SkiSafe Insurance Members - Double Check Your Auto-Renewal

[Pra4sno]

I have always liked Ski Safe after switching over to them three years ago.  We had another uneventful year of boating with zero changes to our policy.

My new policy ID cards just showed up and I opened up my auto-renewal doc just to glance at it.  My premium this year was going to be increasing this year by over 45%.  I haven't received anything from Ski Safe indicating a policy change or increase, and my coverage and limits are identical.  This auto-renewal is the exact same format as it's always been, and on all previous years my premium was that of my original quote.  We haven't had a claim on any of our insurance policies (home/cars/etc) or negative impact to credit (ever) that would effect this.  I can only think that either its in error, or policy holders are being billed to cover ski-safe losses. 

I have an email in to them to explain the increase and see if I missed a separate notification when they sent it out.  

Felt like activity to highlight to other crew members in the event you're using them and have auto renewal and billing set up.  I have always seen Ski-Safe as a stand-up group of people and figure I missed a separate notification.  Either way, worth your while to double check.  

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Pra4sno

[Eagleboy99]

Yoiks!  Happens all the time. Gotta an eagle eye.  I've seen the same thing happen with auto-escalation of house value.

[jwl019]

I mentioned I had heard rates may he going up in this thread:

 

[Quasimoto]

 I’m a broker for a living and rates have been going bonkers for a while now. I’m not specifically familiar with Ski Safe, but can confirm that’s the last couple years have been rough on insurers.  Think CA wild fire, crazy polar vortex stuff, flooding in TX, other severe weather in the north central/east, etc.  2018 was the worst year of losses on record with 17 a not too distant second. I know it doesn’t make anyone feel better when looking at a a rate increase and it’s super frustrating when you as an individual haven’t done anything or had a loss but we all share in the losses as a group.

that said, 45% is rough and it may be time to shop.  

Edited September 9, 2019 by Quasimoto
Adding info

[Pnwrider]

Unfortunately, I’ve been waiting for this day to come. I’ve seen this happen with my other lines of insurance. Insurance company quotes way less than their popular competitors a few years later they start heavily increasing premiums to catch up to where their competition is. I was hoping ski safe would be different (USAA for those in the know), but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. 

Edited September 9, 2019 by Pnwrider

[Txstoj]

Sorry, you are helping pay for my boat that was destroyed in a fire and a bunch of flooded boats at lake LBJ in Texas, lol

[jwl019]

12 hours ago, Pnwrider said:

I was hoping ski safe would be different (USAA for those in the know), but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. 

I thought USAA insured boats thru Progressive?

[wdr]

6 minutes ago, jwl019 said:

I thought USAA insured boats thru Progressive?

Yep, stoopid expensive too and I am a life long member more or less

[Eagleboy99]

Related:  I've read a lot about the crazy increases in damages and consequent insurance claims due to "climate change".  But I recently read an article (can't recall where) about why:  it is all those bougies granite counter tops and SS appliaces, etc.

[Pra4sno]

2 hours ago, Txstoj said:

Sorry, you are helping pay for my boat that was destroyed in a fire and a bunch of flooded boats at lake LBJ in Texas, lol

I'd think that the premiums, if billed at an appropriate level condition to the replacement cost at market value of the boats insured in your area, would be enough to allow Ski Safe to cover losses without increasing premium's in regions not effected by hurricanes, flooding - and on boats of significantly lower value.  Ski Safe appears to have decided to shift their losses on those marketplaces across all customers nationally in order to keep their premiums lower in regions like yours.  

Their response to me was simply that "the have been forced to raise their rates due to the many losses from this type of boat."  

I'd also consider in this that the costs of the boats they are covering have likely gone up considerably as people shift from actual ski boats to surf boats.  My boats replacement cost is likely under $13k.  Your boat for example would be easily over $50k depending on hours and condition.   I've compared the insurance threads on here and our premiums are not far off, despite the replacement value differences. 

The only one who's fault that is, is Ski Safe's.  

Edited September 9, 2019 by Pra4sno

[oldjeep]

4 minutes ago, Pra4sno said:

I'd think that the premiums, if billed at an appropriate level condition to the replacement cost at market value of the boats insured in your area, would be enough to allow Ski Safe to cover losses without increasing premium's in regions not effected by hurricanes, flooding - and on boats of significantly lower value.  Ski Safe appears to have decided to shift their losses on those marketplaces across all customers nationally in order to keep their premiums lower in regions like yours.  

Their response to me was simply that "the have been forced to raise their rates due to the many losses from this type of boat."  

I'd also consider in this that the costs of the boats they are covering have likely gone up considerably as people shift from actual ski boats to surf boats.  My boats replacement cost is likely under $13k.  Your boat for example would be easily over $50k depending on hours and condition.   I've compared the insurance threads on here and our premiums are not far off, despite the replacement value differences. 

The only one who's fault that is, is Ski Safe's.  

I suspect that the loses they are referring to are liability loses, not boat value loses.  Not sure how it works when you auto renew, but it you got a full statement of insurance - what went up - the liability or the boat coverage?  Additionally if you carry the "I can't properly winterize my boat" coverage - did that go up significantly.

