On 2/6/2019 12:55 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
"badgolferman" writes:
My *electric* company Dominion offers water line insurance for
$4.95/mo. which supposedly covers water line repairs from the main to
the house. My house was built in 1967. I plan on being there for
another 2-3 years so I subscribed for the insurance, not wanting any
more major expenses on this house before I sell it. My mother had to
have her water line repaired for a 1980 house the year before she sold
it and that cost her around $3500.

Tell me why this was a good idea or a bad idea...

Read the fine print first. Many of those "insurance" plans have so many
caveats and exclusions that you'll end up paying anyway in the end.

Note in this case, Dominion is farming it out to "HomeServe" (who
generally has an annual "limit" for claims). Homeserve is owned by the
billionaire brothers George and Michael Karfunkel.

Those companies tend to use deceptive practices (snail mail that "implies" it
is coming from your local water company, even though completely unaffiliated,
using local utilities logos on their website as if they had been endorsed by
the utilities, etc.).
If they use deception to _get_ your business, how can you trust them to actually
provide good service?

https://www.thespruce.com/water-pipe...erview-1822494

"The water line insurance company only offers limited coverage per
occurrence. HomeServe USA tailors its plans for each state. So, to
use the State of Washington as an example, the company says they
will cover up to $6,000 in claims per year. Instead of being generous,
this is anything but generous. This provision is only a big trap.
Reading on, you see that it is broken up into two occurrences, at
$3,000 each. What that means is that your broken water problem must
cost $3,000 or less to fix; the remaining coverage events are
inconsequential because they apply only to those particular occurrences
and cannot be lumped together."

I'd say it's not worth it.


Insurance is good because it spreads out the risk but all need to
understand that the insurance company does it to make a profit. This
might mean that you could get up to ninety five cents for every dollar
invested. If I can afford the repair, I don't need the insurance.