Q for State Farm camera policyholders

Addicted2EOS wrote in post #8873658
I think this supports the notion that one thinks they have a separate policy but in actuality it is a rider on the homeowners policy. In other words, one does affect the other. Hope it works out!

I will defer to others on this topic as I have made "my personal experience" available for others to learn from.

The above statement really does sum it up.

I am not trashing the insurance business. The less "we know" the better for them.

So for the general benefit of others, read through the various threads and make your own... hopefully now, more educated personal decisions.

RAM

a computer programmer once told me you can tell when a computer programmer is lying about when a program will be completed whenever he starts to move his lips.

If anyone believes that when you make a claim on one policy it won't affect other policies, well, I got a bridge to sell ya.

I mean, come on, they now use your credit report to base decisions on. They are very sophisticated.

Their sole purpose is to collect premiums. The antithesis of that is to pay out.

me

When I took our my personal articles policy our agent assured us that any claims would not affect premiums of other policies. However depending on the size of the claim they may decide to cancel the policy after paying out and decline to sell you another personal articles policy.

For me it is for emergency replacement only where I could not afford to replace my equipment or where it would be uncomfortably expensive to do so.

MDJAK wrote in post #8876239
a computer programmer once told me you can tell when a computer programmer is lying about when a program will be completed whenever he starts to move his lips.

If anyone believes that when you make a claim on one policy it won't affect other policies, well, I got a bridge to sell ya.

I mean, come on, they now use your credit report to base decisions on. They are very sophisticated.

Their sole purpose is to collect premiums. The antithesis of that is to pay out.

me

So,are you telling me that if I have an auto accident and file a claim with my insurance company, my home owner's premium will go up as a result? I don't think so.

This is a favorite subject here........ I was a lawyer for 17 years....... PLUS ITS HAPPENED TO ME......

Others have said the right things about "camera insurance"..... Its a RIDER (additional coverage) which you can't get without a home owner's policy. The base policy will cover cameras (guns, jewelry or art, etc) up to a stated limit with or without a deductible...... So if $300 of camera insurance will cover you, COOL........

NOW..... If you have not PAID FOR YOUR HOUSE AND HAVE A MORTGAGE...... (a lot of people I guess)... The entity that holds the mortgage will REQUIRE to have insurance on the house or pay the mortgage in full.

Insurance companies have figured out that if you have 2 claims, they are generally not going to keep insuring you since you may well have a 3rd claim. So if you make claims, the poster who said CATASTOPHIC ONLY was right, they better be big ones. 2 small ones and no insurance on your house and you can get it though the mortgage company (REALLY HIGH RATES) or pay it off.

Me... No claims for 21 years, not a nickle, house paid for, some water in the basement, got the rug wet, $2100 in damage and $$$ to Servicemaster to clean it up. My rates doubled (heard that one above too), PLUS suddenly the value of my house tripled in 2 years. I called and complained. (Raised hell was more like it). The letter said it was because of my poor credit.... I don't owe a nickle to anyone, I have not borrowed a dime since 1993, have no outstanding credit card bills, etc. They finally admitted that it was because of the water leak.

I said fine, I can understand, WHEN DO THE RATES GO BACK DOWN...... They said 7 years. They got it all back including like $3k to Servicemaster in the 2nd year (had I paid it)..... I cancelled and got another policy. Rate is about 15% of what they were going to charge me....

So get a seperate policy on camera gear. Personally I don't have any, I'm just careful. Just don't make little claims on your homeowner's insurance policy.... TRUST ME I WAS A LAWYER........

Best wishes

Mark H

I just called my local state farm agent today about this. He said I have to have a policy with them in order to get the personal articles policy. SO I'm switching my renters and car insurance to them and saving some money. Car insurance alone used to cost me $110 a month, now with car, renters, and the personal articles, total is $93 for everything.

Coverage for $5000 worth of gear is going to be $49.50 per YEAR. Not bad I say.

Bryan

Bryan call another agent, you do not HAVE to have a policy with them for them to cover your camera gear on its own.

Skrim17 wrote in post #8878881
Bryan call another agent, you do not HAVE to have a policy with them for them to cover your camera gear on its own.

I'm OK with it. They're saving me money over my current insurance company.

Let's hope they don't hike your other rates if you make a claim on this policy...

Skrim17 wrote in post #8878926
Let's hope they don't hike your other rates if you make a claim on this policy...

Once again, never make a small claim and never make a water damage claim unless it's truly a catastrophe. Making a water damage claim is like being a convicted sex offender.

Yep. That's the way State Farm covers valuables. You have to have a home owners/renter insurance policy first. Since I am a registered C corporation, I have all my gear insured under my business policy.

No, I do not have anything else with them.

D_M_T wrote in post #8875750
I just got this response from my SF agent in AZ.

Your Personal Articles Policy is a separate stand-alone policy. If you were to have a claim on one of the items scheduled on your personal articles policy, the claim would be filed on that particular policy and not affect your homeowners at all.

That is what I was told as well but apparently not. The personal articles policy WILL affect your homeowners, at least it did in my case. I still haven't heard back from my insurance agent yet, I may end up switching my homeowners to a different company to make sure these two policy's will stay separate in the future.

And I agree that it's better to keep insurance for a catastrophe rather than little claims but the insurance was sold to me for that very purpose. A catastrophic loss of equipment (say all of it gets stolen) would be covered under my home owners policy negating the need for the personal articles policy, less the deductible. They told me it was fine to use the personal policy for small stuff.

rparchen wrote in post #8887580
And I agree that it's better to keep insurance for a catastrophe rather than little claims but the insurance was sold to me for that very purpose. A catastrophic loss of equipment (say all of it gets stolen) would be covered under my home owners policy negating the need for the personal articles policy, less the deductible. They told me it was fine to use the personal policy for small stuff.

All insurance underwriting is based on the concept of the probability of a "catastrophe." They have calculated the probable frequencies of "catastrophes" on which the rating is based, say, one every eight years. When you file claims, you add "real world" information about your own probability of making claims to the calculations, and when that surpasses their own calculations, your rate goes up or you get canceled. The amount of the claim is less relevant than the frequency.

I am not sure that it makes sense to have it attached to your homeowners insurance. I have a separate policy. If I have a claim on the camera, I surely do not want it effecting the larger dollar homeowners insurance. Mine is separate.

And I am assuming since the agent is the one that told you that then anything to the contrary we might say would be meaningless.