Friday, September 27, 2013

Shopping for RV Insurance

It's bill time again.  I jumped in with both feet and paid all $4,000 of my property tax.  I could have paid half now and half in 6 months but that would just give me a false sense of wealth and I would be tempted to spend more.  October also brings the life insurance bill and the RV insurance bill.  Every year I think that I might sell the RV and so I pay the bill thinking it will be the last time.  This year, when I opened the bill I was shocked to see that the yearly amount due was now $382!  That's more than it costs to insure my house and the RV is only insured for $20K!  I thought about dropping the insurance but I don't like the thought of the RV sitting out there all alone.  Vandalism is my main concern.  I need to sell it but I do not feel comfortable meeting strangers out in the desert so if I have it towed to a lot in town I will still want it to be insured while it sits there.

First, I call my current insurer, American Modern.  I asked to reduce the insured amount to $10K.  The premium only went down to $350.  Then I asked to reduce it to $5K.  The agent said that $350 was the lowest the premium would go regardless of coverage.  I said thank you and moved on.  Next, I searched for RV insurance recommendations.  I love how easy it is to find recommendations and advice online now.  What did we do before the internet?  Oh, ya.  We talked to people.  Well, I have never been comfortable talking to people which is probably how I ended up with my expensive insurance.  In retrospect, I could have asked the people at the RV park where I was staying when I first bought my RV.  I'm sure I would have received plenty of advice.  On the other hand, I do vaguely remember asking people.  I believe the problem was that I was living in the RV full time.  There weren't many insurance providers back in 2000 for that type of situation.

Anyway, I am not living in the RV full time anymore so I was able to get quotes from Progressive and Geico.  Initially, I liked Progressive's online quote system because I didn't have to talk to anyone on the phone.  I thought I should get a second quote though and, because my RV is over 20 years old, I had to call Geico.  It was a long and tedious phone call but in the end, I decided to go with Geico.  It isn't actually Geico, it is Foremost but I bought the policy through Geico.  Progressive was $12 a year cheaper but I felt that Geico gave me a more accurate quote because I couldn't answer all of Progressive's questions within the drop-down box choices.  If I had called Progressive, I probably would have received a quote very similar to Geico.

My new policy costs $180 a year which is less than half of my previous policy.  Hopefully, I will make a decision and do something about selling it this year so I can get rid of that cost altogether.

2 comments:

Lizzie@her MFW Homeworld said...

Daizy, you officially have too much stuff! I suppose it is too big to get it moved back toyour own yard to sell?

Daizy said...

It is a possibility. I have an RV gate and I was able to get it open all the way yesterday. It would be a tight fit.