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By Anthony Peck
It’s the oldest trick in the book-and if it’s not it’s definitely on the top ten! You find some poor, unsuspecting sap, convince them that you’ve got a great homeowners insurance policy to sell them, hammer out your own contract (complete with the fine print), get the homeowner to sign and hand over a check for their first year of coverage and disappear into the night without a trace. This type of insurance scam has been around in one form or another for years. Why? Because it works!
The moral of this story? Watch out for insurance scams when you’re buying your homeowners insurance.
What You Need to Watch Out For
How do you know whether the “independent agent” you’re talking to about buying a homeowners insurance policy is on the level or taking you for a ride? When it gets right down to it, you can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to spot a scammer 100% of the time. Today’s high tech criminals are so slick some of them could sell insurance to the government and get away with it, so if you’ve been taken for a ride in the past don’t feel bad. You’re in good company, and you’ve been taken by some of the smartest and most well equipped con-artists in the world!
There are a few things you need to watch out for when buying homeowners insurance to minimize the chances of falling into the clutches of a con artist. First and foremost, before getting deeply involved with any insurance agent make sure you take the time to check out their credentials. Every state has a licensing procedure that all insurance sellers have to go through to be certified to work within state borders. Guess what? They also keep a database of the insurance sellers that pass muster!
Major national sellers, like AllState or State Farm, are pretty easy to spot-and even easier to trust. When you’re working with a private agent (or a small, little known company), however, it pays to be careful. Contact your state’s Department of Insurance and check out their licensing credentials. If they aren’t licensed to be wheeling and dealing in homeowners insurance it doesn’t matter what kind of spiel they try to tell you about recently relocating, or waiting for their paperwork to process, or any other line they can come up with. This is a deal you just have to resist.
If their licensing issues didn’t immediately raise any red flags go ahead and move forward with the deal. There are, after all, plenty of respectable and trustworthy insurance dealers out there! Just keep a wary eye. Any insurance agent that can’t explain your homeowners insurance policy in clear, simple terms that someone without a degree in insurance law can understand, changes the policy halfway through the process, is consistently difficult to contact or tries to convince you that there’s a reason their rates are considerably higher than their competitor’s for the same coverage should be handled with care.
If you’re afraid that you’re being scammed, walk away. There are no limits to the number of possibilities when it comes to purchasing homeowners insurance, so there’s no reason to stay in a position where you’re afraid you’re being scammed. Simply bid the fishy agent a fond farewell and move on to the next good offer. You’ll be glad that you did when you’re covered by the trustworthy homeowners insurance coverage you deserve.
About the Author: Anthony M. Peck is the Senior Developer, Software Project Manager, and Director of Business Development for QuoteScout.com. For more information on buying homeowners insurance, please visit them on the web at http://www.QuoteScout.com.
Source: isnare.com
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