Here's What's Hot On CBS11TV.COM:
May 8, 2008 10:00 pm US/Central
Ratings Number Could Affect House Insurance Rate
McKINNEY (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
There's a little known number that can have a big effect on how much you pay each year for homeowners insurance. How big? How about hundreds of dollars a year!
There are many things that go into setting your homeowners insurance rates. Things like crime, weather, and location are just a few. But there's another factor you might not know about... one that can either save you money or cost you more.
Kelly Schneider and her family moved into their McKinney home six years ago. She says she loves McKinney because, despite the enormous growth of the city over the last few years, it still maintains its small town feel.
She also says the price was right when it came to their home, and their homeowner's insurance rates. "I pay $1,251 a year," she says.
But like most homeowners, Schneider didn't know about one factor that could potentially affect her rate. It's called the I.S.O. rating. It's a grade given by a private organization called the Insurance Services Office, and it's given to every fire department in the country.
"If an average homeowner's insurance cost were $1,000, we might see from $50 to $100 difference in the rating cost, just on that one factor," said Allstate Insurance Agent Jeff Hiemenz.
Here's how the ISO rating works. Fire departments are graded on things like their equipment, when their trucks were upgraded, how fast they respond to calls, and the number of fire stations in the city among others.
Each department is given a rating number between one and 10 with one being the best. Departments that don't get a perfect rating can request a survey later after they've made upgrades. The City of Arlington is a prime example. Their department was upgraded from an ISO rating of three to a rating of two.
Alan Kassen, an assistant chief for the Arlington Fire Department, says their last grading was in 1989 and it took almost 20 years to be ready for an upgrade survey. They built new fire stations, hired personnel, and purchased new equipment and fire trucks.
"It was a huge undertaking," says Kassen. "It was something that we had to determine that we were gonna take small bites out of."
Kassen says the entire department was excited about the upgrade. According to Heimenz, as soon as the department's rating was upgraded, insurance rates began to drop. "Just because of that one difference I'm seeing the property insurance rates go down five to 10 percent."
McKinney Fire Chief Mark Wallace says he hopes to see the same payoff for his department and citizens like Kelly Schnieder. "We're hoping to come from our class-four to a class-two at our next grading," says Chief Wallace.
His department was last graded in 1992, and since then he says the entire department has changed dramatically. They, too, have added new fire stations.
But because of McKinney's explosive growth, the city is having trouble keeping up with building new stations. In fact, the city will have to wait for two more to be built before they can request an upgrade survey. "We have a lot of work to do, and there's a lot of us doing it," Wallace says.
Despite their harried pace to keep up with city growth Chief Wallace says that doesn't mean the quality of their service is suffering. "We're providing high level service with very competent people that care about their community."
Kelly Schnieder says that's enough for her. "I have full and complete confidence in the City of McKinney that they should be doing everything they can do to improve that rating."
There are only 60 departments in the country with an ISO rating of one, which is the best. Four of those are in our area. Those are Plano, Frisco, Mesquite, and Wylie.
And not all insurance companies use the ISO rating when setting their insurance rates. State Farm, for instance, uses their own "sub-zone rating factor." They say it relies on actual results of firefighting, rather than a department's potential to fight fires. A spokeswoman for the company says as fire protection improves in a community, then that will be reflected in the portion of the insurance rate that deals with fire.
Contact your individual insurance agent to learn more about how the ISO rating is affecting your rates.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Shocking Celebrity Suicides
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments