Foremost - Worst and Deplorable!

[3wd67rg]

Originally Posted by LBOskiBear

The common rule of thumb is to never insure something that you would reasonably pay for yourself. Why pay for a $100 deductible if you can easily sustain the loss with a $1000 deductible? The cost savings should justify that.

Also - consider this: if every person believes they should come out ahead in the insurance transaction (more paid out than premium paid in), how do insurance companies stay in business?

Take a look at the loss ratios of most insurers and you'll see it's a pretty thin margin, if at all. Many insurers don't even make money on a pure underwriting basis - they earn it on investments.

Yes, We CAN afford the first $1000. It’s all those pesky zeros afterwards that scare the everloving**** out of us.

So Chris has never used his insurance and has never had a claim. I have never used my insurance for my vehicles and have had only two claims in my entire life.

[Ray Eklund]

3wd67rg made me reconsider my original thoughts and snoop around for Foremost reviews of current or previous customers.

I owe Frank&Mike an apology.

I did some research on Foremost at US Insurance Agents- Foremost Reviews (usinsuranceagents.com/review/foremost). There are 146 reviews that average less then 2 stars out of five stars. The latest review, I noticed, was February 2018. This is less than Stellar and I will be contacting my local Agent with some questions, soon.

Although 'happy customers' usually do not go out of their way to vent, there sure is a lot of venting concerning how their agents are reluctant to cover claims. Some claims, I probably would not have considered. Apparently Mobile Park Homes have been steered to this company.

Frank&Mike may be the luckiest of all. If the company is covering their damages and then cancelling them from renewing... things most likely would go downhill after this for anyone.

I would like Frank or Mike to respond to this question. I saw this argument with an Airstream owner when at Jackson Center, OH in 2018 who damaged his exterior skin.

The insurance company he had would ONLY cover POP RIVETS and not Buck Rivets on the exterior repaired panels.

Buck Rivets, I understand, must have the interior skin removed to do them. The various exterior repair Pop Rivets have been discussed on the Forum lately and seem to be acceptable to those getting those. He wanted the 'exact buck rivets' installed at the factory. At the time his trailer must had been 10 or more years old.

(The interior needs to be removed and interior skin to duplicate the originals. The cost was excessively more expensive.)

Have you requested any particular kind of rivets if panels need to be removed and replaced?

Just something to consider.

Sorry for, as 3wd67g said, 'wrong side of the bed'. I was under the bed and eating 'raw crow'.

[Albireo]

We all make mistakes. Making an apology shows strength of character. I hope I show the same strength when need be.

[Frank&Mike]

Originally Posted by Ray Eklund

3wd67rg made me reconsider my original thoughts and snoop around for Foremost reviews of current or previous customers.

I owe Frank&Mike an apology.

Thank you Ray. All is good. No apology necessary.

[Ladyfish]

We had 2 accidents less than a year apart on a new Keystone 5th wheel while running at a reasonable highway speed. One tire blew and did nearly $8K damage to the underbelly, electrical, jacks and side panels. At the time there was nothing on the web about faulty Chinese tires. The first time out the following spring we blew 2 tires at the same time. Similar damage. Luckily, we were near a major RV tire distributor and they brought us an additional spare. The next morning we bought 4 new tires and put the new tire from the previous fall on as the spare. 1 more tire was found with a broken belt and the only tire surviving was the original spare. Not only did Traveler's Insurance cover the damage; but they also covered the cost of the new tires. Our rates went up a few dollars; but it was insignificant. Some companies are better than others!

[alantbird]

They ALL SUCK one way or another sooner or later. I’ve payed put over 100k in home owner insurance premiums since 1980. I’ve never had a claim till now . Total loss about 10k and they are nickel and dimeing me to death.

[llhenn]

I can see insurers don't like the cost of repairing an A/S. I would consider specialty insurers who know the business. I.e. those associated with Camping World who do rvs every day.

[vintageracer]

5 different Airstream trailers over the last 10 years with no insurance claims. The words of the original poster.

Good for you!

Your YEARLY insurance premium for your what we must assume to always be a new or nearly new Airstream is probably $600-$800/year or less to insure what could very well be a new or nearly new $100K+ Airstream trailer.

To put this in PERSPECTIVE please Understand this is NOT a Criticism or anything else of the OP or anyone else commenting in this thread just some reality as "I" see it:


Let me give you $600-$800 to totally cover/insure (Meaning YOU Pay Me For Physical Damage or Total Loss of my $100K Airstream) for the next year from most any and all hazards that could occur to my trailer that are covered per our contractual agreement without regard to who was at fault.

