general liability insurance

where to find cheap?

[LifeinAsia]

So we're moving our servers to a new co-location center. The new place requires us to have a general liability insurance policy to get a card key for after hours access.

For the lowest quote we've gotten so far, we basically have to pay 200% more than we need to to meet their "minimum premium difference." In other words, they won't write a policy for a company less than $X/year. If your policy premium is only $Y/year, you still have to pay $X/year. In our case, the difference between X and Y was more than twice X! That's pretty ridiculous for insurance that covers an activity that will take maybe 4-5 hours/year! (Yes, it covers all aspects of the business, but we engage in very few activities that exposes us to much liability.)

Anyone have suggestions on where to go to find a reasonably priced policy?

[httpwebwitch]

I've no specific company to recommend, but I'd call around to local independent insurance brokers w/ that question. Brokers deal with multiple insurance companies, and negotiate the best rates possible for multiple clients. If they can answer that question on the phone and get you the kind of insurance you need, then they get your business.

Typically a broker is paid commission by the insurance company for bringing in business, so their services to you are free.

[LifeinAsia]

Unfortunately, every broker (except 1) I talked to uses the same carrier (The Hartford), so they all have the same minimum premium issue. The other broker also uses a different company, but the minimum premium is still excessive (in my opinion).

[bwnbwn]

hmm lifeinasia I will ask our IT guy tomorroww who we use and our cost. Do need to know what country are you in not that I can't guess by your name just need to be sure.

[LifeinAsia]

U.S. (California, to be more specific).

Thanks!

[spadilla]

I would be interested to know as well. I'm in California too :)

[bwnbwn]

Hmm I asked our IT and the colo we use doesn't require us to have it for entering the building. Sorry can't help ya there.

[cshel]

I used a broker... but it's hard to know what "reasonable" is when there's no target cost given :)

I didn't find the costs to be outrageous (for gen. liability... E&O was a different story)... but I also didn't find any policies less than $500/yr.

[LifeinAsia]

Yeah, pretty much everyone we talked to quoted us for a policy through Hartford, but their minimum premium is $475 (or something like that). The actual premium is close to $200, but they won't write a policy for less than $475.

[cshel]

I have no idea if they do this kind of thing or not, but have you asked if the insurance companies do anything like multiple policy discounts? Maybe if you move your car/home/life insurance to Hartford (or whomever) they will write it for the $275 since you're getting other things covered through them.

Like I said... shot in the dark, but it can't hurt to ask.

[LifeinAsia]

The impression I got was that it wouldn't work because it would be mixing personal and business insurance. The only type of additional insurance they could include would have been workers comp. But adding another type would have driven the minimum premium up to $500, so would still be wasting a lot of money.

Besides, I wouldn't switch my home/car to them anyway- what we have is far better and less expensive. I actually did contact our car/home insurance company about a GL policy. They don't underwrite it directly- they use Hartford.