It has been our experience that any insurance claim regardless how minor, and "yes" even simple inquiries to determine if we should file a claim to our insurance company, auto or home policy, the rates jump up so badly that we have to switch insurance companies.
Once we learned how the insurance system actually works, we get the highest deductible plans, and pay out of pocket without informing our insurance, even when exceeding the deductible by "reasonable" amounts. We save BIG money over-all this way.
And if you wonder, we had so few claims over our 42 year driving and home ownership history. All claims were very minor incidents that we felt did not warrant such high increases in our policies. The few claims we had were smaller than the cost of coverage for that given year.
