Alarm Contract

[Rich]

I just moved and my alarm dials my dad's (retired) house my brothers house
(retired Police officer). My cell phone and my wife's (retired) cell phone
All with in 1/2 mile of my house.

The insurance company wants to see a alarm contract with a monitoring
company. I know why but ?
Rich

 

[G. Morgan]

The insurance company wants to see a alarm contract with a monitoring
company. I know why but ?

Because the discount off your premium is for probably for customers
with monitored accounts. What you described isn't really monitoring
in their eyes (or mine).




-Graham

Remove the 'snails' from my email

 

[Frank Olson]

I just moved and my alarm dials my dad's (retired) house my brothers house
(retired Police officer). My cell phone and my wife's (retired) cell
phone
All with in 1/2 mile of my house.

The insurance company wants to see a alarm contract with a monitoring
company. I know why but ?
Rich

I'd be interested to know what alarm panel you have. While I don't doubt
your alarm panel does all that, most usually have an option to dial a
pager(s) for each alarm event and not a "voice line". I"m not sure what you
(or any of the other individuals on the list you mentioned) are hearing when
they answer the phone. Unless you have some means of providing a receiver
"tone", you'll just hear "dead air", and the panel will keep trying to dial
the same telephone number for a preset number of times and then switch to
the alternate number. If there's no "tone" exchanged after all dialling
attempts programmed into the system have expired, the panel will go into
"communication failure" trouble.

Of course you could have a voice dialler hooked up to the alarm outputs.
Some can dial multiple phone numbers and transmit a pre-recorded message to
whom-ever answers. None of the above examples would qualify you for the
insurance discount as most companies require a letter from the alarm company
indicating the type of monitoring they're performing.


--
Frank Olson
http://www.yoursecuritysource.com
Free listings for qualified dealers and industry professionals
You can read the ASA FAQ at
http://www.yoursecuritysource.com/asafaq.htm

 

[R.H.Campbell]

The information I have from an insurance type of my acquaintance indicates
in order to apply the discount, the panel MUST be monitored in such a
fashion as to guarantee response 24/7 via a professional answering service
like a monitoring station designed and set up for that purpose. Devices that
send to cell phones, pagers or that automatically dial house numbers simply
are not up to the level of reliability and answering certainty that an
insurance company demands in order to apply discounts. These devices simply
cannot be counted on to be there when you need them 24/7....

Interestingly enough, he also tells me that they care little for the actual
burglary part since the average robbery costs them $3000. But a monitored
smoke detector can easily save the company $100K plus in home damages via
early response by fire authorities. Every minute counts in a fire....

RHC

 

[--]

I just moved and my alarm dials my dad's (retired) house my brothers house
(retired Police officer). My cell phone and my wife's (retired) cell phone
All with in 1/2 mile of my house.

The insurance company wants to see a alarm contract with a monitoring
company. I know why but ?
Rich

Usually insurance companies requires yearly maintenance AND
monitoring.
Just make a financial comparison between eventual insurance benefits
and running cost of maintenance and monitoring in comparison to
assurance benefit.

NOTE:
- Realize that when professionals take care of your system that you
never will be the complete owner of your system, they keep the most
important password key, the "INSTALLER PASSWORD".

- If you like to change from maintenance or monitoring company, add or
remove some sensors, add a internal extra buzzer, disable key path
button hit sound, disable external alarm sounder and flashing light,
change entry and exit delay, replace system battery, sell your house
and hand over the alarm system to the new owner who ask for some
elementary changes, more simple or complex things you want to improve
where I don't think of right now, never you will receive that
"INSTALLER PASSWORD".
Some are willing to reset your entire system to the original
manufacturer state and then you receive all the original passwords.
You pay for the installation and pfft its gone.

Nice people those professionals, you are in good hands with them, they
avoid you to do some stupidities to they're system, pardon your
system.
They OWN YOU for new contracts AND YOUR system (job protection)
UNLESS you force them to provide all passwords (usually 3) before
contract signature.. But that's another story, try and appreciate.

Paul

 

[Wolfpack]

I just moved and my alarm dials my dad's (retired) house my brothers house
(retired Police officer). My cell phone and my wife's (retired) cell phone
All with in 1/2 mile of my house.

