Are insurance companies really looking out for you? Part 1

By: Queue Murphy

    The Liberty Mutual commercial talks about ‘accident forgiveness,’ and states that ‘everyone makes mistakes.’  Yet Liberty Mutual is one of the most notorious companies for denying claims.  We had them for over 30 years and their motto was more like – ‘give us your money and don’t call us when you need us.’  One time my husband was painting on a ladder in the living room.  He fell off the ladder and the paint bucket spilled all over the rug, walls, stairs, and furniture.  When we called them to make a claim, they stated that my husband was a ‘falling object,’ and they didn’t cover falling objects! 

                Our rental home recently was flooded and by the time we found out, the floors were ruined, the walls and ceilings had caved in and everything inside was destroyed.  State Farm was our insurance company on the property.  They only covered the losses after we had a friend, who dealt with restoration recovery services, meet with them and demand they honor their contract.  They paid for the repairs, contents and then dropped us like a rock.  We had paid for that policy for over 10 years – but that didn’t matter, again, the same motto –‘give us your money and don’t call us when you need us.’ 

                When we tried to get insurance from someone else, they looked us up on the insurance CLUE system.  This system is used by insurance companies nationwide.  Whenever anyone makes a claim, or even inquires about a claim, it is placed into this system, and held against you.  It is the system that reads your credit reports and paints a picture about you that may or may not be true.  One company told us that statistically, people with lower credit scores tend to file more claims, so if you happen to lose your job, for a while, are late on a bill payment, your insurance rates will be higher.  Your legislators allow this, by the way.   Insurance companies find all kinds of ways to hold things against you – so they don’t have to pay the claims, they charge you more and they can deny you coverage.

    The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows you to see what insurance  companies are publishing about you!  Here is a website that helps you get that information – make sure you get it before you apply for insurance of any kind, or even call your insurance company for an inquiry – they will use information against you!  http://www.insurance.wa.gov/your-insurance/tips/clue.html

More to come on how insurance companies are only out for their bottom line in the next excerpt!