Hi all, (Reposting because I didn't know how to format) TL;DR: Insurance denying approximately 40K worth of costs (approved line items, just more expensive in the region than their estimate), went to appraisal with adjusters, umpire selected, month later learn that insurance company is now represented by lawyers. We experienced a water damage claim impacting a 3-story townhouse, all continuous wood flooring, walls, and kitchen cabinets, counter, backsplash, with Traveler's in Dec 2023. We are located in King County, Washington; the house is built into a slope not directly accessible to the street and is stand-alone (no shared walls) on a plot with 3 other homes. My initial quotes from contractors up to 100K. I went with a contractor who quoted around 80K, good guy. Escalated through several Traveler's adjusters in Winter 2024 until an adjuster came in person in late Winter and agreed with our contractor and the work moved forward. The insurance company adjuster recognized that the costs were going to be pretty high and was working well with our contractor, it seemed. I handled cabinets, backsplash, and counters directly with a subcontractor and my contractor handled drywall, paint, flooring, pack-out and move in, and more. I got approval from insurance adjuster along the way and ended up getting approval for all of the kitchen work, fully covered, around 33K. Due to delays from Travelers and subcontractors, with materials being hard to come by, our kitchen floor was unfinished with nails sticking out until May 2024. We wanted to keep things moving and settled on cheaper flooring than an exact match that was available sooner than the Fall, so we moved out in May (I had gotten approval for housing costs in early May from insurance for several weeks). Then, for whatever reason, their adjuster stopped responding to my contractor for a few weeks in, approximately, late-May and June. The flooring and painting work was finally done and the cabinetry, counters, etc. mostly got done in mid-late July. The work was mostly completed by August except for a few small things. The final costs of the new installation of cabinets, counters, backsplash in the kitchen, which I had handled and which had been covered, was approximately 33K which has all been paid out and completed. Mitigation was done for 6.6K with a separate company. The remainder of the tear down, pack out, dry wall, painting, flooring, cleaning, plumbing, electrical, etc., onwards from my contractor ended up being 105K. With the previous adjuster, the claim was sitting around 70k estimate from the insurance side with an expectation that it would go up conveyed verbally with their adjuster several times. In this period, since the insurance adjuster had stopped responding, my contractor had reached out directly to Traveler's. At some point a new adjuster was assigned and then, in June/July, the case was passed through, I believe, 3 more adjusters. The final adjuster basically went through and wrapped up the claim, including recoverable depreciation, but didn't really acknowledge the actual costs of the materials, labor, compared to their estimate and essentially closed the claim at approximately 95K total, which included mitigation, kitchen, and the contractor's work. That left a gap of approximately 40K still due to my contractor. After a month or so of back and forth, we agreed with the final insurance adjuster, to go to appraisal in November. We selected an adjuster. It seems that nothing was happening for several weeks and then eventually Travelers selected their adjuster and he actually came to inspect the house in December. Then per our adjuster, unable to be reached/unresponsive for several weeks. Once they did get into contact and went back and forth in late February, they finally agreed on an umpire. Then, out of nowhere, in mid-March, the third party adjuster representing Travelers informed our adjuster that Traveler's had assigned or hired lawyers to handle this claim and they were no longer continuing the appraisal as previously agreed upon. Here is the policy language regarding appraisal: ...7. Appraisal. If you and we fail to agree on the amount of loss, either party may demand an appraisal of the loss. In this event, each party will choose a competent and impartial appraiser within 20 days after receiving a written request from the other. The two appraisers will choose an umpire. If they cannot agree upon an umpire within 15 days, you or we may request that the choice be made by a judge of a court of record in the state where the “residence premises” is located. The appraisers will separately set the amount of loss. If the appraisers submit a report of an agreement to us, the amount agreed upon will be the amount of loss. If they fail to agree, they will submit their differences to the umpire. A decision agreed to by any two will set the amount of loss. Each party will: a. Pay its own appraiser; and b. Bear the other expenses of the appraisal and umpire equally. My question is - why did Travelers go with attorneys after there was an umpire selected? - Could it be something as simple as the timeline being so protracted? We have emails showing the umpire was agreed upon a month ago. - I am concerned that, as I see in this community, our adjuster was filling the costs to try to get a better negotiating position... Not sure if that would play into this...? - The work was expensive and challenging to complete but there are no line items that were not previously approved - they just cost more than what the insurance company estimated. I have not heard anything directly from Travelers. My contractor has been wrecked in this process, it's been tough for me as well. The idea that we need to face an attorney is rough. Appreciate anyone's insights or guidance! TL;DR: Insurance denying approximately 40K worth of costs (approved line items, just more expensive in the region than their estimate), went to appraisal with adjusters, umpire selected, month later learn that insurance company is now represented by lawyers.

So I got hired onto State Farm in the Aspirant Program since I already have experience selling life insurance. It all sounded great when they were hiring me. But….. I am a week into this and I am getting zero direction and am told to just look into the book and see if there is any way to resell life insurance to any clients already with life insurance. Does anyone have any experience in this program. Because as of now I am a little confused on what this program actually is. It seems more like I got hired to be a sales guy for the agent instead of actually striving to be an agent.

