Have you ever stayed with an insurance provider simply because changing was a pain in the ass? Have you ever sat down with your computer and a cup of coffee, determined to find out if you’re really getting the best rates on your insurance like an adult for once, dammit, only to emerge from the rabbit hole three hours later with no real answers and the vague sense that you may have donated $100 to a charity that makes sweaters for chickens? No? Uh, yeah. Us either. But, if you have ever wished for a more pleasant experience insuring your stuff, Margo wants to be the one to make it happen.
The Love Your Block crew recently met up with Taylor Burke and Cody Thompson of this Philly-based insurance start-up for a couple of reasons. First, we love promoting local businesses whenever we can, so we wanted to find out more about this award-winning start-up that is making waves in our own backyard. Second, we wanted to put them to the test to see how well they understood and catered to the insurance needs of Philadelphians because, let’s face it, we’re kind of self-centered.
There’s some good information in their FAQ section, but the gist of it is this: Margo is similar to a mortgage broker, in that they partner with multiple insurance providers while maintaining their own independence. This means they can work with multiple companies, including many smaller or lesser-known ones, to find rates and policies that best suit your needs without any vested interest in which company you actually choose. But beyond that, your Margo insurance advocate stays with you even after you’ve purchased a policy, so if you have questions, need to make a change, or even file a claim, you can call them and they’ll act as your concierge, so to speak. And, yes, it’s totally free to the customer.
So how do they make money? Well, the insurance carriers pay a commission each time they are matched with a customer, but there is no markup for the customer. We wanted to know for sure, though, if Margo could ever be incentivized to promote one company over another, so we asked them flat out–their response was that the affiliate payouts are all within 1-2% of each other, and thus, there’s no real benefit of pushing one over the other, especially at the risk of disappointing the customer. We can also logically deduce that insurance carriers are willing to take this hit to their profits because paying the small fee for access to Margo’s growing pool of potential customers is a good deal easier and more cost-effective than the time and money it would take to reach those customers themselves.
Being a local company, it’s also logical to assume that the folks at Margo have a good understanding of the factors that most affect homeowners insurance rates for Philadelphians, but for the sake of our readers, we politely said, “prove it.” So, they made us this sweet infographic outlining the things that may raise or lower your homeowners insurance rates. Your individual situation will have the biggest impact on your rates, obviously, but this is a handy guide to have in mind as you’re looking for properties and negotiating with sellers.
