I just had a quote come back from UPC and it's cheaper than any of the others. Guess I won't be going with them...
You can use them but it’s completely DIY. They’re the Spirit Airlines of insurance. Took my in-laws a year to get their full payout from them after last years freeze. If you’re fastidious and organized you can make it work. Otherwise, pay for customer service. Edit- just noting that my MIL inadvertently screwed up the process over and over by being a confused boomer. I kept spreadsheets of everything and she routinely screwed it up. The only thing I was able to do after a while was set up repeat conference calls with the adjusters to re-figure everything out.
I'm only changing insurance companies because my current one had their financial rating downgraded and may become insolvent so that's not something I'm willing to risk going into hurricane season. I'll take some of the brokers recommended here and get more quotes. It's just so damn expensive when you live anywhere near the coast.
I'll emphasize this. I had a condo that I took a policy on. It had a fire- a complete loss. I learned that that condo association had it pretty fully insured and would pay to have it restored to original condition. Which was great. And my policy was also willing to pay. Which was great. So, the condo hired a contractor to restore the unit, and I made a deal with the contractor for certain upgrades that I'd pay for on the side so I ended up with a better-than-new condo plus a truckload of extra insurance money. What was really great. But, I did learn that I was over-insured all that time, paying thousands in premiums for insurance I didn't really need. With the way it shook out though, I ended up so far ahead on the deal, I decided I'd continue to be over-insured.
