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Shopping Around Always Saves Money, Let Your Agent Do That For You

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It’s always nice to have someone help you save money, especially when it’s in their best interest to do so. Independent agents are there to help you, and usually they can do this by giving you the best coverage for the least amount of money! They want to keep your business for when you have to renew, due to this it is not in their interests to push insurance products that are of no use to you or your checkbook.

Outside of just price, independent agents have a vast understanding of the way different companies work, so they can lend insight to the claim process with each company. This might be an important factor for some and this can be a valuable tool in your search as well!

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A captive agent may steer you towards a certain product knowing that you will probably come back if you are exhibiting that level of loyalty to go with a single company in the first place! Avoid that conflict of interest and go with an independent agent in order to be good to yourself, your assets, and your wallet!

Independent Agents Can Provide a Variety and Security

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Going back to the candy shop analogy, what if a candy shop sells only one kind of candy? Now there aren’t many places that I can think of that sells only one kind of candy, but the idea doesn’t sound very appealing to me. I want to be able to pick and choose, and if I want something different I want to be able to have it! This same concept can be applied to many different things, but it really rings true with choosing insurance. 

Story time: Once I had a couple of windows broken from a storm and had a claim filed to get them replaced (Double paned windows are very pricey!), and a couple of weeks later my car was damaged by hail, and naturally I did another claim—a week later I received a nice letter from my insurance provider telling me that my coverage was going to stop forever upon my coverage end date!

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Hail is not fun

And yes, I was using a captive agent to get my coverage at the time; being with a captive agent was not fun since I was not able to go back to her and had to find someone new, so I really learned my lesson with that experience and went with an independent agent!

What is an Independent Agent?

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An independent agent is someone who is representing several insurance companies and can shop around while remaining in-house when making a pricing decision for a customer. Due to this independence, an agent in this capacity is able to make objective decisions when it comes to which policy to choose for their client.

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All those choices!

With this choice to choose, the best interest for the client is usually always taken, so for example if your rates go up and you have an independent agent you can shop around for a better rate with many different companies if you want to keep the same amount of coverage. There’s a huge upside to this in if you have a great relationship with your agent, but not with your insurance company due to a botched claim. If that happens you can just get coverage with another company through your trusted agent!

Like a candy shop there’s many different options, shouldn’t you be able to choose what you want and who makes it?

What Is A Captive Agent?

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An insurance agent that only works for one insurance company is a Captive Agent, but they are not literally held captive as their name would imply! They can work for only one of the many insurance companies out there, and will offer plans under their label. Much like a cook from Taco Cabana cannot work at Taco Bell!

Different taco places don’t share cooks!

Captive agents usually have a very deep understanding of their company’s product offerings, but there’s a downside to this as they cannot help people that do not qualify for their product offerings since they are limited to only what their company offers and their thresholds. But there is an upside to this though, if there is a rate pricing concern a captive agent will be able to work with the customer on price rather than just reducing coverages to achieve this.

They sometimes have quotas!

Captive agents will also sell products that their company asks them to sell over others, so they do have quotas and due to this it causes them to push certain products only to meet their numbers—not just because it was in your best interest. So it becomes a question as to if this staying with one provider is an important factor to you, and if you accept both sides of that coin!

Save Time When It Isn’t Time You Want To Waste

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christmas-tree-1856343_960_720A couple of holiday seasons ago, I had a neighbor who loved to cut down a tree on a plot of land he owned in New Mexico and bring it back to decorate with his family. When he was backing up his truck near the front of his house, he gave it a little too much gas and ended up knocking down a brick wall and badly damaging his truck!

He had a good laugh about it and brought his tree inside for his kids to decorate. I remember that the very next day, him having an agent come out and look at both his house and truck—and within a 2 week span he had everything fixed without a hitch. He thankfully had his insurance bundled, and was able to just take care of everything in one afternoon!

Since this was the time between November and December, he was able to be done with it house-2595330_960_720before the upcoming holiday and without wasting any undue stress on the whole situation! Now, not all accidents happen around the holiday season, but if it does it might be possible to save time and money with a bundle! Don’t waste the time you could have with your family!

How Can I Save Money With a Bundle?

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piggybank-2913293_960_720When you buy insurance, you might get different plans at different times of your life and not really think about how much things can add up over time. It’s like when you go into the grocery store and set a limit for yourself, it’s hard to stay under the number you set if you aren’t looking at all of your options and asking the employees “What kind of deals do you have?”

Sometimes it’s the simplest of questions that can help you the most, and if you are willing to do it when you are shopping around, you should be willing to do it with your insurance! All your savings will add up in the end and you might be able to do something nice for yourself with that little extra cash!financing-3536755_960_720

Asking your insurance provider about bundles can be very worthwhile question, and it never hurts to ask. Just act like you do when you go to the store looking for a good deal and find out the ways you can save some money! Like teacher’s try to tell us, there’s no stupid questions!

 

Disaster Hits, What Now?

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flood-642586_960_720If you have lived through a disaster or know anyone who has, you will know how hard it is to get back on your feet in the aftermath. It’s a long process and you pretty much have to fight to gain back everything that you had.

I had some family from South Carolina come to El Paso after their house and place of business was flooded out during Hurricane Charley in 2004. I remember them not knowing what would come next, and what would happen if they had to start over again. We as a family helped them with anything that they needed and got them through the next couple weeks so they could figure out if they wanted to come back here or go back to South Carolina.

It would have been devastating for them to lose everything, they owned their house and had a profitable business— and one of the saddest things to me was my cousins didn’t want to make new friends and start all over, they knew them all since they moved out there when they were kids. My aunt did have insurance, but all her documents were ruined in the storm—and she was right (she always was/is right!), but she called in to her insurance companies and after a few weeks of getting everything in order she was able to get back to South Carolina. hurricane-matthew-1769040_960_720

I called her up and asked her about the process when I was writing this blog to catch up and to see what she went through. She said that it took an extremely long time and she actually mentioned to me that what made it so long was that she had to deal with separate companies! After that ordeal she ended up finding out that bundling would’ve saved time and that it’s easier to deal with one company, and one deductible, and that’s how she has it set up now!

The Bottom Line

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real-estate-475875_960_720When you have a lot to protect it quickly becomes pretty stressful and expensive making sure that all of your physical assets like your car, house, most importantly your family is safe and the protection you have is up to snuff. But did you know that buying insurance separately can make you spend more when you don’t have to?

Bundling insurance can save you money, and it can also save you time. For instance when I was looking for car insurance I ended up being able to bundle in renter’s insurance for only a few dollars more, it saved me time and ultimately money since I wanted to get that for my apartment too at the time. We are all looking at the bottom line, right?accounting-761599_960_720

Another reason I like it is the simplicity of my bill and payment, I have it arranged where I send one single payment a month and I know that everything is said and done! So for your sanity, and your checkbook you should checkout what you can get when you bundle your policies! [Read more…] about The Bottom Line