Why should you come to Cline Hall Agency?   Let us explain... In one word: people.  More specifically, real people.  We don't have any cute lizards with English accents, nor advertising darlings telling you how unique his or her company is, and we don't have a host of folks sitting in cubicles 24-hours a day waiting for your call at 3 AM.  What we do have is a small, but very experienced staff that will be available to you for years to come and actually will be familiar with your specific insurance needs and get to know you as the years go by.  Our average tenure in the insurance industry is 19 years.     Also, we don't work for a company, we work for you.  We are an independent agency and we're able to look at several companies to make sure you are getting the best options available.  You don't buy your clothes, groceries, and household goods at only one store with a limited selection, so why would you buy your insurance coverages where the agent can only offer you what one company has to offer.  No company is the best at everything; we give you options.     Unfortunately,  advertising executives have turned insurance into something that is selected mostly based on price.  While price should always be considered, it is only one of the factors.  First of all, these numbers you see in advertising, such as "40% discounts" and "Save $437!"  are meaningless. We constantly insure folks from those companies who make those promises, so I don't know who they are actually saving!  You need to sit down with a person you can trust, make sure you have all the coverage you need, and then look at the price for that coverage.  We will do that with you.  It's probably going to take longer than 15 minutes like Gieco says, but you are going to be able to rest assured you are properly covered.     Give us a call and let us show what we can do for you! Our Companies As we've said, as an independent agency we sell numerous companies: Erie Insurance, Auto-Owners, National General (formerly GMAC), Progressive, Universal, and more!  If you want specific information on the company that we're quoting you with, click HERE. Basic Questions: Insurance is confusing. We get it--there are so many different rules and coverages and everything is changing!  We are always here to answer your questions, but sometimes it's past midnight and suddenly  you're struck with the question, "What does 'Coverage C' cover anyway?!".  Well, we still want to you help, so we've created some YouTube videos for you to watch in the wee hours of the night!  Whether it's a question about whether your rental vehicle is covered or how your home policy with Cline Hall Agency (HE-7) differs from other typical agencies (HO-3)--check us out HERE! Meet the Office: Cline Hall is the founder of Cline Hall Agency.  He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1983 and has been in the insurance business since 1984.  He left a larger company to open his own agency as an independent agent in 1993.  He's passionate about helping and educating his insureds about insurance and representing his client instead of representing a sole company.  For more information or background read HERE about Cline.  Kyle Moore came to Cline Hall Agency after 6 years of aiding the education community with their specific insurance needs and benefits.   Kyle's enjoyed now being able to provide insurance to all communities of North Carolina through the numerous companies provided through an independent agency.  For more information on Kyle, read HERE.  Cynthia Banks has been with Cline since 1996 and made the trek to an independent agency with him in 1999.  She is a North Carolina State graduate and brings a great deal of wisdom in insurance knowledge. Read HERE for more information about Cynthia.  Sarah Towle has been with Cline Hall Agency as an agent for 6 years now, and is Cline's youngest daughter.  She's carried the family passion for helping insureds in both knowledge and practical help through an independent agency.  She currently resides in Wisconsin and works via a satellite office.  For more information about Sarah, read HERE.  Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Forward to a Friend Contact us: ClineHallAgency.com (p) 252.756.5200 (f) 252.756.4617

What's GAP insurance?

I get this question all the time.  People know me as an insurance agent so when they have a question about insurance I'm the guy they call.  I'm glad the do that!

First, I don't sell GAP insurance.  Gap insurance is normally something that is offered at the car dealer when you finance you car.  It helps you in the situation when you have your car totaled in an accident and you owe more on your car than it is worth.  Say you owe 18,000 on your 2012 Nissan and the car is worth 15,000, in that case you might have to come out of pocket 3,000 to pay off your loan once the insurance company settles your loss.  This could happen if you are at fault in the accident or the other person is at fault.

So who needs GAP?  Well if you have financed a large percentage of your car purchase you might need it.  If you didn't finance it you don't need it.

What can I do for you?  I think I have a better option, if you have purchased a new car many of my companies offer a coverage called Repair or Replacement.  What that means, if your car is involved in an accident the company guarantees that they will repair your car or buy you a new one.   Let's go to the above example-if your 2012 Nissan is totaled and you have that problem with owing more than the car is worth. If you have Repair & Replacement coverage, NO WORRIES!  The company is going to buy you a new current year car like the one that you wrecked.  They will contact your finance company and do what is called a collateral swap so now you still owe $18 ,000 but now it's on new Nissan not your old one!

