When Mike and I got married he had car insurance through a small, local company. After a few years of zero tickets or accidents I realized our rates were slowly going up. About that time (pre-Gecko) a certain nationwide insurance company was all over the television and I opted to check them out. We saved a lot of money. We also no longer recognized the voice on the other end of the phone.

Still… money talks. Right?

Now, we’re older and insurance means more than just something you have to have for your car, or something you need in case someone breaks a leg, arm or requires stitches (again).

We have home owner’s insurance, a life insurance policy, health insurance, and business insurance.

We have to have a certain type of insurance for business in California for our appraisal business. It’s complicated, it’s convoluted, and it’s expensive.

And, none of it is local. I used to know people who had the same insurance agent for years. When they called his office he remembered them. Their checks were mailed to a local office right there in town. Obviously, things are very different today. Most of the time your own doctor doesn’t exactly remember you from the other 30 patients he/she saw that day.

Today we call customer service for our home insurance in New York, business insurance in Los Angeles, and that’s if you actually know where you are calling. Of course, that’s assuming that is where your call is actually routed to anyway, right? For all you know you could end up calling and talking to someone in India.

Which actually happened to me once where a woman told me our health insurance only covered pap smears for children 4 and under.

Seriously.

Long gone are the days when you popped into the local office to ask your insurance agent a quick question on your way to the grocery store or post office.

It’s sad. It’s a little troubling. It also makes me feel very old especially given that a few of my recent posts have touched on this sort of theme.

What next? Will the music be too loud? The remote be too complicated to use? Bifocals?