Thursday, February 26, 2009

money matters



















photo from Google images

I switched insurance companies today, for my homeowner's and auto policies. This was a huge deal for me, psychologically, for a couple of reasons. First, I absolutely hate dealing with money. Most of the time I love being on my own, but when I have to do anything dealing with money, I really wish I had, at the very least, a sounding board regarding the decisions I'm making. The simple fact is, money doesn't interest me. I know that I need it, and there are times that I take real pleasure in spending it, but as a divorced woman, I've also had to learn how to handle it, and for the most part, that has been a painful experience, and one for which I never have much enthusiasm, in part because I'm never sure that I know what I'm doing. Second, I've been with Company A for about 15 years, and they've always been great to deal with, so a part of me felt guilty even thinking about switching companies. But my premiums had risen so steeply that I decided I had to get comparison bids from other, equally well rated companies. When I did that, it was clear that the amount of money I'd save by switching was substantial and I couldn't justify not doing it. I called Company A and told them Company B had done an apples to apples comparison on both policies and asked them if they could match it. Any guilt I'd felt evaporated when I got their response. For the auto policy, they were willing to switch me to one of their lesser companies, which would lower the premium slightly; for the homeowner's, their suggestion was that if I wanted a lower premium, I should increase my deductible from $500 to 1% of the overall value of my property on all claims. Huh? I may hate dealing with money, but I'm not stupid. I said thanks but no thanks and called Company B and had them draw up the paperwork, which was then faxed to me. I signed on the dotted line and faxed it back, and gave them credit card information for the premium, at which time I was faxed a temporary ID card...all of which left me feeling like I wanted to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. It's not supposed to be like this, is it? Aren't I supposed to feel empowered or something? But the people I like best in this world tend to share my loathing of dealing with money. Dunno what that says about us...

4 comments:

Melissa said...

Judi I know it will not surprise you to learn that I feel EXACTELY the same way!!!! Oh my gosh, girlfriend, I could have sooo written this post!

I wonder why we feel this way?

Glad you saved some money.

wv: votelly totally? lol

TJ said...

MMMMMMMMMEEEE too!
I have just gone through a romp with my insurance company! I gave her a verbal black eye when I did the numbers and found they had over charge me $1,247.68 for the year!! I demanded my money get credited or a check and asked her to get things right or I was walking taking ALL our insurances Business, Homes, cars etc.
Made me feel terrible to be like that but I felt even worse when i realized that a mistake so large had been done and no one but ME caught it. SHE is our agent and should have found it ....
Glad you got things better for you...I guess sometimes we just have to make it a point to get involved.We pay just over $7,000.00a year and trust me I am not willing to pay a dime more then I have to.
Oh no! I was suppose to be moving on and forgetting how mad I was...
okay!
Done.
Nuff said.
Love TJ

Tammy Brierly said...

I'm with you Judi but you did good! I love that shot. lol

Chris said...

I deal with money all day at work so Alexis is kind enough to take care of our family budget. So are you withholding the company names to protect the "innocent" ? ha ha