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Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

wsj.com

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Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#141

Post by ska »

throwaway74432 wrote: post #19

Related, my vehicle insurer keeps jacking up the rates. I've never been in an accident or had a ticket, and I drive 2000 miles per year. But every year up up up. Then they offer I install a tracking device on my car to get my rates back down to a reasonable amount. There seems to be a pattern of insurers wanting to know everything about everyone, and using irrationally higher rates to coerce consent. And I have to pa…

repair cost goes up, up, up on average -> insurance goes up, up, up.

That may only be part of it, but it's definitely part of it.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#142

Post by CubsFan1060 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #61
dylan604 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rules are rules. you complaining about this is like football fans complaining about the tight offside calls.

Imagine if I put cameras all over a city that charged you $10 every time you exceeded the speed limit by 1 MPH. With an additional $10 fee for each additional MPH measure over the limit. Also, this is per camera, so if you pass 6 cameras on your commute going 70 in a 65, you’re getting a $300 penalty. Rules are rules.

I'm not sure how exactly you're drawing that parallel, but, IMHO, that would be just fine. I suspect people would speed a lot less.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#143

Post by gumby »

trogdor wrote: post #138
brogrammernot wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright, I spent years working and building 0-1 insurance products. Let me peel back some stuff that’s been happening behind the scenes. Some officials are elected and some are appointed which all depends on the state. Appointed officials are usually more reasonable and elected are not because higher rates = mad voters = re-election chances lower. For a long time, insurers have struggled to get sufficient rate change…

Why are insurance rates regulated by the government? I understand that the state has a strong interest in ensuring that insurance companies are adequately capitalized, but I don’t understand the state interest in directly regulating premium prices. (Or is that not what you are referring to?)

For the same reason credit card interest rates are regulated: there's an asymmetry in bargaining power.

Car prices are not regulated because there are plenty of options for the consumer.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#144

Post by nneonneo »

jeffbee wrote: post #123
VHRanger wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the problem people have with this is the type of air vehicle used to take the picture

Surprisingly, it seems to me that you are wrong. People will absolutely lose their minds whenever they hear about an unmanned aircraft, but never talk about manned aircraft. There have been tons of news articles about "police drones" an other kinds of scaremongering, that never seem to note that the cops using an airplane to follow you in the dark has been a thing for decades. The only new thing is the pilot does not…

I would definitely mind if the police were following me personally in an airplane…

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#145

Post by rchaud »

throwaway74432 wrote: post #19

Related, my vehicle insurer keeps jacking up the rates. I've never been in an accident or had a ticket, and I drive 2000 miles per year. But every year up up up. Then they offer I install a tracking device on my car to get my rates back down to a reasonable amount. There seems to be a pattern of insurers wanting to know everything about everyone, and using irrationally higher rates to coerce consent. And I have to pa…

> There seems to be a pattern of insurers wanting to know everything about everyone

I see an exciting new revenue stream in their future.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#146

Post by tptacek »

myself248 wrote: post #114
brogrammernot wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright, I spent years working and building 0-1 insurance products. Let me peel back some stuff that’s been happening behind the scenes. Some officials are elected and some are appointed which all depends on the state. Appointed officials are usually more reasonable and elected are not because higher rates = mad voters = re-election chances lower. For a long time, insurers have struggled to get sufficient rate change…

I thought risk pooling was the point?

You want to risk pool a specific cohort of people. You want the pool to be as large as possible without masking clear adverse indicators. For instance, from an example downthread: you probably don't want to pool people with trampolines in with everybody else. Most people don't have trampolines. To an insurer, the sole function of a trampoline is to generate lawsuits. If you pool trampoliners together with everybody else, you necessarily raise everybody's rates to subsidize trampoline lawsuits. Better to factor the trampolines out and price them directly.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#147

Post by Ekaros »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #61
dylan604 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rules are rules. you complaining about this is like football fans complaining about the tight offside calls.

Imagine if I put cameras all over a city that charged you $10 every time you exceeded the speed limit by 1 MPH. With an additional $10 fee for each additional MPH measure over the limit. Also, this is per camera, so if you pass 6 cameras on your commute going 70 in a 65, you’re getting a $300 penalty. Rules are rules.

Hmm, works like this in many places. That is 6 different infractions. Probably also means suspended license.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#148

Post by AnthonyMouse »

myself248 wrote: post #114
brogrammernot wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright, I spent years working and building 0-1 insurance products. Let me peel back some stuff that’s been happening behind the scenes. Some officials are elected and some are appointed which all depends on the state. Appointed officials are usually more reasonable and elected are not because higher rates = mad voters = re-election chances lower. For a long time, insurers have struggled to get sufficient rate change…

I thought risk pooling was the point?

> I thought risk pooling was the point?

The point is pooling unpredictable risk. You don't know ahead of time if your house is going to flood. You do know ahead of time if your house is on a flood plane. Therefore, people with houses on a flood plane pay more for flood insurance.

The alternative is that low risk customers can't get insurance because they'd have to pay the same as high risk customers and that isn't worth it. Additionally, then people build tons of houses in extremely high risk areas because they can buy insurance for the same price as someone not doing something stupid, which is a moral hazard. Existing regulations have already caused this to happen in many cases.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#149

Post by op00to »

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #77
op00to wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Growing up I saw my friend’s foot pointed the wrong direction after a “double bounce” caught his foot in the gap between the trampoline surface and the supports. We were careful kids.

Idk how any of us survived the 90s with trampolines in constant use! We would jump off them into pools, jump onto them from the roof, double bounce each other half a dozen feet in the air. I even mastered the “art” of jumping off of it and landing on the ground (from 6 feet up), rolling and popping back up.

A few of us didn’t, I guess. I don’t think they’re dangerous to ban, but I would never own one for my kids. Sorry, kids!

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#150

Post by burntwater »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #116
throwaway74432 wrote: post #19

Related, my vehicle insurer keeps jacking up the rates. I've never been in an accident or had a ticket, and I drive 2000 miles per year. But every year up up up. Then they offer I install a tracking device on my car to get my rates back down to a reasonable amount. There seems to be a pattern of insurers wanting to know everything about everyone, and using irrationally higher rates to coerce consent. And I have to pa…

You’re free to change insurance companies, aren’t you?

They're ALL raising rates. You might be able to change to a cheaper one this year, but next year your cheaper company will have implemented a 20%+ increase.
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