An example might be might be ME damaging my trailer by hanging the rear bumper on a pole at the storage facility due to my negligence OR maybe having a less than 2 year tire blow out failure that could be due to a manufacturing flaw, a road hazard failure caused by something I ran over on the highway or heaven forbid ME repeatedly damaging the tire due to running over too many curbs coming out of the campground or parking lots. What about the tire manufacturer? Don't they have some sort of liability in this issue? Gee the above "covered" damages could amount to $10K to $35K worth of damage to MY trailer that YOU would have to pay to ME this year to "Cover" the repair cost of my trailer.

Without regard to the other endless possibilities of potential "Covered" damage that could occur to my trailer for the rest of our contractual coverage year I could once again be so unfortunate as to again have another "damage claim" that you might have to again pay to me.

What a deal for ME!!!

For $600-$800/year and a small additional Deductable fee that I also have to pay to you for each damage occurrence I got all my trailer damage repaired and you got hung with the $10K-$35K bill. I'm ready and willing to sign up for another year for this great deal!

Since YOU are now the one "Paying The Repair Costs" I can think of only 1 question to ask.

Are YOU ready to sign up once again for this contractual agreement???

I didn't think so!

You would do to ME the same thing Foremost did to YOU.

Cancel the contract and Not renew my sweet deal insurance coverage!

[doh]

Foremost is not Foremost of 10 + years ago, somewhere around 2010 Zurich purchased Foremost & Farmers insurance. Vaporized Foremost administration & gave control to Farmers. Jacked up my premium & I bailed out. I did have one $1200 claim for tire failure damage & the old Foremost treated me good.
Today I use Progressive after several others & am reasonably satisfied, no claims.
Trailer insurance has always been optional for me, paid cash for the Airstream. Am retired military & probably should use USAA, never heard of a unhappy customer, know some who have had large claims, some multiple claims.
I think we know each other from my THLU days.

[Mattirs]

Originally Posted by Frank&Mike

Again, corporate greed.

Or would you rather insure yourself with an insurance company that is operating at a loss?

The problem is having two expensive claims within a very short period of time on a new policy. Your long history of no claims were with another company.
The new company see this as a pattern, the old long term claim free company usually looks at it as the odds catching up with you and just pays the claims. This is why chasing small differences in premiums is not good. The insuance companies prices are driven by the same actuarial tables (odds and payout amounts of claims), and administrative efficiencies plus ROI of the monies held in reserve that are required by law. This why the cheapest insurance companies always have the worse CS and claims departments because those cost are easiest to control.

Insurance is legalized gambling. A bankrupt house can't pay out it dose not have the money to cover the spread.

Thanks
Matti

[Foiled Again]

40 years ago I had a career in the banking industry... which was starting to diversify, also known as "cross-sell and up-sell" simply put... to get more money and profit from every customer. Loan insurance was one of their hot targets.

One of my co-workers had 4 claims in 3 years... and everyone in the I.T. department got schooled about why his premiums went way up before he was finally canceled. Pretty much everything the prior posters have said - plus processing every claim has paperwork costs - whether the claim after deductible is $75 or $75,000. Two of this co-workers claims were very small. He had $100 deductible and believed he shouldnt have to eat another $50 to avoid filing two of his four claims.

Things haven't changed all that
Much.

[TBRich]

Progressive customer here...they have both our home and Airstream insured. We have made two claims on the Airstream, about 1.5 years apart...the first was for a blowout with ensuing wheel well damage...got away without any skin damage on that one. The 2nd was for a stupid mistake on my part...and expensive one...about $7,000 including a new survey rear panel. Progressive was great both times, adjustor went to the repair shop and wrote a check on the spot for the estimated amount. The first one was with no deductible because of the disappearing deductible policy and the 2nd was deductible of $250. Our premiums didn't go up much, but then normalized in a year or so.

We have never been told they will not insure us.

The policy on the house is through Progressive, but they are underwritten by Homesite homeowner's insurance back east. We had a flood in our house while ewe were gone (burst p ope int he celling) and had a major claim that was pushed $100,000 in repairs, not even counting the mitigation company that came to dry us out. Again, they came through for us, and we are still with them.

Nobody likes to pay insurance premiums ... until you have a claim. And nobody really wants to make a claim, but when you need to it is worth whatever increase in premium there is. If it goes up too much you are free to shop around...but be sure to compare apples to apples.

[vintageracer]

You all do realize that Foremost Insurance is owned by Farmers Insurance Company.

