Full Timer Insurance?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Ray D

Ray D

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Posts
1,963
Location
Boise, Idaho
OK, I've been living in my motorhome, the last three weeks. Not sure how long this is going to last. Maybe I'm a half timer. Maybe I'm a Snowbird.  ??

When do I talk about insurance issues with my insurance company, and what do I tell them? Especially, when I don't really know, myself?  ::)

What can I expect in regard to any changes, including premiums?

Good luck dealing advice with this! I know I'm not figuring it out very well!  ???

Ray D  :-\
 
Unless you have your insurance with one of the few companies that writes full timer insurance, they are likely to not know what you're talking about.  We have had numerous discussions about full timer insurance, check the Fulltiming board for those and also the forum resources for some insurance company references.
 
Thanks Ned. At what time/point do I become a "full-timer?" I actually don't know if this is permanent or just another bump in the road. Or, maybe a month or so? Pretty nebulous at this point.  :-\ 

Do I just wait until it becomes obvious that I actually live in my Motorhome, full time?

Well, one way to get some traveling done.  ???

Ray D  :-\
 
If you have no other place to go but the motorhome, then you're a full timer :)  It doesn't just happen, you will make a conscious decision to do so and then you'll know.
 
There are some gray areas as to if you are a full timer or not. Like Ned said, if you make the decision then you are one. But what about the people who don't sell their but return to it for three or four months a year? They sound like part-time full-timers to me. What if it was only one month? What if it was six months? I think being a full timer is more of a state of mind.
 
Seilerbird, I agree. I am, however, more concerned at this point with whether the insurance company pays a claim. Their opinion is a matter of concern, as well.

Ray D  ;)
 
Be sure that your motorhome insurance is in force for all the time that you're using it.  The non-fulltimer policies will have a maximum days of use clause for which you're covered.  Read the fine print, as always, and ask your agent.
 
My National Interstate policy explicitly states that "full time" is 150 nights per year or more. They don't care about my intent or what I own. The good news is that the additional premium is only about $70.

The only meaningful answer to the question comes from your own insurer though an authorized agent. Ask him/her if it makes any difference how many days/nights per year you spend in your RV. If he asks why, you can always say you are "considering" living in it for an extended time - no need to be specific, since you don't know anything specific anyway.  Make a note of the name of the person who gives you the answer, the answer itself, and the date & time (just in case).

They can terminate your policy and deny a claim if you lied to them about your usage.  But if they didn't ask???  Do you remember what questions may have been asked when the policy was written?  Best to find out what the rule is before you have any further conversations about what you are actually doing.
 
Ray D said:
Seilerbird, I agree. I am, however, more concerned at this point with whether the insurance company pays a claim. Their opinion is a matter of concern, as well.

Ray D  ;)
Click to expand...
Well that begs the question how will your insurance company know if you never tell them? I don't think that one of the questions on an insurance claim form is "Are you a Full Timer?"
 
seilerbird said:
Well that begs the question how will your insurance company know if you never tell them? I don't think that one of the questions on an insurance claim form is "Are you a Full Timer?"
Click to expand...

Tom

With all the policies I have had written, the agent or phone rep asked "how many days on the road?"
 
BernieD said:
Tom

With all the policies I have had written, the agent or phone rep asked "how many days on the road?"
Click to expand...

With all the policies I have had written my agent never asked me that question.
 
A number of years ago I asked my State Farm agent about suspending my policy for a few months, and his response was that State Farm assumes up to 6 months on the road. I didn't suspend the policy.
 
If you lie to the insurance company and have a claim, they will disallow it if they find out you lied, and they will.
 
Every year with my renewal comes a brief questionaire that asks me to re-verify fulltime or not, commercial vs private, and who the primary driver(s) are.

When we had the big accident last year, I was asked where we had been and where we were headed, but not how many days we had been on the road that year. I had previously dropped the fulltimer coverage because we weren't traveling much in 2009 due to health issues.

There are some things could could raise that issue, though. Mileage in one of them - if they notice you racked up a lot of miles, they might get suspicious.  Insurance companies live on statistics, so they have a good feel for typical usage. Or if you said you were parked in a snowbird area like FL or AZ when the damage occurred, they might ask how long you had been there.
 
Ray, it isn't that much to  make your policy a "fulltimers" policy.  The difference is that if you have a homeowner's insurance on a house, it will cover some of the expense of a claim with the coach.  If you don't have a house, then the fulltimer insurance takes care of those claims. 

Like Gary, we have National Insurance, when we were building the house, it cost under $100 to switch to fulltimers.  It had nothing to do with miles; but with time spend in the motor home.  We kept the policy on fulltimers because we can be in the coach more than 5-6 months out of the year and it wasn't worth the $100 to switch back.

Marsha~
 
Also, fulltimers insurance should include an umbrella liability coverage that would normally be part of a homeowner's policy.  Ours is a combined single limit $1,000,000 coverage for bodily injury/property damage that costs $186/year.
 
Marsha, good summary. All of the responses have helped me to understand. $100, I've got. Sure a lot of money flying out the window, as I prepare, for this and for that.

Motorhome just sits here, grinning. Thinks it's going somewhere. I haven't even started on "where," yet.  ::)

Ray D  :) 
 
Ned said:
Also, fulltimers insurance should include an umbrella liability coverage that would normally be part of a homeowner's policy.  Ours is a combined single limit $1,000,000 coverage for bodily injury/property damage that costs $186/year.
Click to expand...

Ned

We have fulltimers coverage since we are in the coach more than 150 days/year. However, the umbrella policy is a separate policy, I've carried one for many years before we even bought our first coach. Our umbrella is written by a company different than our RV policy. Geico quoted the umbrella policy completely separate.
 
Bernie, but you have homeowners insurance as well, so a separate umbrella policy makes more sense for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 734 (members: 36, guests: 698)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,914
Posts
1,387,314
Members
137,666
Latest member
nativoacai
Back
Top Bottom