Another plus with this coverage, you can still purchase this if you haven't financed your car.

One important thing to note, you need to purchase this coverage when you purchase the car. You can't buy it once you need it. It's one of those horse is out of the barn things.

If you are interested in this then give me a call at 252 756 5200 or contact us on the web at it www.clinehallagency.com!

Insurance is Going UP?

No matter who you are insured with,  if you are in the part of heaven we call Eastern North Carolina, your homeowners insurance is going up.

Why?

Here is the slightly abridged version: it takes a while to cover all of the explanations, so if you don't like reading here is an internet star (cough*me*cough) with a video on the subject!   Clike HERE for the video.

To begin, most of the coast of North Carolina is insured by through the North Carolina Joint Underwriters. In short, the NCJUA is an entity set up by the state to insure properties that others companies choose not to insure.  Why won't companies insure these properties?  Good question!  The answer is insurance companies, like all companies, are in business to MAKE MONEY!  If they don't think they can make money, then they aren't going to insure it.  North Carolina, by means of the Insurance Commissioners Office, limits how much can be charged for insurance premiums, so companies have began refusing to write Wind and Hail (hurricanes and tornadoes are not mentioned in insurance policies, wind and hail is what covers them) in the 18 coastal counties of North Carolina.  (The companies can do that because the state law allows insureds to purchase the wind and hail coverage from the NCJUA through what is called the Beach Plan.)

All of this sounds fine, EXCEPT, it is widely believed that there is not enough money available to handle all the potential losses. Some sources think the pool of money to pay potential losses is underfunded by 65 BILLION!  Due to that small problem, a bill was passed a few years ago, NC House Bill 1305.  Basically,  the companies that do business in North Carolina will have to bail out the NCJUA in the event that they do not have enough money to cover the disastrous event.  Therefore, companies will be responsible for an assessment based on the percentage of business they have in NC.  If a company has 10% of the business in NC, they will have to pony up 10% of a BILLION dollars.  The legislature realized that companies don't have that kind of money lying around so they (through the NCDOI) are allowing rates on homeowners to go up so that the companies can put money aside for this probability.  This is on top of the money the companies must have to cover their own clients, as well.

Add on top of this Hurricane Irene that came along after this bill was passed. While Irene was not a big hurricane it did cause problems for some companies.  NC Farm Bureau had a lot of losses near the coast and subsequently have had their ratings dropped, and in turn have cancelled thousands and thousands of policies, flooding the market with people needing insurance.  This makes the other companies wary of bringing on these particular customers.

Every company went up last year, and sorry to say, it looks like it is coming again this year. I just got this email this week: click HERE.

Where does that leave you?  Well, if you are insured with CHA, our companies are still the best positioned.  Our companies are smaller and don't advertise, so they were less expensive to begin with and don't have quite the potential losses of the Nationwide, Allstate, and State Farms.  We are constantly insuring new people everyday from these other companies as our prices are very competitive.

IF YOU AREN'T INSURED WITH US, take Dave Ramsey's advice and give us a call!

http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/save-500-or-more

If you have any questions, give our office a call!  If not, enjoy your weekend!  Go outside!


--Cline

How to Prepare for Tonight:

We are going to be experiencing some record low temperatures tonight. Therefore, you might want to take precautions to keep from having damage to your property.  Here are a couple of quick and easy to-do's to keep your property damage-free.

1. Watch were you  park your cars.  If you have a garage, that is best place, of course because the cold and windchill can cause glass to crack  Also, the low temps following rain will cause limbs to break in trees and fall.  I'm going to park my car out on the street tonight!

2. Try to prevent pipes from freezing.  Probably none of us have our pipes wrapped to keep from freezing, but if you  have any pipes that are close to outside walls, you might want to open cabinet doors near your sinks to let some heat in to keep them warmer.

3. Leaving water on at a trickle will keep the pipes from freezing. So, if you are really worried you might try that.

4. Check your antifreeze in your cars.

5. Close your garage!  It's going to be cold enough to really cause problems.  Don't let the cold in!

6. Bring your pets in!  DO NOT RUN A HEATER, HEAT LAMP, LIGHT BULB or anything like that in the dog house.  I have already had a client almost loose one of their properties because the neighbor did that and caught the roof on fire!

Stay safe and keep warm!

--Cline