totally confused about insurance - sudden newbie...

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jomarex

Well-known member
Joined
May 21, 2013
Posts
58
I am overwhelmed. I was supposed to get a month in my house after it sold, but thanks to some stellar incompetence of a certain party, I was in my house one day, and looking for my RV the next.

So, I am actually "homeless", in my RV parked in an RV park. I have my car insurance through State Farm, and they gave me a quote for insuring this motorhome. Somehow I have the idea that if they knew I no longer lived at the house that they would cancel my insurance, or not pay, or something.

Got a quote for Foremost for the RV, and it's about DOUBLE (for the same amount of time) as the State Farm quote. SF didn't list the amounts of coverage for like bodily injury and stuff, and I don't know what's reasonable.

I figure somebody knows about these things and could tell me right off the top of their head ??? I already live in Texas, and have applied for the Escapees mail address. Would I be safe letting State Farm assume I still live in the house, or what? Just tell them to use my PO Box as the mailing address?

TIA
Joy
 
Do not try to fool your insurance company.  Do investigate full timer insurance.  We have several articles in our forum library with information you need to know about full timing.
 
Ned said:
Do not try to fool your insurance company. 

You are in transition, have sold your home, and have a new mailing address. It's no different than anyone else changing jobs, moving to a new place and being in transit. Answer the questions truthfully but don't over volunteer what you "might" do.

We are full time, Escapees, the car and motorhome are insured by GEICO, and there was nothing complicated about it. Your address will be xxx Rainbow Drive, # xxxx, which for all practical purposes could be a trailer lot, an apartment, or whatever. Livingston, TX is where our vehicles get parked, at least once a year. There is no limit to how many days you can travel.

Are we towards the limits and playing fast and loose with the truth? Probably, but three years later, it is working for us and many others. People like us are in a bit of a no man's land and most institutions are not set up to deal with it easily. Go with the flow.

That's my 2 cents worth....
 
An Escapees address is a legitimate one for purposes of domicile.  And the full timer insurance companies understand how it works.  The important thing is to establish a domicile in the state of your choice and you'll not have any problems.  But do work only with an insurance company that understands that you're a full time RVer.  Most commercial insurance companies do not have policies for that situation.

Again, our library will give you guidance on establishing a domicile.  Since you're already a resident of Texas, that would be the logical choice.
 
I live in TX, have a 99 Winnebago 37G, valued at 24000, 1000 deductible, (which they changed to 750 and won't let me go back) 500000 on liability and UI/UM with all the bells and whistles, $769 this year.  Just paid July 4th.  Last year was $629, I must be a bad, bad camper to have my insurance go up like that, but all my quotes were for about the same amount.  Not a happy camper with insurance right now, everything went up.
 
AEON is a top RV insurer, can't say how good they are as I never filed a claim with them.

Nationwide carries my policy but.. I just filed a complaint with them.. I will describe the complaint.

With most insurers, INCLUDING NATIONWIDE if you have an existing automobile policy and you either rent a car or buy a new (or used) car the existing policy is "Extended" automatically to cover that vehicle for a short period of days in order to let you get insurance on it.  The period varies from state to state.

Nationwide says my Class A motor home is NOT an automobile. and thus will not extend the policy to a new purchase.

So, next week when I test drive the Chevy Tracker I'm looking at (Assuming someone does not beat me to it) I'm going to test drive it past my agent's office.
 
30 days is generally considered a reasonable time frame to notify the insurer of a change that affects the policy. A change is where the vehicle is "principally garaged" (an insurance term for where the vehicle is based) does indeed potentially affect the policy.

I would use one of the agencies that specialize in RV insurance for your needs. ExplorerRV.com is one, MillerRVinsurance.com is another, and gilbertrvinsurance.com is another. Tell them what coverages you want and ask about fulltimer liability, since you no longer have a stick home and associated home owner coverage to protect you.

If you need to learn more about the various parts of vehicle insurance before you buy a policy, ask here. In general, you need liability coverage for damage to other people and property resulting form the operation of the RV, and you probably want insurance on your RV and your property contained in or on the RV in case of accidental loss. Uninsured motorist coverage is a maybe, depending on what other health insurance you may have. The fulltimer insurance coverage provides liability for injury to people that do NOT occur as a result of operating the RV, e.g. happens on your site while you are parked.
 
The only advise I can pass on is, do not use the same company for your RV that you use for your car.  If you get into a accident, or put a claim in on either MH/car your rates go up on both vehicles. 

Jim
 
I am not sure I subscribe to that theory. Many home insurance companies really push combining auto coverage and your car insurance is not going to go up if a limb falls on your roof. They are two different liability pools for the insurance company. They are just trying take advantage of existing relationships, like credit card companies do.

And then there's the multiple vehicle discount that may offset any of that.

I am very happy with my GEICO policy and service on both vehicles.
 
Not talking about homeowners, your car insurance and MH or RV insurance should not be same company.  Putin a claim for a awning on RV and when you get your next bill ALL your vehicles will be assessed for the claim.....I speak from Experience.  It happened many years ago, and since than I use separate companies...
 
hello,

  we are full-timers in our TT, and we have full-time insurance for our TT with progressive.  we got quotes from numerous co's and progressive's fits our needs.  We asked for full-time insurance and the quote and coverage was pretty good, in fact its cheaper than our trucks insurance hmmmm ...

  get quotes from different companies and fit your requirements to the company right for you.


bill & jodi
 
Whichever insurance agents/companies you talk to, make sure they're quoting you on "fulltimers" coverage, not just the standard vehicle coverages. Fulltimers insurance includes most of the same liability, personal effects, etc., coverages that homeowners insurance normally covers for non-fulltimer's RV's.
 
I don't think there is any accepted definition of "fulltimer coverage", either in the insurance industry or among RVers. If you deal with an agency that specializes in RVs, you will probably get an agent that knows what coverages a fulltimer should have (or at least consider), but at major companies you will likely talk to a generalist who is more familiar with home or auto insurance than anything unique. And if they do have a package on their computer menu labeled "fulltimer", it will be a one size fits all package that may or may not meet your specific needs.

General personal liability coverage is probably the major need (unless you already have an "umbrella" policy), followed by increased personal property coverage. In my opinion, most RV policies are short of personal property coverages for larger RVs - folks who use their rig more than the odd weekend typically have much more personal property onboard than the usual $2000 coverage would handle.
 
Many, if not most, RV policies have some basic coverage for personal effects or personal property  in or on the RV, but it's one of the things that often varies from one company to another, as does what is considered to be "personal property". But as you say, that coverage would NOT provide any benefit for that property if you took the property away from the RV, e.g. checked into a hotel, and then suffered a loss while there. Most home owners policy would cover your personal property in the same circumstances.  I haven't read the details on any "Fulltimer coverage" lately, but the last one we had did not provide that feature either.

Home owners and renters policies also typically include personal liability that will cover damages you may cause to other people or property, e.g. you drop a plate of spaghetti sauce on your friend's new white carpet. You won't find that in a standard RV policy either, but you may be able to get it as part of a fulltimer enhancement to it. Emphasis on "may".
 
skyking4ar2 said:
I am not sure I subscribe to that theory. Many home insurance companies really push combining auto coverage and your car insurance is not going to go up if a limb falls on your roof. They are two different liability pools for the insurance company. They are just trying take advantage of existing relationships, like credit card companies do.

And then there's the multiple vehicle discount that may offset any of that.

I am very happy with my GEICO policy and service on both vehicles.

Kim, I had GEICO on my travel trailer.  It was included with my auto insurance.  My awning got too close to a tree while navigating a tight park and needed to be replaced.  I hoped it would be considered a comprehensive claim.  No.  GEICO considered it an accident and if they paid, they'd put a point on my auto insurance.  Bottom line, my increased premium would have been about the same as the awning.  I didn't submit the claim.  Same thing when I got two points on my driver license.  They surcharged both my truck and SUV as well as my two motorcycles.  That worse than double jeopardy.   Don't know what that cost for three years but it was not insignificant.  I moved my travel trailer insurance to Good Sam.   
 
Sorry, Gary, but I see the awning as an accident, not comprehensive, and points on a driver's license are points - the same driver's license is used for your car, your RV, and your motorcycle.

They are insuring you as a driver, of any or all of those vehicles. You can probably get away with moving your eggs between insurance companies and not taking a hit but it's still your driving behavior and claim history they are looking at. Don't be shocked at the cross communication between insurance companies; it's exactly how their fraud departments work. Eventually, moving the eggs around comes back to roost (pun intended).  8)

Those guys spend a lot of money keeping up with their insured and their competitors in some massive databases.
 
When a fence/rail jumped out and took a chunk out of our coach, I called my insurance carrier (State Farm) to understand the impact of me filing a claim. The answer was very clear: "Each driver is only rated on one vehicle, irrespective how many vehicles you have insured with us. So, the only premium that would be impacted would be that vehicle", which turned out to be my car. I called back several times to ask the same question, and always received the same answer. So, I proceeded with the claim, and confirmed what I'd been told.

No points on my license because this happened on private property.
 
They are insuring you as a driver, of any or all of those vehicles.

I think this is true only for motorized vehicles. Trailers, if insured on a separate policy from the tow vehicle,  would typically have no effect. Of course, each insurer has their own method & procedures for rating, so no hard and fast rules. Some companies have the notion of a "chargeable accident", meaning they distinguish types of accidents that will or will not affect your rating. But how they decide something is "chargeable" or not is largely a mystery anyway.

Adding a trailer to your auto policy is typically the least expensive way to insure it, but there is some risk of the problem that Garyb1st encountered. It also may provide the least coverage, i.e. strictly a collision damage coverage. Read the fine print carefully.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
I think this is true only for motorized vehicles. Trailers, if insured on a separate policy from the tow vehicle,  would typically have no effect.

I don't think I really picked up on the TT portion of Gary's conversation - motorized RV's and non-motorized RV's deserve individual attention during this insurance conversation, i.e. what works for one may not work for the other.

Although insurance companies are subject to regulation (for obvious reasons), their underwriting policies and claims processes can be pretty unique between companies. Comparing one company to another without access to that information can be misleading. Like RV's, it's prudent to really do your homework with your insurance company and read the fine print. One size does not fit all.
 
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