Insurance Premium Discounts

November 23, 2008 on 5:28 am | In mybachcars.com |
Insurance Premium Discounts
  • How many, and what are the names of the insurance companies in the United States that offer a discount on insurance premiums to homeowners that have have water leak prevention/mitigation systems installed in their homes?


  • Dear Floguard, can you tell me what specifically you mean by water leak prevention/mitigation systems? Also,how many names would satisfy you? It may be necessary to contact each company individually, so I can't guarantee I could find them all. cath-ga


  • I assume you are talking about Homeowners Insurance? Or are you speaking of Flood Insurance? cath-ga


  • There are a handfull of small companies which make and sell water leak prevention (or mitigation)systems for homeowner or light industrial use. These system prevent (or reduce) the damage associated with leaky or burst water pipes. Water leaks can be the result of failed plumbing system, burst pipes due to freezing, burst hoses (wahing machine, ice cube maker, dishwasher, etc.), or numerous other reasons. I would satisfied with the names of five companies, if there are that many. if there are more, a extra tip would be provided. This does not have to due with flood insurance or any water source other than that associatd with domestic water (plumbing).


  • Dear floguard, thanks for the clarification. I have e-mails out to a dozen insurance companies, but so far have only gotten a couple of negative responses. I will send more e-mails over the weekend. Hopefully, I will get some affirmatives. However, I did some pretty thorough Internet searching and didn't find" leak prevention" listed under "insurance discounts" anywhere. Maybe it's so new they're not advertising it yet...cath-ga


  • cath-ga: I've heard that Chubb(?) offers a discount but I have no verification. You're right, these are relatively new systems that haven't had allot of exposure - yet. I've also heard from the maker of one of these systems that they're very close to landing an agreement with a VERY large insurance comapany for 1.4 million of their systems.


  • Hi floguard, Just want to let you know who I've contacted. Spoke with Nicole at the American Insurance Industry Association http://www.aiadc.org/ Media Dept. She had not heard of such discounts and thought that the information would be proprietary. Suggested I contact the Personal Insurance Federation, and I left a message there. Chubb *is* one on the list of companies I contacted: State Farm: no Allstate: ITT/Hartford: Metlife: MSI : Chubb & Son: American Family Insurance: Safeco: no Travelers: Aetna: Zurich America: Four have responded so far, State Farm and Safeco saying no, two others saying they’ve passed my e-mail to the appropriate dept. and it may take up to a week or ten days for a response. I also sent an e-mail to this organization: The Insurance Research council: http://www.ircweb.org/contactindex.htm I'll send out more as I await responses. Given the "week to ten days" answer, it may be a while before we have a definitive result. Please be patient! cath-ga


  • Given the information content provided so far, I'd consider an acceptable answer to include those top ten companies that either DO OR DO NOT offer discounts (This is different from my original question of only those that do.) To clarify, I would like to know whether the top ten insurance companies in the United States DO or DO NOT offer discount on insurance premiums to homeowners that have water leak prevention/mitigation systems installed in their homes.


  • Thanks so much for your patience!! I'm very glad to see your re-formulated question, as I was despairing of locating 5 companies that DO offer the discount. Over the holiday I received one answer in the US mail, from American Family Insurance, and they said, "Information regarding our rates and discounts is proprietary and I can't provide you with specific info." They referred me to their website, which I will check. I also received a phone call back from Jerry Davies, Dir. of Communications for the Personal Insurance Federation, in Sacramento (916-442-6646). He told me he hasn't heard of any company offering this discount. However, he had heard of someone whose company was going to cancel them because their pipes had burst three times, and they were instead renewed after installing the leak detector. He's checking to see if he can find out which company that was. Anyway, I will endeavor to ascertain the top 10 companies, then pin each of them down on your question. My kids go back to school Monday, so I will make good progress on it then.Thanks again for your patience and Happy New Year! cath-ga


  • floguard, I am so sorry this is taking so long!! I have contacted the media relations people at the ten companies (repeatedly!) Five have found the answer,three just today. They are slow, but we are getting there. All five are "no" so far, but I have some interesting info on why. We should have all the results soon. cath-ga


  • Cath-GA: Thanks for the update! That's fine1 - I'll wait for your final reply.


  • Dear floguard, At long last, here is your answer. I’m sorry to say that there are apparently no top ten companies now offering this discount, and perhaps no companies at all. Sorry for the long wait, and thanks for your patience. I appreciate your business! cath-ga Top Ten US Underwriters of Homeowners Insurance (From the Insurance Industry Association, according to A.M. Best Insurance Rating Company http://www.ambest.com/ ) State Farm- NO according to Kip Digs, Media Information 309-766-8864 Digs told me “ We currently don’t have that because we don’t have the actuarial data to support the premium discount. Once we get it we can revisit the idea. “ Allstate- NO Bill Blanda, media relations team, 847-402-5600 Zurich-Farmers- NO (according to Mary Flynn, “there are some out there, ADT has one, but we couldn’t find one that was standard, that everybody could use, that was effective…”) 323-932-3662 Nationwide- NO according to Bob Sohovich, in the Media Relations department, 1-800-882-2822 USAA: NO Paul Berry, 210-913-1562, USAA Media Relations Travelers- Citigroup- NO According to Kris Mammen, Media Relations, 860-277-7458 Chubb-NO Mark Schussel, Public Relations, 908-903-2107 American Family Insurance- declined to answer (by letter), discount not on website Safeco- NO Paul Holly, Media Relations 206-545-5000 Liberty Mutual- NO and not aware of anyone else who does. Glenn Greenberg 617-357-9500, PR, homeowners insurance Below is a comprehensive article about water leak prevention systems on the State Farm website. If you want to get a company to give this discount, it looks as though State Farm has an open mind, pending the data. http://www.statefarm.com/consumer/vhouse/articles/watersen.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search Strategy: On Google: “largest insurance companies” “top ten insurance companies” “homeowners insurance discounts” “water leak detectors” discounts “water leak prevention” discounts “water leak prevention” insurance “water leak detector” insurance Also searched the Insurance Industry Institutes website: http://www.iii.org/individuals/homei/hbs/save/ and e-mailed their representative. Here is her answer: alejandras@iii.org Dear Cath, We have no knowledge of any company offering such discounts- but consumers should ask their agent. The more questions, the more adequately insured a consumer will be. The "standard" answer on discounts is as follows- You should also check with your insurance company to see if they offer premium discounts for the use of dead bolt locks, smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems and security systems. Insurers are required to offer premium discounts if a policyholder has installed hurricane/storm shutters and/or hurricane resistant laminated glass windows and doors. All of these devices minimize losses and in some instances, may deter them. Hope this helps- and feel free to contact us in the future. In fact, for research questions you may refer directly to Madine Singer- madines@iii.org Thank you. Alejandra Soto Also searched the Websites of all top ten companies. www.statefarm.com/homepage.htm http://www.farmers.com/FarmComm/index3.html http://www.allstate.com/Home/Home.asp http://www.nationwide.com/ https://ww3.usaa.com/lcs_corp/Logon http://www.travelers.com/ http://www.amfam.com/ http://www.libertymutual.com/omapps/ContentServer?pagename=CorporateInternet/Page/CorpHome&dir=/CorporateInternet/CorpHomePage http://www.safeco.com/ http://www.chubb.com/indexPC.html