Insurance Up 27%. WTF?

Well, this is seeming like Insurance Week on my blog. This is now my 3rd post in 3 days about insurance. Surprisingly, though, these posts are about 3 separate things. It's just a coincidence they're all coming together in one week.

The issue today is our insurance company has hit us with a 27% increase in the premium for our condo owners' policy. This is a policy that covers our possessions but not the building itself. The building is insured separately, including for earthquake. This is the policy that just paid us on that claim for theft. The 27% increase, though, is not due to that claim. This is not one of those, "When you make a claim against insurance your rates skyrocket," cases. The rate increase actually hit a week or two before the theft.

Hawk called our agent this week to ask about the 27% increase. Inflaaation was basically what the office said. Bullshit. Inflation is a big story right no, but it's 7-8%. This is 27%.

Well, what can we do? Ordinarily with this kind of price increase coupled with haughty salesmanship I'd tell the vendor to go fuck themselves and cancel the service. But I can't. Buying this insurance is mandatory. Possibly that's a big part of why they believe they can shove a 27% price increase down our throats and treat us like fools for objecting.

While we may not have a choice in the immediate term except to pay— the renewal is due tomorrow— we'll start comparison shopping. Possibly one of their chief competitors can offer us a lower price. And BTW, if the insurance company loses our stuff-inside-the-house policy, they lose all our business. We'll move our auto insurance, too, which is more than 3x the business.

Where's the Warm Weather?

The weather's been weird so far this year. It barely rained during the heart of our winter rainy season in January and February, putting us in a 1,200 year drought. There were 80+° days in February. By the third day of Spring it felt like Summer and I was running the air conditioner at home. Now in April the worm has turned. Normally we'd enjoy high temperatures in the 70s most days but instead it's only escaped the 60s a few days.

The cooler weather here at home was gratifying when we were in Hawaii earlier this month. Enjoying a string of days with highs around 82° (28° C) was even more enjoyable knowing back home it was 63 and drizzly. I mean, that's not the best "Screw Winter!" difference imaginable, but it's good for here, especially in April. During our first trip to Hawaii, ~12 years ago, we were having a heat wave here in the Bay Area in February... hmm, kinda like this year... and Hawaii was kind of cool, so the weather felt the same on our trip as home. Even that could've been worse.... Fellow guests at the hotel we chatted with from Southern California said it was 10° warmer there that week than in Hawaii. Their tropical winter getaway took them to a place that was colder.