I have used State Farm exclusively for all my insurance.

Here lately I have not been too happy with them.

Just found out that they messed something up with my youngest kid's new place. He got an $800 escrow shortage and has only owned the house a few months.

I checked the property taxes and they did not go up. Then I checked his insurance and it was actually a couple dollars cheaper.

Well he called and called the mortgager. The note has already been sold once, so there was a bit of confusion with the transfer I guess.

Finally called the banker that set the original mortgage up. He looked into it and found that State Farm had put in an increase and then in December lowered it so it looked cheaper than it started with.

No idea why or how that happened, but we have screenshots from the mortgager. I was going to head down there this morning to talk with my agent but the kid needs to give me the go ahead. The banker wonders if they filed that there was a fire or something and then took it back. No clue.

Nearly all of my insurance went up. Some went way up. I really need to start shopping around. I just liked the idea of having a person I knew that I could meet face to face if there was a problem. We get all the discounts from bundling the insurance as well.

If I go with a new company will they want to go inside each place to inspect? That will be a pain to deal with, so the savings would have to be really good.

Contacting a couple other investors that are local to see who they use. I know one guy only insures for what he has on the mortgage. I don't want to do that. I'm too chicken to self insure all of them.

If you are eligible for USAA (you don't need to be a veteran, but a family member?), I recommend them. They've saved me a lot of $ & no inspections that I'm aware of.

We also have an independent agent. We ended up with Erie which we like. Our premiums this year, after an outside inspection this summer, most went down a couple went up. It ended up being a wash overall.

Agent told me we have something called Erie Secure which keeps our rates low with it's "rate lock" feature. I did not realize we had that. What will change the rates a lot is if we were to move to another property of ours. Then they reassess all the properties. That's when the rates go up a lot according to her.

We also have an independent agent. We ended up with Erie which we like. Our premiums this year, after an outside inspection this summer, most went down a couple went up. It ended up being a wash overall.

Agent told me we have something called Erie Secure which keeps our rates low with it's "rate lock" feature. I did not realize we had that. What will change the rates a lot is if we were to move to another property of ours. Then they reassess all the properties. That's when the rates go up a lot according to her.

It's been 25 or 30 years ago now, but when I switched from State Farm to an independent agent my rates went down by 1/3 for the same coverage.

Not long after, I increased the deductible to the max amounts to get an additional 1/3 price cut. It's been enough years now that I could rebuild a couple of bungalows from the ground up with what I've saved in premiums.

Thanks guys and gals.

Guess I will start looking into it as I see the writing on the wall. Tough to do after so many years with the same guy, but I need to keep him honest.

USAA seems to be out. The parent has to use it before the child can sign up.

Was this who you had when the fire took place?

Snake Farm.

I had Snake Farm for many years. Had home and auto with them. I started comparison shopping and found auto rates a lot lower but wasn't looking to change the HO insurance. I don't remember the exact reason why, but I think it was because the independent agent asked me about my HO. I called my agent at Snake Farm and when she mentioned that if I dropped my auto with them then my HO rates would go up (I understand about the "discount" for bundling policies), I told her that was fine I can fix that too, so they lost all my business. In fact, I prepay, so I went that day and had them issue me a refund check and cancel my policies.

"....rates low with it's "rate lock" feature"

When I here offers like that I start looking closer at the fine print. There is always a catch. Marketing at its finest.

If we ever move, I am going to look into insurers through those I met with at the MrLL convention for comparison. I was not aware we had the "rate lock feature". When we first signed up with our agency, the owner hired his brother to be our agent. The brother did us a disfavor not taking our motorcycles off in the winter. I asked, he lied, said it wasn't an option. So I called Dairyland (cycle insurance only)direct and they said of course we can. Before my insurance was renewed, I called another Erie agent to ask my questions to see what they would say. Then I called my current agent (no longer owner's brother) to find she was straight up.

Almost all of the insurers I have used have conducted only exterior inspections. One or two have asked to see the inside of one unit. One just had me do the inspection with an app that would allow me to take the pictures but they used GPS to verify the location. You just delete the app and permissions after.

Regarding the dilemma with the kid's insurance:

Called in and talked the lady that I try to deal with all the time. We went round and round on what could be the issue.

She said there was nothing owed so no reason she could see as to why the shortage was there.

We left it at she would contact the mortgager and give them the info showing nothing owed. I contacted the kid and he went ballistic.

That's when more info came out. In October the insurance company sent a check out for five hundred and change. Kid contacted the office and they said they had made a mistake so this was a refund. Kid asked again if this was money they should hold or could spend. Spend it was the reply.

So I get ready to call my contact and she calls me. She kept digging and figured out what was happening.

Kid got married but kept his car insurance on our policy. Then when they bought the house they had XX days to move the car on to the house policy for a bundled discount. They did not move the car over in time so there was a refund issued. Then when they did get the car transferred the mortgage company said wait, there is an escrow shortage.

So that check that was sent needed sent back to the mortgager, plus more because time had passed. They had until the 25th of January to do all this or start paying an increase to catch it up.

They waited too long and are now paying more on the monthly bill.

I see it as the insurance agent messed up by not explaining what happened. I also see it as the kid was too lazy to get things handled in the amount of time that the mortgager gave them, which was more than a month.

Kid is still mad and will most likely start looking for other insurance. He talked to my contact, who explained it all, and he was not angry toward her.