Insurance Question?????????

[5B Steve]

    I'm looking to change my Insurance (Allstate) for the bus.  Question is, Who do you have, and what do you

    pay?


   Steve 5B.....

[Highway Yacht]

Cost depends a lot on the dollar amount of coverage and deductables you decide to buy. I have mine through Progressive. At the moment, I'm paying $114.00 per year for $300,000 each accident liability insurance on my MC-9 with a $300 deductable. The only reason I don't carry anymore than that is the bus is in the early stages of the conversion and is rarely driven anywhere. Once the conversion is usuable, I will upgrade to full coverage so the rates will definately increase. If I was using the bus much at all, I would definately increase the amount of coverage per accident. All it takes is for you to hit just one sue happy person and 300K is nothing..

Jimmy

[PP]

Steve, you might want to check the archives, this was just discussed last week. A lot will also depnd on your age (AARP) and whether you're fulltiming or not. Will

[NJT5047]

Don't cancel anything until you have an "in-writing" binder with another company.   I pay $800 a year for North Carolina liability and $50K worth of comprehensive on an '87 MC9.   The comp is probably a joke.   
Insurance underwriting is different from state to state.   I couldn't get State Farm to write C&C, but they happily wrote liability.   I know a good many folk in other states that have State Farm comp on a bus.  I drove the bus a couple of seasons without collision/comp.   At least I can walk off from the salvage if an accident of major consequence occurs.  Once....?! 
I'm with Farm Bureau.   Farm Bureau also wrote insurance for our horses and rental property.  That was nice.  One-stop shopping!
Prior to shopping my bus, I had insurance policies from various companies.  Farm Bureau writes all of my insurance.   The bus is too high, but the whole program is definitely reasonable.   
BTW, C&C has steadily gone up following years of hurricanes, floods, and hail damage.  I was paying less than half that anually 9 years ago.  The price has been flat for a couple of years, but the premiums the bus C&C increased rapidly around '05-'08.
Only the bus escalated.  Cars and inland hasn't changed much in 10 years.   So I'm not complaining...not really...
A word of advice...don't volunteer that your bus isn't a "professionally converted" coach.  And, if you wish to insure for collision/comp, get a survey or appraisal from a professional.   Getting an appraisal is easy...do it mostly online.   
Also keep in mind that no matter how much an insurance company underwrites, the coach has a finite value and they won't pay much more than a reasonable market will support.   Paying the premium for a $100K insurance policy on a $20K bus will get you about $20K if totalled.  A $20K coach could be totalled with as little as $10K in estimated repair (due to insurable events) costs....that would be the low side, but anything over 75% will total almost any vehicle.   Figure buying about 120% of what the coach is worth...in real world numbers.   
Good luck, JR

[technomadia]

A word of advice...don't volunteer that your bus isn't a "professionally converted" coach.  And, if you wish to insure for collision/comp, get a survey or appraisal from a professional.   

While not volunteering this information may be easier when getting the policy, it can cause problems if a claim is needed down the road and render your policy void.  While it definitely caused us extra work to secure a policy, I'm glad we stuck it out and have insurance with all cards on the table upfront.

Our agent originally placed us with Progressive as they were the only company taking full-time RVers and offering anything resembling full coverage on a non-pro conversion. 

She has since gotten us into GMAC with full full-timers coverage.  Our rate is just under $700/yr, and we're rated out of South Dakota. It covers liability, C&C, personal 'homeowners-type' liability, towing and personal contents.   At first they would not take a 'non-professionally converted bus', but upon seeing our video tour of the bus on YouTube, our agent convinced them to take us - and agreed that our conversion was of high enough quality.  They did not require an appraisal, but did advise us to keep all receipts, take photos, video, etc.  for improvements/additions we make to back up the value in event of a claim.

You can read the full thread about our insurance search here:
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=20571.msg226888#msg226888

Best wishes,
- Cherie