Our van was broken into last night, and my son’s trumpet was stolen. It was worth about $1500 new. My beloved wants to call the insurance company and file a claim, but I think this would, at the minimum, raise my rates and at the maximum, cause them to cancel the policy. I’ve been told by friends to only use my homeowners policy for major catastrophies, but what say you?
I would assume you’ve filed a police report? Theft of over a certain amount ($500) would be felony theft, so I’d assume they’d at least investigate a little bit.
To recoup the loss, you might have to file an insurance claim, but without a doubt you’ll need a police report for that. Besides, you might get lucky and the police might recover it in short order, thereby obviating the need to file.
Good luck - I had a $2500 guitar stolen on tour once, and it was a miserable experience.
P
If it’s anything like the UK, you may not be covered. Musical instruments are often specifically excluded. Being taken from an unattended vehicle makes this far more likely. (Even specialist instrument cover has a hefty premium for ‘unattended vehicle cover’.)
If you’re not going to make claims of $1500 or below, you should see about raising your deductible over that figure. That way, you still won’t make such claims, but your premium will be lower.
You could always call them up and ask. They won’t raise your rates for that 
me too
I don’t know if that is necessarily true. I listen to the Clark Howard radio program(consumer affairs advocacy show) and seem to recall hearing about people whose rates have been raised merely because they inquired about making an official claim. Apparently some companies assign claim numbers to all phone calls recieved from their clients.
:dubious:
I’ll bet my youngest daughter’s pink and purple pony that there’s more to these stories that are omitted for the sake of … OK, I’ll say it: sensationalism.
Not least of which is:
- I file a claim for my $1500 trumpet against my $500 deductible
- Settlement is offered and I also find out this will increase my premiums by more than $1000 over the next 3 years
- I withdraw my claim, but now the underwriting department sees a claim number and works their magic on my premium
- Rather than pursue the issue with my insurer and make sure everyone knows there has been no settlement (because I withdrew the claim) I pee my pants and cry to a consumer advocate radio host who specializes in demonizing insurance companies (Tom Martino can … wait, that’s for The Pit).
Make the claim. I made a $ 300. claim for a digital camera taken from my car and my rates were unaffected. It’s what insurance is for. My insurance is with Erie for blanket car+home policy.
I disagree but I’m basing this on Clark Howard’s advise. The combination of 9/11 and all the hurricanes since then have taken a toll on the insurance industry.
iwakura43 made a great suggestion, ask your insurance company where you stand and raise your deductible if it looks like you might get dropped. The savings will offset your loss. According to Clark Howard, it becomes difficult to get insurance if a company drops you.
From my own experience, I found out that I didn’t have insurance for over a year (long story). It was not a “given” that my auto insurance company would pick me back up because I had no insurance for a year. This is really frowned on. Only my high credit rating saved me (per the agent).
If you’re interested in a coronet, email me.
I spent 13 years in the property and casualty insurance business, and I have never, ever heard of such a thing.
If you make too many claims (too many being defined by your company, but an average would be something like three claims in two years), your company may drop you, or surcharge you. At most for this claim, you’ll lose any claims-free discount that you have.
Call your broker or agent. I personally prefer to deal with a broker, simply because they are your advocate in such instances. They will not file a claim or give notice to your insurance company unless you specifically request it. They can call your company and make an inquiry, no names or policy numbers mentioned, to see what the result would be.
I certainly hope your musical instruments are covered under your homeowner policy. They are generally limited to $X amount under most comprehensive home policy wordings (in Canada, where I worked). The very best thing to do is to have it insured on a rider to your home policy, at $0. deductible.
Let us know how it turns out.
Ginger hit the nail on the head. I’ve been an adjuster for the past 20-something years and have never heard of a company assigning a claim number for an inquiry.
Homeowner’s rates are established differently than auto rates. When you have an accident, your specific premiums may be directly increased. Homeowners rates are based on a broad base of homes that are similar in location and value to yours and the rate is established for all.
Filing a single claim on your homeowners policy should not affect your policy or rates. I would venture to guess, however, that EVERYONE’S rates will be increased this next year as a result of the catastrophic losses from the recent deluge of hurricanes.
For YEARS insurers have not made money on their homeowners products. Other products and investments have been profitable and have allowed the industry to sell this product at a loss. No matter what the sensational “consumer advocates” would like you to believe, the loss ratios of the major insurers tell the tale.
If you intend to not file claims under $1500, I completely agree with the advice already given by iwakura43. You might as well increase your deductible and save your premium if you’ll not use the insurance for smaller claims. My advise has always been to set your deductible for the highest amount that you are willing to pay at a minutes notice. You can’t plan for a theft or a crash. Many people increase their deductibles without considering that they actually will lose that amount should they have a claim in the future. I’ve had several customers be PO’d that they chose to buy a $1000 collision deductible and clearly don’t have it when it comes time to file a claim.
My advice, call your agent/broker. They work for you and they can certainly earn their commission by helping you make that decision.
Never? What about the CLUE database? From here:
Whole lot of cases where homeowners had water damage, called their insurance companies for info, didn’t file a claim, and their homes became uninsurable (the “mold thing”) as a result.
I don’t think that an auto break-in is in the same league as actual home damage, but even if there’s no claim, I conjecture that the event datum could be used to justify a rate increase rates for the homeowner and/or the neighborhood. It’s possible insurance companies examine public-record police reports for the same reasons - with an unknown depth of detail.
If it runs anything like health insurance, I’d tread very lightly here. My roommate is suddenly $40,000 in debt because the company cancelled on her after a claim for a medically necessary breast reduction.
My (personal, no kidding) experience…
My old home in Virginia…an insurance company I don’t wish to name.
Over 6 years I called them to inquire about a few items. 1 tree down (missed the house but killed a fence), the breakdown of some well equipment, a theft in which we lost a television. All three were NOT filed claims as I learned they would be under the deductible. I merely called to discuss the possibility of a claim.
My agent calls me in 2002 and says the firm has informed him they won’t be renewing my policy. Cause: I was too willing to call in to check on my coverage when I’d had a loss.
So if we actually explored the possibility of using our insurance they got nervous and dropped us.
Although obviously unpleasant, this one actually sounds reasonable to me. The structure of the house has been compromised, irrespective of whether a claim is made.
On a different tack, my house has just been classified by the Environment Agency as being at 'significant risk of flooding. Which is something I knew all along, but now my insurer will know it too.
What I don’t understand, is why the insured can’t then document that the value of his house has dropped due to the event, and make a claim on that basis 
In other words, the toilet leaked, which was $9 to repair but the resulting water spots made the home unsalable, removing $100,000 from its value. Claim a loss of $100,000?
Before you do anything else, you might want to check your policy to see if musical instruments are even covered.
We are insured through USAA and our homeowner’s policy does not cover them. We had to get a rider for my flute (which was worth about $1,000 new) and for my engagement ring (because it was valued over a certain limit that the policy would pay out for that kind of stuff if it were stolen, if IRCC).
heh…amateurs.
The homeowner’s policy doesn’t insure the *market * value of the home. It insures its *replacement * value.
Well, they suck. They aren’t supposed to behave in that manner.
Isn’t it the goal of an insurance company to bring in as much money as is humanly possible while giving back as little as possible? BTW, I checked my policy, and my deductable is set too high to bother reporting this incident. The trumpet is engraved, however, and I’ll be checking the local pawn shops.