Foremost is one of Farmers Insurance Companies "Excess Risk" insurance lines where policies are written for higher risk clients that Farmer's Insurance itself will not insure directly. Foremost Insurance also offers insurance coverage to other area's of the insurance market such as in this situation RV Insurance Coverage that are not offered or written directly by Farmers Insurance Company.

Foremost Insurance is where Farmer's agent's and other independent agents can also write homeowner's, automobile and other lines of insurance coverage for their higher risk clients.

Foremost Insurance also markets their RV insurance coverage directly to many RV dealer's, independent insurance agencies and the retail RV owners.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by wulfraat

My wife is x-military and we have USAA. For what it is worth they are incredible, and we’ve never had any issues with any claims.

USAA doesn't write any kind of RV policies in Texas (neither MHs nor trailers). They have an 'agreement' with Progressive to do it. Ostensibly, Progressive gives us a special rate if we are long-time USAA members in good standing (me = 27 years).

The OP might be in for a kick in the pants, rate-wise. Harvey has driven up rates state-wide. Approximately one million vehicles flooded during Harvey - ten to one hundred times as many RVs were written off due to floods here than were written off due to crashes. The losses were so great that the underwriters cannot confine the rate increases to just the impacted areas - they have to spread that misery around so that the market can bear it.

I know this because of some digging I did. I renewed our Airstream policy last week. My rate went up 30% in a single year (no accidents or claims ever, in 38 years).

[mccrosti]

And now Total loss valuation and Vintage appraiser.

A couple of things you wont see in all the feel good advertisement.

1) Every time you call the 800 number with questions after your policy is issued, a claim is opened. It's called an "unpaid claim". You'll be dropped after four or five of these. Always call you agent. Always.

2) Insurance companies are not in business to pay claims. They are in business to collect premium.

3) There is NO LOYALTY. I hear people all the time say "I've been with <fill in the blank company> for 20 years! And during that time, they've surreptitiously raised your rate, they all do this. Shop companies every three years.

4) For Vintage Airstreams - you need an appraisal, that sheet of paper the dealer scribbled a number on, while accepted by your insurance company wont hold water in a claim situation. They accept any valuation for premium calculations only. Get an Appraisal from someone who follows the Uniform Standards of professional appraisal practice.

Finally, I am always sorry when someone finds out the hard way that the company dumped them or screwed them.

Good luck all.

[Frank&Mike]

Originally Posted by mccrosti

And now Total loss valuation and Vintage appraiser.

A couple of things you wont see in all the feel good advertisement.

1) Every time you call the 800 number with questions after your policy is issued, a claim is opened. It's called an "unpaid claim". You'll be dropped after four or five of these. Always call you agent. Always.

2) Insurance companies are not in business to pay claims. They are in business to collect premium.

3) There is NO LOYALTY. I hear people all the time say "I've been with <fill in the blank company> for 20 years! And during that time, they've surreptitiously raised your rate, they all do this. Shop companies every three years.

4) For Vintage Airstreams - you need an appraisal, that sheet of paper the dealer scribbled a number on, while accepted by your insurance company wont hold water in a claim situation. They accept any valuation for premium calculations only. Get an Appraisal from someone who follows the Uniform Standards of professional appraisal practice.

Finally, I am always sorry when someone finds out the hard way that the company dumped them or screwed them.

Good luck all.

Dave,

Thank you for sharing this information. This is very beneficial and I wish I had known. But this is probably the most positive thing to come out of this thread and I hope it benefits others.

[bweybright]

Just curious...in your initial post I believe you said your first claim was for something bumped in your storage area? I don't ever remember seeing what the second claim was for? Just trying to understand the whole scenario and thread.
Thank you for any clarification so I better understand the situation.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by bweybright

Just curious...in your initial post I believe you said your first claim was for something bumped in your storage area? I don't ever remember seeing what the second claim was for? Just trying to understand the whole scenario and thread.
Thank you for any clarification so I better understand the situation.

I think you’ll find the clarity you’re asking for by re-reading the second paragraph of the original post.

[xisme2]

My thoughts are that insurance is for the top end of losses not the bottom. We have a high deductible, but also high liability limits. One only has to look at events such as the recent hurricane damage, or hail losses to see the risk in being an insurer. Don't file the claims unless you really need the $$. Save your insurance for the 6 figure to million dollar losses.

[bweybright]

"I think you’ll find the clarity you’re asking for by re-reading the second paragraph of the original post."
Ahhh, thank you. That helps. I figured I missed it somewhere along the line.