Finally done with Allstate

We are finally done with Allstate. It's been a complete nightmare.

At the end of July, I was finally called by an Allstate support representative in response to my complaint to the Utah Insurance Department. They had decided that they could reinstate my policy and generously allowed us to have it at the same rate we had previously, $740.24/6 months.

August 5, 2011
"...before I can begin I will need asigned request indicating the would like the policy reinstated, the date that coverageneeds to be extended to/the new terminated date, and that you are responsible forany back-owed premium.


Additionally, per our conversation on July 26, 2011, we will not know the exact amount due for extending the coverageuntil everything has finished processing.  However, we are honoring your policypremium of $740.24.  Depending on the number of days coverage is extended,the premium due will be approximately $200.00."


I don't like the word approximately in there. At this point, I don't have an ounce of trust in Allstate. How can it be so hard to come up with the real number? I did some math...

Our policy, per day, would be:

$740.24 for a six month policy
$740.24 * 2 = $1480.48 for a cost of a year of coverage at this rate
$1480.48 / 365 = $4.056 per day of coverage for the policy
$4.056 * 42 = $170.352 for 42 days of lapsed coverage.

By my calculations, the coverage should cost around $170.35. Their $200 estimate seemed quite high, so when I signed my document telling them to reinstate my coverage, I put a ceiling of $172 in there for how much they could charge me. That allowed some leeway to make things easier.

My letter was rejected.
August 11, 2011
"I am in receipt of your email as well asthe signed request.  Per our discussions that took place on July 26, 2011,I am unable to provide you with the exact amount that will be due until theendorsements have been processed.  Once your request to extend thecoverage has been completed, I will be able to advise you of the exact amount due.  As such, I am unable to accept the signed request included in yourmost recent communication."


I responded with my calculations and said that I was not willing to sign a paper without the ceiling in it or without the actual amount of the coverage. At this point, I also emailed the Utah Insurance Department with my concern of Allstate refusing to give me an actual price.

August 17, 2011
"Thank you for your email.  Previously,we provided you with a rough estimate for the additional coverage that you are requesting. At your request, I have contacted our accounting department and have beenprovided with an estimate of approximately $169.52 to extend coverage from May 26,2011 to July 7, 2011.  Again, this is just an estimate.  The actual cost of this coverage may be slightly more or less.  There are no fees toreinstate your policy, you will only be charged for the additional number ofdays of coverage provided.  Once we receive a signed request as previouslydiscussed and the changes have been completed, we will provide you with the exactamount due."


This number seems to be pretty close to what I had calculated previously, but they still will give the real amount until after the fact. I asked again to verify that they were refusing to give me the actual amount until after I had been charged.

August 18, 2011
"As we have discussed, I am only able to provide you with the estimated premium amount until the endorsements have beenprocessed.  Though the amount was estimated by accounting, it should veryclose to the actual dollar amount that will be due.  The offer to extendcoverage has been made as an accommodation, and unfortunately, I am unable todo anything further until I receive your signed request."


At this point, I realized that the letter I had signed previously fit nicely under the amount they were now saying is the new estimate and I reminded the agent of that.

After that, I didn't hear anything for several days.

On August 25th I got a letter in the mail saying my policy was reinstated. After sending an email to the support agent, policy documents were on the way showing I no longer had a lapse in coverage. I got that document last week and am now getting things cleared up with my new carrier, Progressive. I got a new policy for my homeowner's policy through progressive as well and have now terminated everything I had with Allstate. It feels good to be done with Allstate.