My surprise for the day was my new insurance policy as of March 31st, 2009. My monthly mortgage payment will be going up by about $177. Well what a surprise given that they have rated the replacement cost on my house far above what any of the houses currently on sale in the neighborhood are going for. I could buy a couple of houses for the replacement cost they charge me for.
We're lucky. My husband has a relatively secure job that he loves. The company has informed all employees that there will be no raises until further notice and talk of hiring freeze and bonus stopped. He makes a fairly comfortable income for the two of us. If I continue to watch our expenses, I can call myself retired (we were self employed - no real retirement) without having to be one of the Wal-Mart greeters (I don't think they even have openings now). We don't go out to dinner much, or take vacations. I spend a fair amount of time scanning our bills in detail to shave off whatever extra expense I can....Oh, I miss my HBO.
So, after successfully reducing our monthly debt by around $200, here comes an increase on our Allstate Homeowners policy. We have made no claims, nothing has changed to warrent this increase. The insurance companies are simply going by their in house rate increase schedules. All the while the value of homes is plummeting around us. Try as I might, I can't get a single better quote so far.
Here's my question: Are the insurance companies totally unaware of what is going on outside their office windows? What kind of cuts might they be making in their companies?