Complaint Review: Nationwide insurance

You know Jim, a little knowledge goes a long way. Sometimes a little research and understanding can help to dispel some of your misconceptions about insurance companies and life in general. Study up!

Insurance policies are contracts. They are a promise to indemnify losses. In every insurance policy, the companies are exposed to risk.

Companies take on this risk at the cost of your premiums. When their exposure to risk is greater than the average of similar exposures, rates will be higher. When the exposure is too high, they will non-renew policies to avoid paying the inevitable claim that will follow.

Mold issues were never intended to be insured on homeowner's insurance policies. When a court ruling in TX interpreted the wording in a State Farm h*o insurance policy to include "mold related claims", the flood gates were opened and the attorneys came running. This situation contributed to State Farm's 5 Billion dollar operating loss. The policies were not priced to cover this new "exposure" and it sent insurance companies scrambling to exclude coverage for these incidents. Facing exposures that could literally put these companies out of business, they try to mitigate or reduce their exposure to these types of incidents. So, if you file a mold related claim, you probably would be non-renewed or be required to show where repairs have been made and that this situation has been resolved. Otherwise, companies fear that they will have undue exposure to claims. It sounds like you had a mold claim and were non-renewed. Mold claims can be legit but in most cases it comes from the home owner's neglect of an ongoing problem... ringing true?

Increased rates in homeowners insurance are a national trend. This has been happening long before 911. While there may be some increase due to the increased cost of reinsurance (yes, insurance co's re-insure themselves to avoid losing their shirts in a large disaster) the trend had started many years before.
Insurance is a big pool of money, paid into by policyholders, paid out to claimants. Rates increase when claims are higher. While consumers have many just grievances with insurance companies, consumer ignorance of the industry, along with uneducated stereotypes, misconceptions, and a general misunderstanding of what their role is leads to a lot of misdirected anger.

Insurance companies stick to the contracts that they write. Their obligation is to pay for claims that they are contractually obligated to pay. Insurance companies are not to be confused with some "government entitlement program". They are also NOT philantropic organizations. They are businesses, making tough business decisions every day. They use the process of adverse selection to decide who they want to insure and at what rate or to not take on a risk at all.

You may take a small bit of satisfaction in telling Farmers to "shove it" but what you're really telling them is the fact that based on your uneducated opinions and your verbose attitude, they don't need customers like you anyway.

You can believe what you want about 911, but anyone in "the know" knows that the cause of rising premiums is more correctly due to insurance fraud, judicial legislation from the bench, personal injury attorneys and the politics behind our tort laws, exaggeration of otherwise legitimate claims, and inflation (cost of building materials and labor) as well as fraudulent body shop practices, etc. There are MANY reasons for increased claims- 911 being a very minor player.

No Insurance Companies are covering mold mildew and the lkie .It is not mold that is the issue it was 09-11-2001.

This mold must only be the excuse they are using, as this is the new reason they are cancelling policies in Arizona as well as elsewhere.

If you file a mold claim you will be most likely cancelled. Insurance Companies have lost zillions since 09/11 and will surely spend more so be aware . My personal homeowners insurance went up about 125% before I told Farmers to shove it .

I just can't resist chiming in on this one.
Since when is the insurance business locked into one rate and garaunteed to remain there? I'll have to respond in sections due to the staggering amount of misconceptions scattered throughout your post.

"Six months ago our home owners ins. went up almost 40 percent. From 574 dollars a year to over 900 dollars a year! I about fainted."

Well join the club! I'm sure I can speak for almost everyone I know when I say "We all have experienced higher than usual auto,home, and life insurance rates." The mold problem you speak of is just the tip of something much worse happening with the insurance industry as a whole, so you can see it has nothing to do with "just" nationwide. And it's not just people in Tx feeling the brunt of it either.

"Since the shock of the higher rates of homeowners ins. has died down and us hard working folks got back to taking care of business........"

Died down? It has not died down, insurance rates are still climbing, just at a much more lethargic pace.

"Almost two years ago my husband got a ticket for crossing over the double white line on an exit ramp."

What about the previous two years? Most insurance companies look at your policy annually and their systems see something wrong if there are too many instances of activity within a 2 yr span.
"When we called, we got the run around, tried to explain that it was not a speeding ticket."
Since when do you get penalized for "just" speeding? This is a moving violation in ANY view. A ticket is a ticket. More on this violation later.

"Insurance companies, what a racket!"
It took you 10 long years to figure this out? Insurance business in general has been a racket since day 1. "Their customers are footing the bill" Well no kidding. That's the way this works; we pay premiums and in turn our claims get paid with those premiums.

Don't get me wrong here Vicki, it's nothing personal. But you might want to research your arguement a bit more extensively before flaming one comapny in particular. It's this way pretty much across the board. Some just hide it better than others. Try looking up insurance Code of Ethics. Or better yet try the Insurance Commissioner's Rules and Regulations.

As far as the Double White Line issue goes....me being from Dallas I understand what the "Double White Line" rule is. It states (more or less)that when a double white line exists at the end of a merge lane, you can not cross it, into the flow of traffic. When the line disappeares....merge away! They are fairly stern on this rule and posess no "give" on it. Nevertheless, your hubby got a "moving" violation when he got busted for crossing it.