Fulltiming insurance costs

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Mick & Pat,

We have had our motorhome since 2003.  In 2007 we sold our house and lived in our motorhome for close to a year while our new house was being built.  We changed over to fulltime coverage during that period of time and the increase was $90.00 per year.

Regarding whether the 150 days is consecutive or not, our insurance considers a total of 150 days of the year as needing fulltime insurance, not consecutive.

We now own a house and some of the coverage while in the motorhome is taken care of by our homeowners insurance.

My gut feeling is if I plan to travel more than a total of the 150 days of the year, I'll pick up the fulltime coverage.  I don't want to give the insurance company any grounds to either not pay or to reduce their responsibility because I was in the coach for more than 150 days.

BTW, we also have an umbrella coverage for everything.  Probably more than we need; but we both sleep well at night..... ;)

Marsha~
 
[quote author=AlanT]I am in the UK and there is nothing in my home insurance that would relate to my RV.[/quote]

Thanks Alan. That's an example of differences between UK insurance and insurance here in the USA. As Gary explained in another topic:

"The contents (of the RV) would be covered by homeowners (insurance), to the extent of the homeowner policy on 'personal property'."

I suspect other differences include the need for &/or the amount of liability insurance, medical insurance (covers anyone injured in an automobile accident), uninsured motorist (someone driving without insurance runs into your vehicle), and a number of others.
 
National Interstate counts the 150 nights as a total - makes no difference if consecutive or not.

I should add that we do own a home and have a home owner policy that provides coverage for our personal property wherever it is located (RV, car, hotel room, etc.) and also personal liability for any damage we may cause to someone else's person or property.  A visitor to the USA would not have this, so might wish to buy additional coverages to cover the risk. By risk I mean things like your dog bites a child or a spark from your campfire starts a fire or a visitor bumps their head on your awning supports and needs stitches. Nothing in a normal RV insurance policy would cover such things, so you would have to pay out of pocket if you had no other insurance in the USA.
 
Good explanation Gary. That should help scare visitors from coming to the USA  ;D

Last time we visited the UK (a year ago) we stumbled upon a serious (turned out to be fatal) accident en route to the airport in the wee hours. In addition to talking with police at the scene, we had to provide statements from here (another story). I was concerned about potential litigation for anyone who touched the scene, and whether there was an equivalent to our Good Samaritan law. The police investigative officer I dealt with via email and phone for several months assured me there would be zero chance of litigation.

Just remembered that Mick is retired-constabulary, so he might associate with my comments.
 
Mick & Pat said:
.......now does the full timing couple pay more that the other couple?...
Click to expand...

Hi Mick:

we are just going through this exact thing
current = motorhome covered for recreational use and house covered
soon = fulltime motorhome only (and no house - its sold)

in the end; about the same cost for insurance for fulltiming (as previously the cost of two policies added together)

regards, pdq
 
The 150 day thing is crazy.

Okay you take out 'normal' RV insurance and use your RV, lets say for 100 days, during those 100 days you tour the entire USA, the remainder of the time it sits on your drive but is still insured.

Now a person who takes out a full time policy, may remain in one location all year, does zero miles pays more where's the sense in that?

Surely the guy our on the roads is the greater risk?

Mick
 
Mick & Pat said:
Okay you take out 'normal' RV insurance and use your RV, lets say for 100 days, during those 100 days you tour the entire USA, the remainder of the time it sits on your drive but is still insured.

Now a person who takes out a full time policy, may remain in one location all year, does zero miles pays more where's the sense in that?

Surely the guy our on the roads is the greater risk?
Click to expand...

Not really.  The typical full timer will travel about twice as many miles a year as the vacation RVer.
 
One can always cite exceptions, but insurance is based on statistical norms.  To keep the premiums lower for the occasional use RVers, they need to establish some cut-off between part time and full time. The cut-off point is arbitrary, but that is true of any grouping, e.g. men vs women, adult vs child, etc.,
 
Mick,

I'm just curious - what insurance coverage(s) did you have when you toured North America 2007-2009? IIRC you had at least one break where you flew back to the UK, but it would appear you were here more than 150 (or 180) days. Were you required to take out fulltimers insurance?
 
Tom, we used Progressive Drive or Direct, forget which one now, but we originally signed up with one for the Jeep and when it came to adding the RV they told us they couldn't insure us as full timers so Garden City Insurance http://www.gardencityins.com/ put us in touch with the other Progressive which bye the way had identical logo, web site and paper work  ???


Another surprise to us Brits was despite them covering  BOTH RV & toad, they would cover the RV for 12 months but only 6 months for the toad.


Mick
 
Thanks for that info Mick.

Another surprise to us Brits was despite them covering  BOTH RV & toad, they would cover the RV for 12 months but only 6 months for the toad.
Click to expand...

Yes, I believe that's quite normal, although I've never figured out the rationale. Our RV and cars are insured with the same company (State Farm); The RV coverage is for a year, while the cars are insured for 6 months at a time.

On the two companies/one logo issue, I wonder if it's like the situation we ran into when we first arrived here; Because we didn't have a minimum of one year driving experience in the US, State Farm couldn't insure us, but their State Farm Mutual division could, albeit at a significantly higher premium. Our clean UK driving records didn't count. After a year, they switched us to the "regular" State Farm, and our premiums halved.
 
Jeff, apologies for delayed thanks for your input. One question ...

[quote author=Jeff]That in addition to the exposure of living in the RV full time.[/quote]

Could you please elaborate on that. TIA.
 
We have both our RV and truck insurance through Explorer and both policies are for 1 year.  I believe that's the first company we've insured with that offered a 1 year auto/truck policy.
 
Mick:

Pretty much all auto insurance is written on a six month form in the US.
 
I thought the same thing until I changed to Liberty Mutual (homeowner and other discounts, plus a better price). Their policy is for one year.
 
Policies from The Hartford are also one year, whether car or RV.

It may be contortions in the regulatory system again. Consumer protection regulations have made it increasingly difficult to cancel a policy in mid term, but declining to renew it is an easy out for the companies. Shorter terms are a defensive move by the companies.
 
More fun for them to increase your premium twice a year rather than once. Also, permits them to raise it in smaller increments, thus you may be less likely to jump companies as it would seem more reasonable....

Just food for thought... In Canada, in my experience, most policies are for 1 year although the new trend is monthly payments and auto withdrawals to make it seem painless.
 
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