Return-Path: <@cs.cmu.edu:km2a+@andrew.cmu.edu> Received: from CS.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa05023; 12 Apr 93 14:15:36 EDT Received: from ANDREW.CMU.EDU by CS.CMU.EDU id aa15210; 12 Apr 93 14:13:18 EDT Received: by andrew.cmu.edu (5.54/3.15) id for Ricky.Houghton@cs.cmu.edu; Mon, 12 Apr 93 14:13:01 EDT Received: via switchmail; Mon, 12 Apr 1993 14:13:00 -0400 (EDT) Received: from ethereal.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Mon, 12 Apr 1993 14:12:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: from ethereal.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Mon, 12 Apr 1993 14:12:10 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mms.0.1.23.MacMail.3.4.CUILIB.3.45.SNAP.NOT.LINKED.ethereal.andrew.cmu.edu.pmax.ul4 via MS.5.6.ethereal.andrew.cmu.edu.pmax_ul4; Mon, 12 Apr 1993 14:12:09 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 14:12:09 -0400 (EDT) From: "Kenneth E. Mohnkern" To: Ricky.Houghton@cs.cmu.edu, "Mitzi E. Morris" , Dean.Pomerleau@pomerlea.boltz.cs.cmu.edu, dredish@gs17.sp.cs.cmu.edu, Harry.Bovik@cs.cmu.edu Subject: Home Insurance Cc: Here is a compilation of responses I got to a posting made to cs.general and misc.consumers.house. In addition to recommendations for specific insurance companies and agents, there are a couple posts with good general tips on home insurance. I've decided to wait for State Farm (where we have auto and renter's insurance) to give me a quote. If they don't give us a good rate, I'll try Erie or CNA. ken ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 93 10:11:31 EDT From: dredish@GS17.SP.CS.CMU.EDU First of all, I am also closing soon and would love whatever info you get. Second, I suggest looking at Erie Insurance. I have my car insurance there (with John Micelli) and they come very highly recced via bovik. dave redish ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 93 11:18:15 EDT From: hsmoliar@DB1.SPEECH.CS.CMU.EDU In article you write: > >I'll be closing on a house in a couple weeks and need to get insurance. >Howard Hanna sent a list of quotes. So I'm tapping the collective >intelligence of the net to see who's reputable and who's not. > >Also, perhaps this collective intelligence could supply a comment or two >about something a friend of mine said: "Never buy insurance from a >company you haven't heard of." > >Here's the list of comapanies, in ascending order of cost. Any comments >will be appreciated. I'll post a compilation if there's demand for it. > >Pennsylvania General (least $$$) >CNA >Aetna >Aetna, Value Added Policy Plus (most $$$) > We use Amica for both home and car. They cost a little bit more than some but there service has been outstanding. They have an office in Greentree but I've never been there--all dealings on the phone or by mail. The number is 788-4244. Hope this helps. Harold Smoliar English horn, Pittsburgh Symphony Piano, Symphony Jazz Quartet hsmoliar@db1.speech.cs.cmu.edu ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 11:15:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Lyle_Seaman@transarc.com I use Metropolitan. The only phone number I have for them is 800-422-4272, which may be just a auto number. I've found their customer service to be better than any of the local insurance agents I tried to use. I had a claim as a result of a burglary, and they didn't give me too much trouble about paying it. I have a replacement-cost policy, and they are only paying the "actual cash value" on things until I submit receipts for actually having replaced them, which is reasonable, I suppose. ================= Date: Wed, 07 Apr 93 11:32:30 -0400 From: Sanjay_Waghray@C.GP.CS.CMU.EDU Check out Erie - we got the best deal from them; another thing to keep in mind is that you get a discount for having both your auto and home policies with the same company (at least true of Erie and a couple of the other companies we looked into). Hope that helps, Sanjay PS: Our Erie agent is John Miceli (in Oakmont) - helpful and lowkey. ================= From: Cam Miller Date: Wed, 07 Apr 93 12:07:13 -0400 I bought a house 2-1/2 years ago and bought State Farm Insurance. I checked out a couple of other larger companies (Nationwide, for instance) and found State Farm to be reasonably priced and to have good coverage. The coverage DOES differ from company to company, so be careful with that. State Farm also hussled to get me the policy very quickly - I liked their efficiency. Of course, that varies from agent to agent. Mine is Ed Komlenic on Braddock Avenue in Regent Square. Good luck ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 12:17-EDT From: Ellen.Douglas@LADON.RESDOC.CS.CMU.EDU We insure our house, cars, and an apartment we rent out through CNA. No major problems, though we've never filed any claims. Our agent is Spodek Insurance on Murray Ave. ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 12:21-EDT From: Gregg.Podnar@GLOBE.EDRC.CMU.EDU State Farm ================= Date: 07 Apr 1993 14:42:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Mary Ryan >The next step in our home buying adventure is finding insurance. The >insurance agent affiliated with our realtor has given us a few quotes. >Two are Aetna, the others I've not heard of. Aetna's the most expensive. > >A friend told me that I shouldn't buy insurance from a company I've >never heard of. Is this good advice or is he pretending he knows things >he doesn't? You are in Pennsylvania; look in your Yellow Pages for an Erie Insurance agent. Erie serves Pennsylvania, Maryland, and maybe a few other nearby states. I have both auto and homeowner insurance with them, and I get a discount on the homeowner's policy because of this. Their auto insurance rates are really low if you have a good driving record, and their homeowner's rates are decent too. Consumer Reports published an article about homeowner's insurance within the last year or two, and Erie rated pretty high in customer satisfaction. Allstate has low rates too, but they were rated as very poor in customer satisfaction. I had a very bad experience with Nationwide insurance about 5 years ago after my house was burglarized, so IMHO avoid Nationwide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mary Ryan mryan@stsci.edu Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 93 14:39:51 EDT From: Barry Brumitt You might try Allstate... Brian Devine is the agent I used. He's in "The Book." Barry ================= Date: Wed, 07 Apr 93 14:56:02 -0400 From: Scott_Fahlman@SEF1.SLISP.CS.CMU.EDU Amica is quite good and has competitive prices, but they are choosy about who they take on (more so in car insurance). You might check with them... -- Scott ================= Date: Wed, 7 Apr 93 13:43:06 EDT From: stever@meaddata.com (Steve Rothenberg) In article you write: |> |> The next step in our home buying adventure is finding insurance. The |> insurance agent affiliated with our realtor has given us a few quotes. |> Two are Aetna, the others I've not heard of. Aetna's the most expensive. |> |> A friend told me that I shouldn't buy insurance from a company I've |> never heard of. Is this good advice or is he pretending he knows things |> he doesn't? The company I use I never heard of before I signed. But because my father in law had been using them. They are a general insurance company, then call around to their carriers to get the lowest price quote. It is Insurance Company of Ohio. I have never filed a claim from them. Stay away from allstate. Netters have complained about claims. -- Steve Rothenberg GO BROWNS Mead Data Central GO CAVS _____ __o stever@meaddata.com GO INDIANS ---- -\<, stever%meaddata@uunet.uu.net ----- ( )/ ( ) ================= Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 1:12:52 EDT From: mjc@NL.CS.CMU.EDU I had a renter's policy from Liberty Mutual for 6 or 7 years and turned it into a homeowner's policy when I bought a year ago. Their rates aren't quite the lowest I could find, but they were reasonably low and they seemed to have their acts together. I never had a claim under the rental policy; last year I had a minor claim (vandals...ugh), and they processed it quickly and fairly. They haven't sent the final payment yet, but that's because of the repairman, not them. (It involved painting, and he dawdled enough that it got cold and he had to wait. It's almost done now; I think he needs one more day free of the threat of rain.) In contrast, I had an auto policy from them once and my rates were through the roof. How odd. You might want to give 'em a call. Good luck. Monica ================= Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 10:50:15 EDT From: Mike Blackwell Ken - We've had a home/auto policy with CNA for 5 years (through Howard Hanna, when we bought our house). We've been pleased so far, but have only had one minor auto claim. In that claim, they did a better job than I expected, getting more money from the other partys insurance company (so we only had to pay half the deductable). All of our dealings have been through Bill Weishel at Howard Hanna Insurance - he seems reasonably knowledgable. cheers, -m- ================= Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 15:11:16 EDT From: mlm@FUZINE.MT.CS.CMU.EDU (Michael Mauldin) We've had good luck with our insurance agent (Bob Bock, 463-8619). He sells Erie Insurance, and they gave us good deals on both our cars and our house. I've never had a claim on our home owner's policy, but they were good aboutt paying claims on under the auto insurance. Their prices are usually very good. It's worth a phone call. --Michael L. Mauldin x5293 ================= Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 17:08-EDT From: David.Simon@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU I've used Craig Evans from State Farm for the past 8 years and have been very happy with him. State Farm rates are very reasonable. Craig's phone number is 422-1616. David ================= Date: Fri, 09 Apr 93 12:05:33 -0400 From: Li_Lin@SAURON.