Have you kept yourself updated on the price of the insurance you have on your Grapevine home?
You used to be able to count on the price not changing much from year to year on renewal after selecting your insurance carrier. That is a great thing to get used to, but it's not what people are finding the case to be anymore.
On the flip-side, carriers could usually count on you as a loyal customer since they weren't giving you much of a reason to need to shop somewhere else.
When insurance companies hit the markets as publicly traded stock amongst shareholders, the consumer pricing model changed and so did that relationship.
You are undoubtedly familiar with price creep. Milk and eggs at your favorite grocery store. Your cable or cell phone bill. You will also find this the case in home insurance.
New customers get the best rates while you seem to get the Heismann stiff arm.
New client acquisition makes shareholders happy and the company heads filter that mandate down to the lower ranks to get those new accounts signed up using teaser rates instead of focusing on retention of old customers.
We aren't without choices. We can shop around, but how often is beneficial?
In a general sense, doing this every couple of years usually will help you to realize some discounts and cost savings. Several factors contribute to this if you are staying in the same house.
Age of home/roof
You can do plastic surgery on your home but it won't turn back the clock. The age is what it is. Chances of things going wrong goes up and premium goes up with it. Having a new roof helps, even if it took a claim to get that new roof.
Credit Score
This is a moving target but a significant target, because a good credit score can actually lower your premiums as this is becoming an important rating factor to insurers.
Claim History
Claim it and see your payment go up. Run the risk of claiming on something that doesn't get paid out and you'll also see your rates rise (the dreaded double-whammy). We've discussed when to use your home insurance before. When those claims fall off your insurance record in three to five years, you may see cost of premium benefits.
Length of Time with Current Insurer
We admit this can be controversial. Shopping insurance every year doesn't benefit you if you get tagged as a serial shopper of insurance by changing carriers each year. You may see short term benefits, but there is a long game as well. Many carriers reward loyalty, i.e., length of time with previous carriers. This discount can be significant enough to outweigh the savings of shopping and dropping carriers frequently.
You are in control of when you shop. We think a smart move is to work with a local, independent insurance agent. We at Insurance For Texans have access to a wide market of options, not just one.
We'd love to help you find a great deal on insurance or even tell you what you have is working well enough.