Insurance Oddities

[P51bombay]

Is it usual for a quote to vary wildly one company to the next? Had a quote through a broker for two trucks (1 straight, one cutaway van) for $7900 (which then went to $8250) but decided to check around when they jacked the cargo portion up and down. Today I got one from State Farm (who I have my POV with since 85) at only $2950 and another from Progressive for $7200 - anyone think the SF is unusually low, sure seems that way but they are gonna send it to the underwriters next week, we'll see I guess.

Thing that got me P'd off to go looking is we started with 50,000 cargo with an $1100 premium, a month later the same $50K is $1000. Told them the company I'm contracting with self insures so just give me the minumum cargo to satisfy the feds. So they come back with $5,000 cargo at a $250 premium but then we had a delay getting the contract signed so needed a current quote - this time it comes back at $500 for the same $5,000 minimum cargo - a 100% increase. I find it very strange that 1/10th the original $50,000 cargo first costs a 25% of the $1000 premium but now the same 1/10th coverage costs 50% of that $1000. Also broker first said 20% down but the quote works out to 22% and now its up to 25% down on the new quote. All this makes me wonder what they will do down the road - more number jacking?

 

[pjjjjj]

I would be really leery of a really low quote, or one that's substantially different from another. Dig a little deeper to find out why, and check whatever you can check to see how the company acts when it's payout time.
We are also with State Farm for our personal vehicle insurance, but they were unable to cover us for this business because it's beyond the scope of their coverages.
I've heard it said, and I believe it, that it's best to go with a company who deals with trucking, for obvious reasons.
If a company doesn't normally deal with cargo insurance, their quote might be low if the adjusters don't realize the risk potential, or high, if they're covering something out of their norm.
If a company is going back and forth at the time of getting a simple quote, I'd be afraid of what might happen in the event of a claim. I've read about, and there are seminars about, big problems that can result from little gaps in coverage, or wording. The in-between things where one coverage ends, and another begins.
True, and tempting, that it would be nice to save a few or a lot of bucks each year, and the odds may be that you won't have a claim. Guess each person has to weigh if the money saved is worth any added risk, or if they'd rather pay the extra to the company they know will be there when it matters, who knows what they're doing, and who can explain everything fully right from the start.
Not that this relates to you, but I've also heard that certain large carriers won't give their freight to others unless they are insured with companies with a certain level of financial stability. My guess is that the lowball quotes might be from the insurance companies with a 'less-than' rating.

 

[Scuba]

I wouldnt have state farm for anything they insure nambla a pedofile group

 

[FIS53]

Yes definitely look at the policy before taking it on. Over several years some brokers here were just asking cursory questions at renewal time and then issuing policies. They would happily announce to you the customer that your rates either stayed the same or went up less than 10%. Wow, great! Well not so if we had all started reading the fine print when the actually paperwork arrived. There were restrictions inplace that were not there in the original policy and of course in some cases the amount of coverage was a bit lower than before to keep the price down, and all this because in the questions they asked at renewal time you answered honestly, but the agent took them to fact and renewed only on those answers and not on the business being done. I wasn't the only broker caught in this scheme by the insc agents.
So I'm with pj, read the policy and ask questions etc.
Rob