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU We use CNA (throught Howard Hana). At first we had only home insurance with them. The agent talked us into buying auto insurance from them as well. He claimed we would get a discount on a combined policy. We didn't research on how much we have saved, but it was certainly a bit lower than the quotes we got from other insurance companies. I recently involved in an accident and my car was towed. I felt I got prompt responses from the insurance company. The compensation was resonable (I am not sure if my next year's premium is going to soar). Overall, they are not bad. llin ================= Date: Fri, 9 Apr 93 11:45:20 EDT From: rick@iua0.aai.com (Rick Lerner) I have a home in Pgh and really like Erie Insurance. My agent is: John C. Miceli 679 5th Street Oakmont, PA 15139 (412) 828-4111 Their rates are very good, both for home and auto (if you have a clean record). Rick Lerner rick@aai.com Amerinex Artificial Intelligence (413) 256-8941 ================= From: 1k1mgm@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Christopher Gunn) Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house Date: 7 Apr 93 15:44:21 CST In article , "Kenneth E. Mohnkern" writes: > The next step in our home buying adventure is finding insurance. The > insurance agent affiliated with our realtor has given us a few quotes. > Two are Aetna, the others I've not heard of. Aetna's the most expensive. > A friend told me that I shouldn't buy insurance from a company I've > never heard of. Is this good advice or is he pretending he knows things > he doesn't? The group of ones you've never heard of probably includes a few highly-selective, very good companies (most of which sell direct, not through commissioned agents) and a lot of sleazeballs. With respect to the sleazeballs, your friend is right. They'll cheerfully cash your checks and will cause real trouble if you have a claim. I was renting a room from a friend when his/my house burned down and his collecting on his policy was a 6-month ordeal that required intervention of the state insurance commissioner.... Less friendly commissioner and it would have been necessary to unleash the lawyers. _Consumer Reports_ does survey research on home-owners' insurance every few years. I think the last one was long-ago enough that it isn't in the current _Buyers' Guide_, but it should be at the library. My guess is about 2 years ago.... Of course, various hurricanes may have driven down the solvency of some of the companies rated there. If it were up to me, I'd buy from a company with a strong presence in your town. This will make any claims/renewal issues easier. You don't want to be shivering in your underwear outside the smoking ruins of your home trying to figure out how to find a third-tier insurer on the opposite coast.... You may also be able to get some savings (not huge) with a package deal from whomever does your auto insurance, if they also do homeowners. Christopher Gunn Molecular Graphics and Modeling Lab SPAN--KUPHSX::GUNN Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Malott Hall 913-864-4428 or -4495 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 ================= From: tvervaek@col.hp.com (Tom Vervaeke) Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house Date: 8 Apr 1993 14:10:37 GMT Consumers Reports does a rating of home insurance every few years. I don't remember all the data though. I do remember that AllState came out pretty bad (don't know why that stuck in my mind, I've never used them). We have State Farm for home and cars. Very good. Last year we have a very bad hail storm here in Colorado Springs. Almost every house in a 3 mile by 2 mile area needed a new roof. The local papers did reviews of how home owners liked their companies during this time of trouble. State Farm did well. Note: My house was not in this area. Make sure to get replacement value insurance. Also, a good idea is to get insurance that goes up in value each year automatically along some sort of index. Another item, don't insure the land the house is on. We live on 5 acres - no need to insure it as it can't be destroyed. Lots of folks make this mistake. Good luck. ( ___ )-----------------------------------------------------------( ___ ) | / | Tom Vervaeke Email: tvervaek@cs.itc.hp.com | \ | | / | Hewlett Packard Co. Phone: 719-590-2133 | \ | | / | | \ | |___| I love animals. They taste delicious. |___| (_____)-----------------------------------------------------------(_____) [29,1958,ofl=ZOW00Uf:M7k9cu]