I was all excited about receiving all these mailers about this "new" insurance company offering great rates on Homeowners Insurance. I fell for it all. They mailers stated "Lower rates than Citizen's Insurance" . . . And I have been trying to get out of Citizens for a while due to more expensive rates than other companies.
So I called their toll-free number. The woman was somewhat pleasant, but sort of generic. She started saying that I had to get a new Wind Mitigation report before they could give me any credit for key hurricane improvements I have done on my home . . . that started my call off negatively, but I thought - ok.
Then she looks up my address and gives me this incredible low rate. About 1/2 of what my current rate of $2800 with Citizens. I was stunned. I said to her, "how can you offer such a low rate?" She sort of chuckled and then said "we can go over everything if you would like." Thank God I said yes and that I had my current declaration page in front of me.
First thing out of her mouth was the dwelling coverage amount - She said $115k. I said "wait, no - my current coverage is $188k for the dwelling and I know my mortgage company will not accept less (been there done that)." She then said how I had too much coverage and didn't need all the coverage that Citizen's was providing me. (I seriously have just the basic required coverage.)
By the time we had gone through everything on my Citizen's current policy, they (People's Trust) had not included a lot, they did not offer all the basic coverage items that are common with Homeowner's insurance quotes. She kept adding those things on as we went through each item. By the time they got done, my new "quote" was $200 less than Citizen's. Yes it was lower, but seriously for $200 do you think I would change my coverage for a company that had no plans to offer basic coverage and said I need to hire someone to do a new Wind Mitgation report and expense that out.
I thought to myself - there is something not right here. This all occurred over the phone and I can only imagine what the actual contract would look like. How many other things are they "not covering" . . . So if you bought insurance from this company, do a comparison very, very, closely. If you plan to buy insurance through them - ask yourself "is it worth the risk."