Who buys earthquake insurance? Is it wise to do so? -

I have a bad taste in my mouth about earthquake insurance given experiences I had during the Northridge Quake . I will try to keep it out of this conversation. Historically, California has a large earthquake every 15-25 years or so. As a result, those impacted with house damages and deaths find some type of remedy through FEMA, Red Cross donations and/or other charities or agencies. The Earthquake insurance normally wont kick in until all the above payments have exhausted anyway. In my personal opinion the best thing to do is retain the risk yourself. An eathquake can demolish everything and really is no different then a war which is also not standardly covered. Frankly, if I was really concerned about earthquakes I would move to Florida. Just like any other insurance coverage, the main benefit of earthquake coverage is PEACE OF MIND. Just like any other coverage, you need to look at the cost factor vs. the worry factor, and your personal financial situation, and location, LOL, and make a decision. There's such a thing as being insurance poor - spending TOO much money on insurance. So you have to pick and choose what's most important to you. I strongly recommend getting earthquake insurance, no matter where you live. Earthquakes powerful enough to be felt by people have occurred in 40 of the 50 states, according to the United States Geological Survey. Not surprisingly, Alaska, California, and Hawaii lead the nation in frequency and size of earthquakes, but other states have significant numbers of quakes as well. For example, New York had 25 perceptible earthquakes from 2005 to 2007. Maine had 12, and Tennessee had 10. From Florida (2) to Washington (18), America is earthquake country. The chances of a major earthquake may be small, but the risks to your finances are huge. Should your home be badly damaged, your home value will go down, meaning you will not have home equity to draw on to pay to repairing or rebuilding. Your regular homeowners insurance will not pay for earthquake damage to the structure or belongings due to shaking (but will pay for fire damage and water damage from burst pipes). In California, limited dwelling protection is available through "mini-policies" backed the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), a governmental agency. These will pay for damage to your home, but not non-essential structures such as swimming pools. I've lived in California my whole life and have become accustomed to the occasional earth shaking moments. I don't agree with buying earthquake insurance because the deductibles are outrageous. The insurance will not pay their portion until you pay approximately 10% of the value of your home. So if you have a 500,00 home you have to pay the first 50,000 before you get what you put in. I would rather put the money aside in savings instead of the insurances playing monopoly with my money. You could wait forever for the great big one!!!! But, not at my expense :) Do you live in California or in another place with frequent earthquakes. I live in California but I don't have earthquake insurance. After the Northridge earthquake the insurance companies dragged their feet and eventually only had to give people pennies on the dollar thanks to our butthead insurance commissioner. If you live in California and decide to buy insurance make sure the company sells insurance in other parts of the country. If their customers are primarily in California then they will suffer a big lose with a major California earthquake. Many people buy earthquake insurance. If you don't, you don't have coverage. I am in the northeast an earthquake in my town made a house slip off the foundation totalled it. If she had earthquake insurance the deductible would have been 5%, but you know, she would have gotten paid for 95% of her house (up to her dwelling limit) instead of 0% of her house. Talk it over with your agent, find out if you are on a faultline (there is a pretty big one up the Connecticut River in New England) I have felt tremors in 2 states where I have lived that have caused damages. We sell earthquake insurance more than you would think, probably 25% of our clients purchase it.