This Viral Reddit Advice On How To File An Insurance Claim If You Lose Your Home To A Fire Is A Must Read
posted his tips, it got a lot of attention. And we mean a lot. His advice goes way beyond common knowledge and is definitely worth a bookmark in case you are ever in need.
Content warning: the Reddit poster used swear words, which we did not edit out of the content. Continue reading at your own discretion.
“I used to be the guy who worked for insurance companies, and determined the value of every little thing in your house. The guy who would go head-to-head with those fire-truck-chasing professional loss adjusters. I may be able to help you not get screwed when filing your claim.
Our goal was to use the information you provided, and give the lowest damn value we can possibly justify for your item.
For instance, if all you say was “toaster” — we would come up with a cheap-as-fuck $4.88 toaster from Walmart, meant to toast one side of one piece of bread at a time. And we would do that for every thing you have ever owned. We had private master lists of the most commonly used descriptions, and what the cheapest viable replacements were. We also had wholesale pricing on almost everything out there, so really scored cheap prices to quote. To further that example:
One of the most devastating things that can happen to a person is when they lose their house to a fire. That nightmare is then followed by another nightmare: filing an insurance claim (that is, if you are lucky enough to have insurance).
Because it’s pretty much common knowledge that filing a claim is hard, when a recent Redditer who said he “worked for insurance companies, and determined the value of every little thing in your house” - If you said “toaster – $25” , we would have to be within -20% of that… so, we would find something that’s pretty much dead-on $20.01.
- If you said “toaster- $200” , we’d kick it back and say NEED MORE INFO, because that’s a ridiculous price for a toaster (with no other information given.)
- If you said “toaster, from Walmart” , you’re getting that $4.88 one.
- If you said “toaster, from Macys” , you’d be more likely to get a $25-35 one.
- If you said “toaster”, and all your other kitchen appliances were Jenn Air / Kitchenaid / etc., you would probably get a matching one.
- If you said “Proctor Silex 42888 2-Slice Toaster from Wamart, $9”, you just got yourself $9.
- If you said “High-end Toaster, Stainless Steel, Blue glowing power button” … you might get $35-50 instead. We had to match all features that were listed.
- Designer Shower Curtain – $35
- Matching Shower Curtain Liner for Designer Shower Curtain – $15
- Shower Curtain Rings x20 – $15
- Stainless Steel Soap Dispenser for Shower – $35
- Natural Sponge Loofah – from Whole Foods – $15
- Natural Sponge Loofah for Back – from Whole Foods – $19
- Holder for Loofahs – $20
- Bars of soap – from Lush – $12 each (qty: 4)
- Bath bomb – from Lush – $12
- High end shampoo – from salon – $40
- High end conditioner – from salon – $40
- Refining pore mask – from salon – $55