The insurance company wants to see a alarm contract with a monitoring
company. I know why but ?
Rich

I have dealt with many different insurance companies over the years and the
majority of them follow this formula:

Non-monitored or self monitored - 0% - 5% Discount
Monitored intrusion system - 5% -10% Discount
Monitored Security & Fire - 10% -15% Discount

However, if you live out in the country or anywhere that take more that 45
minutes to respond to, even with full monitoring and fire, they will not
give more that the 5%, if that, as there is very little chance of anyone
getting caught or the fire department saving your building.

I have had many clients tell me that they want a voice dialer on their
system, as they know several people that are willing to monitor the system,
but as it has been mentioned in other posts here, there is no guarantee that
there will always be someone around to answer that call. Although the chance
of it happening is rare, what if you and your wife were on a vacation, and
for some reason, your brother and father were out somewhere? Who would know
your system was going off? That is the concern of the insurance company.

The reason for wanting a contract or proof of monitoring is that in order to
cover their company, they need some proof as to why they gave you the
discount. If you provide the paperwork, and it is false or has been
disconnected, then they can easily argue the claim based on falsified
documents. It is the old CYA procedure. (Cover Your Ass)

Hope this helps...

 

[Bob Worthy]

I read the posts that responded and they all dwell on the insurance
discount. I have seen it where the insurance premium goes up on content
coverage when there is no monitoring and sometimes they won't insure
contents at all without monitoring. It isn't always the discount but what
you may have to pay, in addition, to cover contents or the trouble in
finding a carrier that will handle it, that becomes the main issue. If you
are trying to insure anything of real value, Good Luck in today's insurance
market.

Bob4Secur

 

[Bob La Londe]

Your comments are valid, but that sounds more like high value coverage such
as a large garage filled with classic cars, a jewelry store, gun shop,
etc... I have seen the circumstances you describe in many business
applications, but only in special circumstances for residential.

 

[Rich]

If I have this monitored what will the monitoring company provided to the
home owner. other then calling the police. Help with clams?,

 

[G. Morgan]

Help with clams?

I don't know of any monitoring company that has clam assistance.



-Graham

Remove the 'snails' from my email

 

[alarman]

G. Morgan wrote

I don't know of any monitoring company that has clam assistance.

If so, we would all be herring about it.
js

 

[Robert L. Bass]

Your comments are valid, but that sounds

more like high value coverage such as a
large garage filled with classic cars, a
jewelry store, gun shop, etc... I have seen
the circumstances you describe in many
business applications, but only in special
circumstances for residential.

That's not surprising. Bob W's business covers the Florida "gold coast"
(Key West to Melbourne, IIRC). He protects numerous high-end homes. I've
seen a similar situation over the years in and around Hartford, CT (the
"insurance capital" of the US). The percentage breaks vary from company to
company, but, generally speaking, the better breaks go to homes with
monitored systems.

OTOH, Bob's experience regarding coverage of contents has been somewhat
different from mine. Every policy I've seen offered a standard percentage
of the main policy limit for contents. That is, the policy covered a
structure valued at $nn and there would be an automatic .40 x nn or .50 x nn
limit on the contents of the home. That is the way my own homeowner's
policy is written as well. I would not be surprised to learn that things
are different on the Atlantic coast where Andrew made an indelible mark on
the underwriting world some years ago. It's anybody's guess what long-term
effects this season's repeated disasters will have on insurance policies.
One thing is for certain -- the price of coverage will increase and the
availability of coverage will reduced.

That's just part of the price of living in paradise, I guess. :^)

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
2291 Pine View Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34231
877-722-8900 Sales & Tech Support
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>

 

[Robert L. Bass]

If I have this monitored what will the monitoring company provided to the

home owner. other then calling the police. Help with clams?,

Usually they will charge you somewhere between eight and forty clams per
month. If the service is provided through a third-party central station
(the major portion of new installations are done this way) the alarm company
will pay the monitoring service between two and seven clams a month. The
difference -- anywhere between $6 and $38 a month -- is alarm company
profit.

The service rendered is pretty much the same, regardless what price you pay.
Shop around. :^)

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
2291 Pine View Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34231
877-722-8900 Sales & Tech Support
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>

 

[Robert L. Bass]

I don't know of any monitoring company that has clam assistance.

If so, we would all be herring about it.

What shell we do with these pearls of wisdom?