The Insurance Center of Central Florida offers Homeowners Insurance, Flood Insurance, Auto Insurance, Motorcycle Insurance, and much more.
We provide insurance services for residents all across Florida, and we can help you make sure you’re covered and prepared for whatever happens in your life!
Call us now at 1-888-8363-4706 for a FREE quote for your home, your business, or your vehicles. You can also visit us on line at http://theinsurancecenter.us.
May 25, 2010 Insurance Center Central FloridaLeave a comment
The official start to the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season is just a week away.
It’s wind vs. water in many a hurricane insurance claim, so be sure you know the difference – and obtain both hurricane and flood insurance when protecting your home.
To the surprise of many home owners, your homeowners insurance typically does not cover flooding after a hurricane, unless it is caused by the roof of your home blowing off.
In a state with as high a risk of hurricanes and tropical storms as Florida, it is essential that you realize the limitations of typical homeowners insurance, and don’t find out too late that homeowners insurance is not enough to protect your investment from hurricane damage. Flood insurance is inexpensive, yet could end up saving you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars and give you peace of mind in the aftermath of a hurricane or tropical storm.
Call Insurance Center of Central Florida TODAY and let us go over a new policy or your existing policy. Get on your way to great coverage and protection. Don’t wait till it’s too late!
What are the advantages to using an agent to purchase insurance?
By using an agent to purchase insurance, the policy holder receives more personal service. An agent with whom there is direct contact can be vital when purchasing a product and absolutely necessary when filing a claim. A local independent agent is able to deliver quality insurance with competitive pricing and local, personalized service.
I have an older car that currently has a very low market value. Do I really need to purchase automobile insurance?
We can answer all your questions with one phone call
There are many factors that affect the premium (cost) you will pay for insurance. The key to saving money and maximizing coverage is having good communication between yourself and your agent. Here are a few items to consider:
Your Driving Record. Your agent will ask routine questions about accidents and moving violations for any driver covered by the policy for the previous five years. If you have previous violations, or have been in an accident where you were determined to be at fault, there may be an adjustment to the premium to offset the perceived risk. That’s why it’s so important to get all the information you need to accurately compare policy quotes.
Where You Live. This may seem strange to you. Why would where you live effect how much you pay? Insurance companies know that increased traffic leads to more accidents; therefore living and driving in a city may result in more accidents than living and driving in a rural area. It doesn’t mean you need to move to a farm, but you definitely need to pay attention when driving. A good driving record is the best defense against increased premiums.
Gender and Age. That may not seem fair, but it’s based on statistics. History shows that males still have more accidents than females. So rule number one: as a group, the guys need to slow down and pay attention, because they are paying a little more for their insurance. Insurers also have statistics that show a higher number of claims for some age groups than for others.
Marital Status. Once again, this is based on statistics. Insurance company claims records show a lower rate of auto insurance claims among married policyholders. So, if you prefer to remain single, nothing beats a good driving record.
Prior Insurance Coverage. If you’ve previously been canceled for non-payment of premiums, insurers want to know. If you’ve had insurance, your new insurer may ask your prior company about any claims you had. The key is to provide as much as information as you can to your agent. This will allow your agent to place you with the carrier (insurance company) who has the best rates for you. One carrier may be competitive on one type of policy, but not on another. Your agent should have access to multiple carriers in order to get you the right coverage and the lowest rates. Not all agents and all policies are created equal.
Mileage. The more miles you drive, the more opportunity for an accident. In other words, if you do a lot of driving, you may pay a slightly higher premium. Your agent will know which carrier is best for drivers who spend a lot of time behind the wheel.
Type of Vehicle. If you want to drive an exotic car, you will pay more for the insurance. As the price of your vehicle goes up, so does the potential costs to repair it. The physical damage premium will be increased to cover the additional risk.
Water loss is the number one claim on Homeowners Insurance Policy. Log on to www.TheInsuranceCenter.us for complete details.
