I live in Ft Bend county and I've used TGS to get homeowners insurance the last 2 years that was less expensive than I was able to find elsewhere. I got my renewal from my current company a couple of weeks ago and my annual premium increased from $2400 a year to $3900. Thinking a ~70% increase was a little bit excessive, I called TGS to see if they could get me a better deal. After 2 days the contacted me and told me that was the best deal they could find.

I went online and did some price checking, and found a polciy with Farmers for just over $2300. I also went to the TGS website and filled out their onlie form for a quote. The online quote was $2000 from TGS and they said they would call me.

The next day, when TGS called, they again quoted me the $3900 price saying that when they factored in my MVR and claim history (both clean) they could not find a lower price. Needless to say, i switched to Farmers.

My question is about TGS. I find it hard to believe that a company that had given me the best deal going 2 years in a row, and who supposedly shops 31 companies, could not do better than a 70% increase. Something about the whole thing seems off. Has something about this company changed? I'm good with my Farmers' policy price but does anyone have recs for how to avoid such huge increases moving forward?

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

Something seems fishy with the farmers frankly. Terms are close? Are you sure terms are close?

Are the deductible amounts the same? Same coverage amounts? Most of my family lives in greater Houston area (2 different counties) and we all had moderate- big increases this year when our policies renewed. My parents shopped and did cut their quoted rate from $5k to $3k (Allstate to LibertyMutual), but the rest of us didn't have that crazy price to begin with and couldn't really save unless we upped our deductibles. I got some quotes at last year's prices in the mail from 3-4 companies, but my deductible would have been a lot higher.

AW96 said:

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Are the deductible amounts the same? Same coverage amounts? Most of my family lives in greater Houston area (2 different counties) and we all had moderate- big increases this year when our policies renewed. My parents shopped and did cut their quoted rate from $5k to $3k (Allstate to LibertyMutual), but the rest of us didn't have that crazy price to begin with and couldn't really save unless we upped our deductibles. I got some quotes at last year's prices in the mail from 3-4 companies, but my deductible would have been a lot higher.

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Deductibles are the same except for 5% for "tropical cyclone".

That's a huge difference. They are basically taking out windstorm absent catastrophic damage.

bigjag19 said:

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That's a huge difference. They are basically taking out windstorm absent catastrophic damage.

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Wind deductible is 2%. I'm guessing that if the wind is somehow associated with a tropical cyclone the deductible will jump to the 5% stated?

Booma94 said:

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bigjag19 said:

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That's a huge difference. They are basically taking out windstorm absent catastrophic damage.

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Wind deductible is 2%. I'm guessing that if the wind is somehow associated with a tropical cyclone the deductible will jump to the 5% stated?

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That's my guess. But that's the exposure they don't want. 2% as it is takes out a huge chunk of a new roof.

Booma94 said:

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bigjag19 said:

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That's a huge difference. They are basically taking out windstorm absent catastrophic damage.

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Wind deductible is 2%. I'm guessing that if the wind is somehow associated with a tropical cyclone the deductible will jump to the 5% stated?

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If it's a named storm, your deductible would be 5% of the value of your home. That's at best as I don't know what they would do if it's just a tropical disturbance but not a named storm. Probably won't do much damage but you never know.

5% , that's really high and probably why your rate was quoted so much lower. I didn't even know they did deductibles that high. Many insurers are 2% for hail/ named storms and 1% for everything else. That's a huge difference and like others said would mean you most likely are buying your own roof if affected by next tropical storm. I know it seems unlikely, but you never know. Is your hail still 2%? That's one that has affected us a lot lately. After 15 years with nothing, we've been hit with moderate- significant hail several times in the last 6-7 years. We got a new roof the first time (worst of the 3 incidents) from insurance. (The last 2 times weren't bad enough to do real damage since the roof was rather new.) We also were affected by the freeze of 2021 so the last few years have seen quite a few claims for us after none for approximately 15 years before. I was glad for our lower deductibles.

Like someone else said, rates are just up everywhere. I'm glad you found a policy you are happier with and hope named storms stay away.

Yes, wind and hail are still 2%. With the exception of the tropical cyclone deductible, which is pretty significant, everything is the same between policies.

Just had the same exact experience as the OP. II have been with TGS for a couple years and my "best" option from them was $3900 but just signed on with Farmers for $3200 with all things being equal except I actually got more dwelling replacement from Farmers.

Also and a big FYI, if you use TGS they don't actually shop your home/rate unless you request that they do so when you come up for renewal. I called and they said they only shop if prompted by the owner and then they set up a call 3 days later with their results.

You may want to check and verify you have replacement cost coverage on the roof. I believe if the roof is older than 10 years Farmers changes the coverage to actual cash value.

you think high insurance is the govt's fault?

bularry said:

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you think high insurance is the govt's fault?

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I think (and I know) that it's related to inflation. And inflation is Government's fault.