I don't know what Azzalea's problem is with utility companies and to be perfectly honest, I don't care, and while her DH may have worked for a utility company and claims to have some inside information, I doubt seriously if he worked for the utility company in question, that being Dominion East Ohio Gas Company (DEOGC). On the other hand, On three separate occassions DEOGC performed their services at my mothers house while I was there, so I feel that as a retired plumber myself, I too am qualified to assess the performance, and you may rest assured I too asked all the pertinent questions, like why would the gas company repair water & sewer lines? The reason has nothing to do with the gas company scrambling for money as was eluded by Azzalea. It has to do with Code requirements and union contracts. The gas company primarily installs and maintains the municipal gas lines, however Commercial and Municipal gas lines are not regulated under the plumbing codes, they fall under a separate set of Municipal codes and the rank & file employees that work for the gas company are under the "Pipefitters Union" and they are only permitted to work on the municipal gas lines and the individual service drops from the municipal line to the curb stop shutoff valve. The gas service line from the curb stop to the structure is regulated under the Plumbing code and you must be a certified Plumber to work on that line. The problem is that in the state of Ohio one only has to complete the apprenticeship and pass the state plumbers exam to become a commercial plumbers. Residential plumbers are regulated by the individual jurisdication, and in most jurisdictions the only requirement to become a licensed residential plumber is to pay an annual fee. As if that is not problamatic enough, in many small communities and in rural areas outside the local municipal district they have absolutely no licensing requirements to be a residential plumber. The gas company was then confronted with a problem. When they were called upon to install a new gas service they could only make the tap into the municipal gas line and extend the residential service line to the curb stop. From there they had to hire a plumber to run the line to the structure, but they had no way to insure the plumbers were even qualified to properly run a gas line so they opted to hire their own plumbers, but that instantly caused a union dissagreement between the Pipefitters Union & the Plumbers Union. The final solution was that the gas company hired qualified residential & cmmercial plumbers on a permanent subcontract from a local plumbing company. The plumbers remained as bona fide employees of the respective plumbing companies, but they reported for duty directly to the gas company and worked with gas company vehicles, equipment and materials and under the direct supervision of gas company supervisors. That was working out to the complete satisfaction of both unions and all parties concerned, but it was soon discovered that the gas company did not have enough work installing service drops to justify the expense of having separate crews. They then relized the the plumbers were legally qualified to not only install and maintain the gas lines, they were also qualified to install and maintain water & sewer lines so the gas company started the "line Backer" service to insure their plumbing crews would be afforded a steady 40hr work week, thus insuring they could keep the same ppl doing the job. Now let us compare the gas company service to having the service performed through your homeowners insurance. From my first hand experience, when you call the gas company they will have an estimator on site within the hour. The estimator examines the job and determines the level of service required, then radios that information back to their dispatchers. The dispatchers then apply for all necessary permits, notifiy "Dig Safe" to come out and mark all utility lines before they commence digging, and the appropriate repair crew is dispatched to the location. On two occassions when they came to my mothers house they already had a hard copy of the plumbing permit on the truck when they arrived, on the third occassion the repair crew arrived and began unloading their tools and equipment and within a few minutes a pickup truck arrived with their permit. The crews work out of a large gas company 5 ton crewcab truck with a 20' hard covered utility bed loaded with all the tools, parts and materials to perform the task at hand, and they were pulling a large commercial heavy duty equipment trailer with either a trencher or a backhoe, whichever was required to do the job. In all three instances the job was completed within 8hrs from the time we first called the gas company, and when they did the water line it was on a Sunday. Having spent over 25 years in the plumbing trade I had many opportunities to do similar work through insurance companies. Generally when you call an insurance company they will send an adjuster out within a day or two to examine the problem. The then take their findings back to the office and discuss whether or not it is covered by the policy. If it is a catastrophic failure its covered, but if the problem resulted from old age, it is a maintenance problem and not covered. Of course it will take them a day or so to make that determination. The insurance company will then call you and tell you what their determination was and if they authorize the service they will issue you a P.O. number or control number and tell you to go ahead and contact a plumber. You are then left scrambling through the phone book looking for a plumber that can come out within a short time and make the repairs, course that short time may be another 4 or 5 days. No time now to go through the process of checking references, you need the service immediately. To add insult to injury, how many homeowners have any firsthand knowledge of what the code requirements are? Do you feel yourself qualified to judge the quality of the work performed? If the truth be told, most homeowners would not even know enough to insist on pulling a permit and having the job inspected..Oh yes, and did we mention that even if the job is covered by your insurance, you first have to reach down in your pocket and cover the deductable. So as I said before,,if you happen to live in an area servied by Dominion East Ohio Gas company, in my opinion you would be a fool not to take advantage of it.

