Chicago Homeowners Insurance Quotes Variations

It is always a good idea to compare Chicago homeowner’s insurance quotes.  But what do you do when there are large variations?

First it depends on what type of variations we’re talking about.  If you are shopping around and get quotes at the same time that are far apart for the same coverage you deal with them one way.  If you’re wondering why you have difference in price for the same coverage for people in different neighborhoods you’re talking about a whole different animal.

Let’s talk about the first ones.

Chicago Homeowners Insurance Variation – User Caused

Chicago homeowners insurance quotes can vary either you or the insurer made a mistake. You or the insurer reversed numbers when entering the value of the home, or some such mistake.  So, what you do, is you go over the information again, with both companies, and make sure it’s accurate.

Chicago Homeowners Insurance Quotes Variations – No Errors

The second option is that there are no mistakes, the two insurers do, indeed, charge vastly different amounts.

Chicago Homeowners Insurance Quotes Variations – Other

The second type of discrepancies in Chicago homeowners insurance quotes has to do with neighborhoods.  The same house, let’s say a Chicago-style bungalow built in the 1920’s will be valued less if it’s located in West Lakeview or Uptown neighborhoods of Chicago.  And if it’s located in Hermosa it will be worth less, in South Chicago or West Pullman even less.

But value is not the only reason you get Chicago homeowners insurance quotes that are quite far apart.  The other reason is that you have more break-ins and or fires and other home damages in different neighborhoods.  Insurance companies take a look at statistics about such things to determine how much they want to insure a property.  You know, they type in a zip code, say 60660 and they get a particular rating, and that rating number helps determine the amount they want.  That rating would be different from the one they’d get if they typed in 60617.

Chicago homeowners insurance quotes vary too for reasons that have nothing to do with neighborhoods or house size, type or age, things to do with you (such as credit scores and how many claims have you made recently).

The neighborhoods I mentioned above are far apart, nobody is surprised that Chicago home insurers would quote vastly different amounts.  They might be surprised to find someone paying the same amount for a Bungalow in West Pullman as in Uptown.

But you do find large Chicago homeowners insurance quotes variations for the same coverage for houses that are similar and a lot closer together.  Insuring a 1500 square foot Bungalow located three blocks south of North Avenue by Pulaski Road would cost you less than one block north of North Avenue.  Because of value.  However, the same type and size of house one block north of North Avenue around Pulaski will cost you more to insure than one located three blocks north of North Avenue at Pulaski.  Because, that puts you north of the Metra train tracks, where, historically, vandalism and other damages to homes occurred more often than north of the tracks.  And that even though now values are about the same (not so long ago, that was not the case).

The North Avenue/Pulaski Road area is not the only such area in Chicago.

The point is that in Chicago homeowners insurance quotes you get depend on the accuracy of information, location of the home, your history (and not only your insurance claims history).  Presumably Chicago homeowners insurance quotes follow a pattern that applies to all big cities in US. But since I only know Chicago I will talk only about Chicago homeowners insurance.

No body disagrees with the idea that having homeowners’ insurance is a great idea.  What is a good homeowners’ insurance policy is a whole different matter though.  Because not all homeowners’ insurance policies were created equal and because not all homeowners need and/or want the same coverage.

That means that you never get the first home insurance policy that drives by.  Instead, you shop for them and compare them.  The fast and easy way is to go online.

If you go to the sites of individual captive insurance agents, it’s going to take a while.  (Captive insurance agents being those agents who represent one insurance company.)

Much faster are site that aggregate quotes.  But they have one drawback: they aggregate from major insurance companies only.  Some of the insurance companies you have not heard of or hear rarely are better and in better financial position than some of the major ones.

A third option is to go to sites owned by independent insurance agencies.  Those agencies work with many insurance companies and so, they have access to many insurance plans, some of them from major insurance companies and lesser known ones, some only from lesser known ones, some only from major ones.

So, the fastest would be the sites that aggregate quotes but they’re not for everybody.

No matter what route you choose, the final point is to get a bunch of homeowners’ insurance quotes and what the policies cover, then do a side-by-side comparison, weed out the ones you don’t like.  Then, make a note about what you like and don’t like about the offers, about questions to which you want further answers.

Once you have your finalists, you check them out further.  Your state has a department that deals with insurance companies and a website where you can check them out.  Because it’s not enough that an insurance company has a policy you like at a price you like.  You also want to make sure it actually delivers (you want the ones with the fewest complaints).

You also want one that’s not about to go belly up.  You can either to your public library and find insurer ratings books – AM Best Insurance Rankings series, for instance or find them online (AM Best Insurance Rankings is at http://www3.ambest.com/captive/default.asp).  Your State’s insurance department web site will also have links to some of them.  They will also have links to complaints about insurance companies.

To find your State’s insurance department, visit http://www.consumeraction.gov/insurance.shtml (they give you physical address, web site address, phone number).  If you go to your State’s website, look for the tab called ‘Reports’ and look at the last Complaint Ratios report.

If you find yourself Googling Chicago home insurance, Chicago homewners insurance, or homeowners insurance Chicago, or home insurance Chicago the URL for the State of Illinois is http://insurance.illinois.gov/HomeInsurance/homeInsurance.asp and the “Shopping Guide” tab takes you to this page  http://insurance.illinois.gov/HomeInsurance/shopping_for_homeowners.asp that’s got a lot of information and, at the bottom, links to insurer ranking sites and complaints.

So, speed is good, however, you need an insurer that is going to be around should you need to make a claim and in a position to pay.  You need an insurer that has good customer service.  And you need an insurer that gives you the kind of insurance that you need.  Quality of homeowners’ insurance is always more important than price.