After everything that happened about 6 years ago with the Black Mold stuff and Allstate having to refund all their policy holders for unfair increases, Allstate is trying to raise rates again.
Last month, Allstate submitted a plan to increase rates by an average of 6.9%. They claimed it was the "cost of doing business." Haven't we all heard that? Well, that plan got rejected because of the large increase and not enough justification for it.
Here we are a month later, and they have submitted a new plan for a 5.9% increase. That still seems fairly high to me. This increase will take place immediately for policy renewals, though it could still be blocked by the Texas Department of Insurance officials.
Allstate is the second largest property insurer in Texas with about 917,000 Homes. That doesn't sound like very many, but that just shows you how many Ma 'n Pa shops there are offering coverage, though those smaller companies are still backed by the larger ones.
They are pointing out that this, more than likely won't effect the North Texas area, and it's mostly for the golf coast area.
Farmers also submitted a plan for an increase, but withdrew it. They are working on submitting a new plan that has a better chance of getting passed.
Good thing I'm no longer with Allstate!!
This reminds me of the people that looked at houses five years ago and expect the prices to be the same as then. Prices of everything increase with time. Hopefully you make more than you did when the movie was $3.75 and it isn't more of a burden, but the same, or less.
I've been married now for 24 years. The price of gas has doubled since I got married, but the price of bread has quadrupled. Of course, at the time I made $3 an hour. I'll take todays prices with todays wages (except for the bread...that's ridiculous!)
Yer in good hands with Allstate..... SOLID GOLD HANDS!!
If State Farm tries to raise me.... I will shop it in a heartbeat!!!
Tom, I assume you are referring to the same State Farm that I exchanged for Allstate last year at a 16% decrease in premium with a lower deductible and higher replacement cost coverage. If you don't shop your homeowner's insurance every 24 months in Texas I think you are way too trusting your current agent.
That said, Allstate did just roll out a really aggressive rental property coverage plan that seems to beat State Farm by a mile, especially since you don't have to have your primary home insured by Allstate to get the new rental plan coverage....
I was speaking with my Allstate Agent, Brian Brooks in Plano, and discussed this topic with him. He asked if I could post a response to inform people of information about insurance they may not be aware of. I certainly wasn't....
The first thing you have to understand is when an insurance company makes drastic changes in coverage and underwriting, they usually start a new company with new rules and coverages. Allstate used to sell under Allstate Texas Lloyds Company using policy form HO-A plus a named perils policy with replacement cost on the Dwelling and Personal Property. This policy has some limitations including no coverage for Sewer back up and Pipe burst in the slab. [It is this company that requested an increase in premiums from the state of Texas]
Allstate's new home owners policy is called The Homeowners Policy thru Allstate Fire and Casualty. This is a more complete policy that gives the customer more coverage at a lower premium. It covers the Home and Personal property at replacement cost. It covers occurences such as a pipe burst in the slab for up to $5000-$7500 Depending on which coverage option you take. It also allows you to chose our expanded protection package which covers $5000 dollars worth of sewer back up from within or under the slab.
The expanded policy also makes the coverage for the dwelling all risk with exclusion instead of the base policies 16 named perils.
Brian Brooks