Worth claiming on home insurance?

[Anonymous]

A branch came through our skylight and it cost $3000 to repair and replace. We have a home policy with Erie that has a $1000 deductible. I’ve been told not to claim as our premium will increase. Is that correct?

[Anonymous]

I turned in a 3K car fender bender repair and I now think it was a bad decision. But there are external pressures on insurance rates. So I can't know if it cost me.

You might want to hold off. I haven't had a homeowner claim in 30 years. And, they exclude a lot of costly stuff anyway.

[Anonymous]

Don't claim except for catastrophic events. Raise your deductible; it should be at least $5k.

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely not claim this.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for advice.

[Anonymous]

No way- I’d say 10k at a minimum for a claim

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not - we were dropped after filing water related claims that were in retrospect too minor. We would get $1000 back but now have a more expensive replacement policy. Silly me, I thought homeowners insurance was actually there to help pay.

[Anonymous]

Another no. Increase your deductible to max.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another no. Increase your deductible to max.

+1. Add the savings to your emergency fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A branch came through our skylight and it cost $3000 to repair and replace. We have a home policy with Erie that has a $1000 deductible. I’ve been told not to claim as our premium will increase. Is that correct?

Don’t claim. They will pay out this time but might drop you when your renewal comes up.

[Anonymous]

We have a $10k deductible on our homeowners insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way- I’d say 10k at a minimum for a claim

+1

[Anonymous]

Erie is great. Been with them 20 years. We had two major claims this year for the first time ever - to the tune of 35K. They kept us, probably only due to long history. Our policy did go up though. For 3k I would not use insurance. You’d probably be fine, but if you are unlucky and have a second claim soon, you’ll pay for it.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t claim and I would increase my deductible to at least $5m and probably $10k.

[Anonymous]

Some insurance companies offer a 3% or 5% deductible. It’s really cheap, the cost to insure my house each year is less than 0.1% of my home value.