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This is Frank Hanrahan from the Insurance Center of Central Florida. Today, I’d like to talk to you about water losses. Water loss is the #1 claim on Homeowner’s policies, and a lot of these losses could be prevented. Where we see the losses is that washing machine hose breaks or the supply line to the toilet breaks or the dishwasher hose leaks. My suggestion is every couple years, you have a plumber come in and inspect them to make sure they’re good and that they don’t need replaced. Most of these lines are very inexpensive to replace. So again, I would have them checked and replaced if necessary to prevent that claim. You know, even if you do have a loss you still have to pay your deductible, so it’s gonna cost you money out of your pocket. If you have any questions, please give us a call at 1-800-659-0986 or look us up on the web. Thank you.
March 5, 2010 Insurance Center Central FloridaLeave a comment
Frank: The last thing we want to talk about are recreational vehicles. We’re talking about four-wheelers, dirt bikes, golf carts. Explain how we cover those.
Kevin: Right. There’s quite a few people who like to enjoy their property in ways other than on foot. They do so with golf carts. They do so with recreational vehicles, like you’ve said. And not only are those items extremely valuable, meaning that if there is damage to the actual golf cart or the recreational vehicle, you’re going to want to know that you’re going to be able to get coverage for the damage to the vehicle itself, not to mention the liability angle. What happens if you hurt somebody?
Frank: I’ve got a good story for you. A guy goes to sell his motorcycle. The mother-in-law loaned the money and said I need the money back, so he goes to sell the motorcycle, and the guy comes up in his pickup truck and says, I’d like to take it for a ride. So, he takes it for a ride, goes down the road, the guy never comes back! He calls the police and finds out the truck was stolen. So, the guy stole the truck, stole the motorcycle. When he called he asked if he had any coverage, I said, unfortunately not because it’s special coverage for that.
Kevin: Right. It’s not safe to assume that because it’s at your house, that it’s covered. If it’s a motorized vehicle of any kind, all-terrain vehicle, golf cart, any of the things that we’ve just named, you need to make sure that your insurance agent knows that you have that piece of property and that you’re concerned about what’s going to happen to it if it causes a loss.
Frank: Another big one is golf carts. I see kids all of the time driving down the road, four kids hanging off of the golf cart thinking, man, somebody’s going to get hurt. Well, you need special coverage for a golf cart. I don’t care about the golf cart. If you lose the golf cart, great, but if somebody gets hurt, you’re really going to lose some money. There was a girl, and these were adults, they were driving down the road. She was hanging out trying to take a picture. She fell, and she hit her head. It was a bad fall, and she got seriously hurt, and she actually had brain damage. Now, if it’s your child driving some other little boy down the street, they take you to court, you could lose everything you have just because you didn’t spend a little bit of money to get golf cart insurance. Again, give your agent a call, review your policy, and if youd like a second opinion, give us a call at the Insurance Center of Central Florida. Our number is below.
March 1, 2010 Insurance Center Central FloridaLeave a comment
Every homeowner needs a good solid homeowners policy to protect their investment from the exposures of severe weather, fire, vandalism, and theft. Whether you just bought your first home, you’re building the house of your dreams, or you’re just looking for a better policy, the Insurance Center can help. We work with 25 carriers to find the coverage you’re looking for, at a rate you deserve.
Not only will we find the protection and rate you want, we’ll also stay in touch with you to make sure that your policy remains up-to-date so that you’re always adequately protected.
Why not take a few minutes to fill out our free Florida homeowners quote form to see how much we can save you? Having your current homeowners policy nearby will ensure accuracy and speed.
That’s an exceptional question that you should always ask your insurance agent, “How much coverage do I need?” And the reason that’s extremely important is because, what ends up happening in a lot of cases, people assume that the market value of their home, what they paid for their home, is how much they need to insure it for. And unfortunately, what you’re trying to insure your home for is the cost to repair or replace it if it’s damaged. In 2004, all across the state of Florida, people suffered significant damages from hurricanes, and, as a result, the cost of building materials absolutely skyrocketed.
Shortages, too.
Shortages of building materials, and you have no control over that. It’s a completely variable cost. You have no control over it. And what that does is it increases the cost to replace the house that suffered damage. So, for example, a house that you bought 3 years ago could cost significantly more to replace today than you paid for it 3 years ago.
Oh, we heard stories about people that paid $5,000 for a screen enclosure, and now it’s $15,000.
