Debt Dumpers 2026

[Nettlelondon]

Update for Jan. 20.
Paid an extra car payment yesterday, so ALL BILLS ARE NOW CAUGHT UP!!! And on time. The means no more late fees. Not sure how long things will stay that way, but they are caught up to date for now. So, no more late fees. That was the No. 1 goal this year. Small step taken, but a step nonetheless.

Good work, well done. Keep it up


I had a yoga class this morning. A delivery vehicle was blocking our road so I ended up walking to the gym as I suspected they were going to take a while to complete their task, even though they said "we will only be a few minutes", as they were delivering a hospital bed to the IVF clinic at the end of the road.

By walking there and back I somehow managed 5,000 steps and have walked on the spot whilst watching TV getting up to the 7,000 steps I need to get points for treats on with my health insurance.

 

[barkley]

I really need to find an insurance broker to find better homeowner's insurance. I'm paying over $4k which seems really high. My car insurance is very reasonable though, but still I should shop around.

you don't have to go through a broker-you can call individual companies on your own. one of the downsides of using a broker is that they won't price compare with companies they don't have a commission set-up with so there could be some less expensive options outside an individual broker's network. in the past i've just called different companies to get quotes.

 

[afan]

you don't have to go through a broker-you can call individual companies on your own. one of the downsides of using a broker is that they won't price compare with companies they don't have a commission set-up with so there could be some less expensive options outside an individual broker's network. in the past i've just called different companies to get quotes.

I looked at one on my own that the broker couldn't do and I still will get calls from them every 4 to six months. I got the quote at least 2 years ago. I get enough spam calls I don't need to create more.

It was so much better before when they used to quote without having to provide info.

 

[LadybugsMum]

you don't have to go through a broker-you can call individual companies on your own. one of the downsides of using a broker is that they won't price compare with companies they don't have a commission set-up with so there could be some less expensive options outside an individual broker's network. in the past i've just called different companies to get quotes.

I'd rather someone else do the work for me and as @afan said above, I get enough spam as it is.

 

[barkley]

I looked at one on my own that the broker couldn't do and I still will get calls from them every 4 to six months. I got the quote at least 2 years ago. I get enough spam calls I don't need to create more.

It was so much better before when they used to quote without having to provide info.

I'd rather someone else do the work for me and as @afan said above, I get enough spam as it is.

I guess i'm lucky-no bothersome calls from any insurance company i've ever contacted for a quote (though I DO get regular snail mails from 2 that I've never reached out to-liberty and progressive, and 3A which I dumped 35 years ago).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Insurance agents buy lists. The lists contain basic information about you and your insurance. Sometimes the information is out of date or incorrect but if you've ever gotten a mailer with "switch and save" stuff that's an agent who has bought your information off a list. In addition to those we recently got one from a local Ford deal about our car (which is a Hyundai) because they knew exactly how long we had left on the lease, it's information they bought.

Someone may get calls from a company they have done an online quote with (or reached out to an individual office with) even periodically because that is the agent's job in order to net grow their book of business (same with buying lists).

Our agent, since I switched off of my mom's, when I graduated college has been my step-father-in-law (I've been with him for many years at this point) who is an independent agent (that's who ideally you'd want). In his particular agency he can get cross company discounts that they write through depending on the company. Right now we have our home with Openly but our cars are with Progressive. We switched several years back on the home from Progressive to Openly when Openly came to our market thus we have an auto/home discount on our policies despite being with two different companies (it's a lesser discount than if we had both lines of business with the same company but it is still one). When I first switched to my step-father-in-law (this was technically before I got married to my husband) we had put me with AAA for renters and auto which I had had for years as roadside service but a few years in we had to switch when AAA pulled independent agents from my state in order to only do business with captive (meaning they can only write for the one company they are employed with) agents in the state.