I will say that my auto premiums have been on the rise lately for no reason I can think of, hoping that the homeowners is not the same way when that comes up in a couple months.

 

[Pra4sno]

Just now, oldjeep said:

I suspect that the loses they are referring to are liability loses, not boat value loses.  Not sure how it works when you auto renew, but it you got a full statement of insurance - what went up - the liability or the boat coverage?  Additionally if you carry the "I can't properly winterize my boat" coverage - did that go up significantly.

I will say that my auto premiums have been on the rise lately for no reason I can think of, hoping that the homeowners is not the same way when that comes up in a couple months.

 

I don't have winterization coverage now that I winterize AND store the boat in my heated garage all winter.  Four month lay-up.  Haven't changed anything on the policy.

They do not provide a full statement of coverage, but I am calling them today to discuss it.  My assumption is that liability has gone up a lot - my boat's replacement value is at a very reasonable level.  

[Eagleboy99]

Our auto and home premiums are way up at the last renewal a couple months back.  And they are using postal codes for auto insurance now (hails more in one area than the other)

[oldjeep]

15 minutes ago, Pra4sno said:

I don't have winterization coverage now that I winterize AND store the boat in my heated garage all winter.  Four month lay-up.  Haven't changed anything on the policy.

They do not provide a full statement of coverage, but I am calling them today to discuss it.  My assumption is that liability has gone up a lot - my boat's replacement value is at a very reasonable level.  

I just ran through there online quote and it looks like mine will be going up quite a bit too.  Still not as much as I paid Statefarm a few years ago, but getting closer

[UWSkier]

mine went up quite a bit too.  Seems the premiums are mostly tied to liability, not the boat value as I'm paying the same as some folks with much newer and more expensive boats.  Though I don't lay up.

[wdr]

Checked SkiSafe today and no change as of yet... 6 mo winter layup, no freeze pro, vanishing deductible @ $1000 now and a replacement value of $169k for boat and trailer. I guess I will see come renewal time in March 2020.

[Pnwrider]

5 hours ago, jwl019 said:

I thought USAA insured boats thru Progressive?

They may, I was referring to their great customer service and lower prices on their home, auto, and umbrella policies. 

[jwl019]

4 minutes ago, Pnwrider said:

They may, I was referring to their great customer service and lower prices on their home, auto, and umbrella policies. 

Ah, yeah they used to have really good rates on those for me. I had to swap to another insurance company a few years ago since their rates kept raising every renewal and were no longer competitive with some other companies I got quotes from.

[jkloor]

I had been a SkiSafe customer for the past 10 years or so. Never a claim. My premium also went up about that same amount, ~ 45%. I went back to Boat US where I was years ago and cut the premium in half.

[Pra4sno]

On 9/14/2019 at 7:23 AM, jkloor said:

I had been a SkiSafe customer for the past 10 years or so. Never a claim. My premium also went up about that same amount, ~ 45%. I went back to Boat US where I was years ago and cut the premium in half.

Thanks for the tip.  I'm calling Ski Safe tomorrow, followed by a call to Boat US as well.

[UWSkier]

15 minutes ago, Pra4sno said:

Thanks for the tip.  I'm calling Ski Safe tomorrow, followed by a call to Boat US as well.

I didn't get any love calling Ski Safe.  In fact, they told me that my old boat is more expensive to insure than a newer one...  Haven't had a chance to shop around for replacement yet.

[asnowman]

I never found ski safe to be the cheapest for us. Boat us was about 600 less for the new one than ski safe quoted it. Interestingly, when i called geico directly, they told me to go through boat us for a lower rate. I think it was 780 for agrees value on the 2019, and increased some of the coverages over what we had on the vtx, total premium increase was a little over 400 bucks. 

[Pra4sno]

On 9/24/2019 at 6:30 PM, UWSkier said:

I didn't get any love calling Ski Safe.  In fact, they told me that my old boat is more expensive to insure than a newer one...  Haven't had a chance to shop around for replacement yet.

That's interesting.  Did you call them recently after seeing the premium increase?

Edited October 3, 2019 by Pra4sno

[Pra4sno]

I called Ski Safe and gave them an opportunity to go through discounts with me.  They reduced the 46% increase on my premium with those discounts to a 44% increase.  So...

My new insurance provider, Boat US ended up being 49% less than if I'd stayed with Ski Safe.  This is almost an identical quote to my premium when I signed up with Ski Safe a few years ago.  The kicker is that my coverage is significantly better with Boat U.S. including insuring the boat for actual market value.  The replacement coverage on the boat and trailer is now valued 25% greater than what I'd indicated to Ski Safe the boat was worth.  Additionally, boat u.s. uses a 20 year depreciation cap in their conditions, and so for those of us with old boats our actual value seems to be fixed.   

I'd encourage those with older boats or in regions like mine where we don't have hurricanes, tropical storms, storm surge, etc. to review their policy with Ski Safe and shop quotes.  Saved me quite a bit of money for 20 minutes of effort.

 

[Whitecap]

I’m shopping around now...... I’ll get back to you all with results.......  

thank you to all that have participated in this discussion.  It has really opened up my eyes to being more efficient in yet, another area of my life.

Thank you,

Whitecap