Florida Residents Will No Longer Benefit from State Farm Discounts

Posted in Home Insurance , Hurricane Insurance , State Farm

August 14th, 2009

If Florida residents haven’t been hit hard enough with high homeowners insurance premiums – and storms to boot – now State Farm customers will be losing some much-needed discounts. According to the major insurance provider, in the next few months, customers will no longer benefit from certain5-20%discounts as it tries to better restructure its expenditures amidst one of the most severe US recessions in history.

So what are the discounts being eliminated?

• More than one policy. In the past, customers could benefit from having more than one homeowners policy – or by having more than one type of policy (homeowners, auto, etc.).
• Security systems. Unfortunately, those who have benefited from having security systems installed in their homes will no longer receive a discount.
• No claims filed. Whether by luck or by supreme safety on your part, if you never filed a claim in the past, you could have received a discount. Not anymore.

While checking off discount items on their list to eliminate, State Farm tried to work in the discounts for storm mitigation efforts; however, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) did not approve it – yet. Instead, it asked the insurer to refile the request after offering some “additional guidance” on how to do so.

The discount eliminations will be effective Nov. 1 for new business and Dec. 1 for renewal business. However, the insurer’s ultimate goal is to stop writing policies for the state of Florida altogether, a feat it has being trying to set in stone since the beginning of the year but won’t fully accomplish until 2011.