I’ve been a USAA member for 51 years. They bill for flood insurance from FEMA separately from homeowners insurance. They do it as a service to members. Although we are not in a 30 year flood zone- we are about ¼ mile from where one ends. We have always signed up for supplemental FEMA insurance “just because” it makes my wife sleep better at night. Not this year- the flood insurance supplemental rate has gone from $786 a year to $3623 a year. Crazy! Just for the flood coverage.
Flood Insurance
- Thread starter Nyati
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Doesn't have anything to do with USAA. NFIP is responsible for setting the flood rates. USAA is just passing it through to the customer.
NFIP is amazing in that it even works at all considering it insures extremely high risk areas.
Although, technically it doesn't really 'work' as an insurance company since I believe last I heard it pretty much continually operates at a loss.
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Yup. They used to have a rebate check of excess premiums every year. That stopped when they started sponsoring football games and bowl games. Used to never see a USAA commercial. Now that virtually anyone can be a member, their rates have gone up and quality of their services has decreased.
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Even still, what I said rings true with that info.
I am not in a flood zone either, but also close to one (cost of having no neighbours behind me). So I signed up for the FEMA coverage when we bought the place. 10 years ago was about $300. Its gone up annually and now is almost $800. Unlike homeowners the pay out amount has not increased - its capped at like $250K building, $100K contents - Max Fema will do I believe.
You can get private flood insurance, but you have to worry about them being bankrupt if there is a big event. I got a quote. Was about the same but covered full value.
Not sure what to do either, so I just paid
You can get private flood insurance, but you have to worry about them being bankrupt if there is a big event. I got a quote. Was about the same but covered full value.
Not sure what to do either, so I just paid
My neighbor got one of those loans you don't pay back for retired people. He didn't have a whole lot of equity as the house was fairly new. But they made him get flood insurance due to the loan regulations and that was as much as his month rebate payment for the loan.
Lucky for him though as he got flooded and about an inch of water got over the floor. Also found out his floor wasn't level.
Lucky for him though as he got flooded and about an inch of water got over the floor. Also found out his floor wasn't level.
My wife and I have used USAA for much of our insurance for 38 years, and we've had flood insurance with no claims for 21 years. I don't like the money USAA spends on TV commercials either, but I still find their service to be very good, and so do many financial sources that rate them in the top three. I still get yearend premium rebates every year, so there's that. We must remind ourselves: insurance companies are not in business to lose money.
Flood insurance is a requirement for my island beach house.
When I bought it the flood zone was VE rated by FEMA. Cost me $500/month. After three years FEMA did their quadrennial flood map assesment and my property dropped into an AE zone. Monthly cost decreased to $50/month but my taxes went up almost 100%. The elevation increased by one foot. Don't know how that happens. The whole process of dealing with FEMA and my town public planning was very frustrating. Don't need flood insurance for my house in Wilmington.
When I bought it the flood zone was VE rated by FEMA. Cost me $500/month. After three years FEMA did their quadrennial flood map assesment and my property dropped into an AE zone. Monthly cost decreased to $50/month but my taxes went up almost 100%. The elevation increased by one foot. Don't know how that happens. The whole process of dealing with FEMA and my town public planning was very frustrating. Don't need flood insurance for my house in Wilmington.
Just be careful what you self-insure for...
45 years in the same place. Usually floods every 6-7 years. Any crawlspace around here is going to fill with water just from ground saturation. My best solution is two block higher foundation.
So looked into the flood insurance. Where I live there is a river close. Latest Flood Plain map from about 10 years ago shows me in a flood zone which it most certainly is. We get a major flood about every 15 years. This means the river rise enough to cross a road south of me and then I get river current flowing on the property vs the normal slow rising backing up river.
The slowly rising river though is what always happens first. It floods the crawlspaces around here just from ground saturation. I believe the worst flood here in the last century was 1959 and also the year my house was built, so I'm assuming they set floor level safely above flood level which it appears to be living here for 45 years.
Still a saturated crawl space and water to the floor joist is no fun. I'm in need of my second replacement set of furnace ducts. The well jet water pump is down there. It takes almost a year to dry out.
But this does not appear to be covered by flood insurance outside of one of the great floods as the water in the crawlspace does not enter from the surface. Last major flood was in 2018.
The slowly rising river though is what always happens first. It floods the crawlspaces around here just from ground saturation. I believe the worst flood here in the last century was 1959 and also the year my house was built, so I'm assuming they set floor level safely above flood level which it appears to be living here for 45 years.
Still a saturated crawl space and water to the floor joist is no fun. I'm in need of my second replacement set of furnace ducts. The well jet water pump is down there. It takes almost a year to dry out.
But this does not appear to be covered by flood insurance outside of one of the great floods as the water in the crawlspace does not enter from the surface. Last major flood was in 2018.
Only need flood ins if you have a mortgage.Flood insurance is a requirement for my island beach house.
We built our retirement house with the garage underneath. I'm only 100ft from an infinite flooding source but I have 16 feet to get to my floor joist from mean water level.
I did that because I feel there will be a time in the future when flood ins is no longer subsidized, you can already hear the rumblings of it.
I'm not paying for even the subsidized version, at least I don't plan to, will evaluate when we are closer to occupancy.
I did that because I feel there will be a time in the future when flood ins is no longer subsidized, you can already hear the rumblings of it.
I'm not paying for even the subsidized version, at least I don't plan to, will evaluate when we are closer to occupancy.
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