INSURANCE

From one friend to another can I offer you advice?  Well I am going to and you don't have to take it but it's worth checking in to. 

I received a notice in December stating our house payment was increasing unless we wanted to pay $xxx.xx amount of dollars.  I don't know about you, but I don't have extra money just hanging out in my bank account in December.  Well the good news is they gave us till March 1st, the bad news is March 1st came and went without extra money in our account.  So guess what our mortgage went up! 

This caused a painful reality.  My wise and very HOT husband wanted to sit down and discuss our bills. For 12 years I have managed the financial spending in our relationship and truthfully I like it that way.  But he was questioning a few things, so we began my torture"had a meeting" looked at our bills, and especially our mortgage.  He wanted to know WHY it went up?  My response was I don't know just let me pay the bills and forget about it.  He would not let the issue go.  So I got on the phone with the bank that evening,(just before they closed for the evening) and kindly asked for some explanations What I learned was our insurance was increasing causing the mortgage payment to go UP!  The bank lady quickly became my friend, thank you Lisa for explaining this to me and going above and beyond to suggest I shop around for insurance.  The next morning I started calling around and what I discovered was frightening.  When we purchased our home in 2011 our insurance was $xxx in 2012 it increased $230 as a result our mortgage went up, and now in 2013 it rose $90 more causing another boost to our payment.  It made no sense to me but, my new friend (the bank lady, from my call last night)  suggested shopping around.  Well after a million phone calls and some very kind and patient individuals talked me through things we got our home insured for $xxx a year with better coverage. K just so you know my insurance went down $175 from 2011, you do the math and see it save us $495 a year.

So what I learned from this lesson is be ASSERTIVE.  With your insurance talk to different providers periodically and see if you are getting the best deal for what you are paying for.  I am so relieved and grateful we were able to have "a meeting" and Kyle questioned things, (Like I ever thought I'd say that) we are not seeing a rise but a decrease in our mortgage.  People please be aware, ask questions, and protect yourselves. 

I learned the bank was my friend, as I spoke to Andy my new buddy yesterday and he explained, the bank  want the same thing we do. Just cause your paying more for insurance does not make the bank more money, it makes the insurance company more.  So shop around and do what feels right. No one is going to do it for you, so ask questions and become aware and take charge of your situation.