I’m going to lose my mind. I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack. I have Aetna, yet I still owe $6000 on an er visit after I had complications with my gallbladder surgery. I haven’t even gotten the bill for my surgery yet. I literally cannot afford this. Insurance is through my work and I didn’t have a choice. My deductible is 6000 and yeah I’ve MET that now, but I still can’t afford $6000!!! Why is health insurance in the us so bad. I’m literally going to cry Is there ANYTHING I can do to lower my bill? I called the hospital and they couldn’t do anything to help

Hi guys ! I'm considering switching pet insurance plans for my 6 year old mini Aussie. I currently have MetLife Pet Illness and Injury, but with one minor shoulder injury - maxed out my benefits after one visit. As my baby gets older - I want to make sure I have the best coverage for him - especially with ortho treatments ( ie. PRP injections) Any Recommendations would be very appreciated !

What am I missing here? It looks like Anthem BCBS is acknowledging my provider is in-network and then processing it as out-of-network. * Provider has been processed as in-network for visits both before and after the visit in question, always with a $30 copay and no balance. This was another routine, non-emergency visit with the exact same provider. * EOB clearly says in big bold print that "Going to this doctor uses in-network benefits" and elsewhere has the words "(in your plan)" after the provider's name. * EOB shows no copay, a portion applied to my deductible, and a balance in the "Your total cost" column. * EOB gives a reason code: "015: The amount shown here is more than your plan allows for this care. If this was not an emergency, the doctor/facility might bill you for the difference between what your plan allowed and what the doctor/facility charged." How is this possible for an in-network provider? It seems this EOB is just contradictory on its face. I've been trying to get them to fix it, but haven't had any success yet. Any advice?

I received an email recently that I would not be able to renew my 4-year-old cat's pet insurance through ManyPets due to the company no longer providing policies in the US market. They said I would be hearing from another company, Odie, about a new policy. I looked up Odie and it seems to have very low scores on Trustpilot. Has anyone else lost their ManyPets coverage? If so, who did you go with to replace it?

Question about marketplace insurance vs. private. My husband and I are partners in our own business so we got on a family marketplace plan this year after much due diligence on my part to ensure our providers were in network. We found out the hard way that just because some hospitals in a health network are covered, doesn't mean all are covered. This was upsetting to us because having both worked for the large health networks around us, we know where you go for procedures matters. I did a search of all marketplace plans for the 2 hospitals we prefer and NONE are in network. I got an email recently from an insurance broker who quoted me a price for Anthem BCBS that is a few hundred dollars cheaper a month than our marketplace plan including subsidies. There is a small deductible that I don't have with the marketplace plan and some limits on how often we can utilize a service but this would be OK with me if we could go to the hospitals we prefer. I'm also worried the healthcare subsidies will go away next year so finding a cheaper plan puts me a bit at ease. Is there anything I need to be super aware of with private plans? I'm curious how a private plan could be cheaper than a marketplace plan which is what is making me wonder if it's too good to be true. Thanks for any insight you can give!

Hi all, Looking for some advice on this situation: I had a motorcycle insurance policy with Hastings Direct while riding on a CBT (A1/A2 licence). A few days ago, I passed my full A licence and phoned them to update my details. They then told me that, due to their underwriting criteria, they can no longer insure me with a full licence — and that the policy would be cancelled from the 18th of July 2025. Shortly after the call, I received an official email confirming the cancellation. It states: “We’re writing to let you know that your bike insurance policy has been cancelled… This is because of the new information provided. Based on these details, it means we can no longer cover you.” However, during the phone call, I specifically asked if I’d need to declare this cancellation to other insurers. The rep told me no, I wouldn’t have to, because it wasn’t cancelled due to anything I did wrong (no missed payments, no claims, no dishonesty). They said it was purely down to a change in licence type and eligibility. I’ve emailed them asking for that in writing to cover myself — but in the meantime: ⸻ My questions are: 1. Do I actually need to declare this as a cancellation when applying for future bike insurance? 2. If I don’t declare it (based on what Hastings told me), can another insurer later void my policy if they find out? 3. Has anyone else experienced something similar? ⸻ I’m trying to avoid getting hit with sky-high premiums over something that wasn’t my fault. Any advice from people in the industry or who’ve been through similar would be much appreciated! I’ll be pretty shocked if I find out I need to declare this going forward as the policy cancellation outcome has been completely out of my control. Simply phoned to let them know I have now passed my MOD2, I wasn’t looking to change my bike or anything else whatsoever and wanted to continue my policy for the time being with my 2011 Honda CBR. Also worth mentioning — Hastings waived any cancellation fees, and I’m getting a refund for the unused portion of the policy. That seems to suggest they don’t consider it a “bad cancellation,” but I want to make sure I’m not risking non-disclosure by trusting what they said on the phone. Thanks in advance.

Not sure this belongs here because it's not car/home etc. but I had a weird experience with travel insurance on my credit card. My wife and I were headed for a wedding then she got covid a few days ahead, so I put in a claim for the nonrefundable hotel. When nothing happened with the claim over a couple weeks I called their customer service number and was told that the claim required a signed doctor's note saying that we were unable to travel. We \*weren't\* unable to travel so I just gave up. Now, sometime later, I get a notice that they're paying the claim. The only explanation I can think of, since what they said on the phone seems to match the published benefits, is that the claim was so small that they decided to pay anyway, perhaps to help metrics of some sort. Is this a thing? I really don't see in retrospect why they would pay if they didn't absolutely have to, although I will admit that my feelings about the credit card (on which we spend a lot of money) were souring. Perhaps it was just a courtesy? Anyone know how this works in practice? I'm trying to figure out to what extent I should really trust this credit card.