Absolutely, and you hear those stories all the time, and that’s why using the market value as the replacement value– you have to learn how to separate the two. It’s very difficult to do that because replacement cost is based on so many variable factors, and the way that we always recommend that you determine the replacement cost of your home is to talk to an insurance agent that has up-to-date cost estimation software. They have insurance companies that have cost estimation software that will help you determine, hey, what is it gonna cost to get this house back? If I lose this house what is it going to cost me to get this house back today? That’s why this question is extremely important.
Again, give your agent a call, review your policy, and if you’d like a second opinion, give us a call at the Insurance Center of Central Florida. Our number is below.
Well, insurance isn’t all about buildings. Your homeowner’s policy also covers the things inside your home, which some of you may have significant value invested in what’s in your home, meaning things like your furniture, electronics, your clothes. People always underestimate the cost to replace a closet full of clothes. If you’re sitting there right now thinking, you know what, there might – if you’re a guy – there might be one suit in there that’s worth a thousand dollars, that might cost a thousand dollars to replace. One suit. The ladies might be sitting there thinking about their closets thinking, “I don’t even want to know how much this is gonna cost to replace all of this stuff if we have a fire loss or a hurricane.”
I had a girl in my office tell me she was paying $750 for a pair of shoes.
$750 for one pair of shoes. There could be 10 pairs of those shoes! It’s unbelievable. What is inside your home is extremely important that you have it replaced after it’s damaged just as much as it is having your home replaced.
The other thing i would suggest is you take your video camera and go through your house room by room and document what you have. The insurance company is gonna ask you to make a list of everything you lost and the value. You can go in your closet, and you’ll see everything, but you’re never gonna remember all those items. If you have a videotape, you can say to the adjuster, “Here sir, this is what I lost.” it makes it a lot easier. It jogs your memory. “Oh, I forgot about that.” Everybody remembers their couch, their TV, their stereo. But do you remember the stuff in the drawers? All that kind of stuff. So it is important.
Right. And making a record of it can seem very tedious. It can seem very time consuming, but any information that you can have for the insurance company after you’ve had a loss, any information whatsoever. Whether it be receipts, whether it be serial numbers, warranty information, service contracts, or what’s infinitely better than all of the above, like you said, frank, a video. If you have video evidence of everything that was inside your house, and you keep a copy of that, that will make the insurance company’s life so much easier when they’re trying to adjust your claim, and it will help make sure that you get what you lost and not anything less.
Again, give your agent a call, review your policy, and if you’d like a second opinion, give us a call at the Insurance Center of Central Florida. Our number is below.
The next part of the policy that’s extremely important, we call it coverage d. Some call it loss of use. Some call it additional living expenses. It means exactly the same thing. When you have a loss, say during a hurricane that keeps you out of your home for a significant or even a short period of time, there are expenses involved that make sure you can maintain your standard of living while your property is being rebuilt.
Keep in mind, the bank wants their payment every month. So now, you have a mortgage payment plus you may have to rent an apartment. That’s expensive.
Absolutely. To stay in a hotel for weeks or even months– some friends of mine personally that lived in South Florida when hurricanes Frances and Jeanne came through, both storms 3 weeks apart. That can add so much lag time to the repair of your home, and you have to have a place to stay. You have to have food you can cook and food you can eat. You have to have clothes you can wear. And if all of the above is impossible to do in your daily routine because you lost your house, this is the part of the policy, the important part of the policy. That’s gonna tell you how much the insurance company is going to give you to pay those expenses until you can get back into that house.
Keep in mind, too, insurance companies have taken away some coverage. That used to be 20% of your house value. Example is, say you have $100,000 house, you would have $20,000. Now, you’re seeing some of these companies reduce that down to 10%. So again, look at your policy, see what you have and make sure it’s enough.
And don’t ever underestimate the amount of time it can take to get back into your home after you’ve had a loss. Some of you may remember, you may know people in and other places where the lag time to get back into the house, because maybe contractors weren’t available, maybe materials weren’t available, there’s just no way to know how long it’s gonna take. So, this coverage under your homeowner’s policy, it’s extremely important that you know exactly how long or how much you’re gonna get when you are not able to live in your home.
Again, give your agent a call, review your policy, and if you’d like a second opinion, give us a call at the Insurance Center of Central Florida. Our number is below.
May 25, 2010
Insurance Center Central Florida
