bigger name company such as Farmers or State Farm…you are being over-charged. Why? Because the larger and better known insurance companies operate on “captive” models where they only sell policies through their own agents or directly through their own websites. If you get a quote through an app like these, look for a “policy fee” or something added onto the cost of the policy because they aren’t being paid a commission from the big name companies and they aren’t doing it for free and this can be over $100 extra.
Call your local agent or even send them an email if you don’t like talking on the phone. They know their products, they know the business and the good ones want to help you understand what you are buying. (There’s a really great Farmers agent in Belvidere I have heard.)
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