Oregon Mortgages

Who Can You Trust?

It seems like every corporate enitity gets a little greedy… Who pays for it? The consumers do. You, Me, Our neighbors even the community that we live in. I’m not just referring to the current Mortgage Crisis going on. I’m talking about Enron, Tycoon, and even the insurance companies…

I was reading a news article this morning about home owners who, for lack of a better term, got shafted, by their insurance company. The article particularly states State Farm (Who I’ve always encourage clients to leave due to their prices) and AllState. We all know that natural disasters happen; a hurricanes, a tornado, a wildfire or an earthquake. Homes can be partially damaged or even completely destroyed. For example there were home owners in California who’s homes were destroyed by a wildfire and when they contacted their insurance companies most of them tried to settle for less than what their policy was for. Between 30-60% of the actually policy. That is just sad; their home was destroyed and they aren’t even getting enough money to rebuild a similar home.

PBS interviewed homeowners who said that their coverage had been switched by their company from “full replacement” to “extended replacement” coverage before the fire. Naturally they questioned their agents and were told that the extended replacement was much better for them but when it came time to pay up they were left in the dark.

Along with that, insurers reported $73 Billion in profits last year (49% higher than 2005) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Record PROFITS after one of the biggest natural disasters in history? That just strikes me as odd.