Every state is different, you should check out your states department of insurance website to see which companies write in your state. If you have your home and auto together you will always do better. As for your current policy, this is the one I sell daily, your agent could have just told you going from a multiple car policy to a single car policy is the most expensive one out there. The single remaining car lost the benefit of the 2nd car, it's factored into the household composition and now that premium will increase. I don't mean to be insensitive but if you've recently gone from married to another classification that will also affect the rate. Check to see if they have the preferred package discount - paperless billing, it can add up to 15% discount if your state has it. Not all states have the discount though. If your not happy with your agent, you don't have to stay with them, you can call the general 800 number and request another agent. If you've been with that company for a while you may have things in your policy that you will certainly have to re-establish with a new company. I can tell you more if your interested.

I've been paying roughly $1000-$1200/month for myself since my husband's retirement over ten years ago. That does not include kids. We covered them on student health plans, which turned out to be cheaper in sum. I can give you a couple of tips: Don't bother with the Federal Health Exchange site unless you will qualify for a supplement of some kind. It's not a terrible site, but you'll have to do everything yourself. You are better off contacting a local insurance broker (I found mine on NextDoor). It may end being a very simple decision because in many markets there is only one company that sells to non-group members. So I can buy a gold, silver or bronze plan, but only from Community Health Choice (Houston suburb). My plan offers a 10% discount for completing an annual survey. I'd had the same plan the year before but never knew about that discount until the agent told me -so ask about that. Try not to panic when you read the crazy deductibles. I think mine is $5000 (whereas ten years ago, it was probably $500), but so much preventative care is now covered pre-deductible, thanks to Obama care, that I think I'm spending less out-of-pocket than I did before. But I'm a pretty healthy person who doesn't use a lot of medical services except preventative, so your mileage may vary... When I first began to buy my own insurance plans (after DH's retirement), I made the mistake of picking the plan first, rather than the doctor. The last few years (when I had a choice of at least 2 companies to choose from), I compiled a list of at least a dozen primary physicians I could abide, and then called their offices to see if they were accepting new patients, when I would be able to get an appointment, and whether they had any plans to cancel coverage with insurance company X the next year, etc. I had learned the hard way (in January), that I may have had a great plan, but I couldn't find a dr. on that plan who would see me as a new patient before August. I kid you not.....So that year, I was paying $1200/month and actually didn't have a dr. I could see until August.....

We use American National for everything - home, auto and umbrella. (Our umbrella policy is under $300/year, iirc -- and there's no $500K deductible, though we do have to keep the limits on our auto and home higher than the minimum since those pay first-- I suspect that is what the scenario above is saying -- the $500K "deductible" on the umbrella is actually the $500K that the auto policy pays, then the umbrella kicks in for anything over that. So the mimimum auto liability has to be $500K even though the state only requires $100K) At any rate, I've not had to file a claim but when I was rear-ended, they were helpful in dealing with the other guy's insurance. However, like someone above said, I really do think you need to switch often to get the best rates -- they have steadily jacked my rates every year in spite of not having any claims. I shop once in a while but they make it hard to compare because they give you a cash-back rebate of 20% of your premium every year after you've been claim-free for 3 years. After the cash back is taken into account, they are always the cheapest....but if we ever file a claim, we lose the cash back for 3 years. It's actually genius on their part because it discourages us from filing little claims -- we get anywhere from $700-800 back every year so losing 3 years of that would cost us around $2400 in lost cash back -- ergo we wouldn't file a claim for anything under that. That said, we are going to be adding a new teen driver to our policy soon so I fear our claim-free streak may come to an end. Anyone have any good experiences with insurance companies that don't eat you alive when you add a teenage driver????