Want good, honest service before and after you buy? Do your business locally -- here's why!

 

By Henri D. Kahn

 

A prospect came to my office a few years ago, looked me straight in the eye, and menacingly said:

“I'm going to do business with you because you explained the policy benefits to where I can understand them, the price is right, you have a good reputation, and besides, I have a brick in the trunk of my car that I will throw through this nice picture window in your office if you ever do me wrong!”

My nice picture window is still intact, and although the prospect -- now a customer -- is something of a curmudgeon, he is satisfied, because I am available to provide the service he desires year round, face to face.

Life insurance quoting services advertise “super preferred” term life insurance rates via TV and radio to hook you and then, in disclaimers spoken in a hush at the speed of light, provide some of the ifs and wherefores, that you can hear but can't understand, to qualify for these bargain basement, incredibly low premiums.

The very best term life insurance rates have some very stringent underwriting requirements you must meet in order to qualify. No parent or sibling with heart disease, cancer, or diabetes prior to age 60. Yep, no parent or sibling! A cholesterol level of 200 or less and HDL ratio of 5.0 or less, without treatment. No DUIs in the last 10 years. Blood pressure age 20-55: 130/80 or less, age 56-plus: 140/85 or less, without treatment, etc. etc. Requirement after requirement. They use the old bait and switch method of attracting business.

A good local agent will ask you some preliminary questions before providing you with a realistic quote, rather than getting your hopes up then dropping you like a hot potato.

How about buying insurance on the web?

Even if you the time and patience to search for online quotes, you may find, just as a recent survey by highly respected insurance trade magazine The National Underwriter discovered, that the lowest and highest auto insurance quotes varied, on an annualized basis, by as much as $846.

Makes you wonder: if is it the same coverage, what is different, where is the catch?

Some of you are under the impression that if you buy directly from an insurance company rather than a local insurance agent, you will automatically save money. Wrong, if you deal with a reputable, experienced, successful insurance agency.

Here is the kicker: when you have a problem of communication at claim time -- if for no other reason -- the best person to have on your side is a reputable local agent who doesn't want to have that nice picture window damaged.

Being on the US/Mexico border, we have both an obvious and a not so obvious auto insurance situation.

The obvious is that we need “ Mexico coverage” to provide insurance coverage across the border within the Mexican government's border mileage limit. Auto insurance coverage beyond that limit requires a Mexico auto insurance travel policy issued by a Mexican insurance company.

The not so obvious is “under what conditions will we have problems getting a claim paid for an auto endorsement in Nuevo Laredo even if we have the Mexico coverage endorsement in our auto policy.”

Well, if you have traveled to Nuevo Laredo often and you have an accident there, the insurance company just might give you a problem about paying your claim. The question is: how many crossing per week or per month qualify as often. This is a gray area, people, definitely gray.

Further, if the insurance company determines, based on verifiable proof, that your auto is principally garaged in Nuevo Laredo (spends night after night there), the company probably won't pay your claim for theft, vandalism, etc.

Did you know that, bucky? Your local agent should and probably does if he/she is reputable, experienced, and honest.

A local agent worth his/her salt doesn't take your auto insurance protection lightly with cute little ads that claim saving you $200 on your auto insurance is more important than virtually anything else in life.

The worst part is they imply that virtually every vehicle owner in the USA can get a $200 better deal on their auto insurance.

We all know that's hogwash, don't we?

Everywhere you go, all you hear is, “Service, all I want is service, what has happened to service?”

You can bet your bottom dollar that you will get a far better bang for your buck considering the combination of premium, the right coverage, and service locally, rather than from an actor or voice somewhere in the universe.

And -- Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, whoever: you should go see Fahrenheit 9/11 at your local theater.

Regardless of whether or nor you approve of Michael Moore, you owe it to yourself to witness a real classic film of the events, from his perspective, that are occurring in this country and the hideous reality, the blood and guts, of the war this administration is waging in Iraq.

This film will really make you mad one way or the other!

 

(Contact Henri D. Kahn with your insurance questions at (956) 725-3936, by fax at (956) 791-0627, or by e-mail at hkahn@kahnins.com.)