saved $6,415

[Mike Dymski]

I just transferred all (except apartment complex) of my insurance to USAA and saved $6,415.  That figure includes my family's personal residence and cars but I saved 50% on the rental policies over what I was paying with Travelers (and State Farm for one rental policy).  USAA had two great features (1) online data entry allowed for plug and play changes to coverage terms and recalculation of the impact on the premiums (2) you can adjust the dwelling policy limit (within a range) rather than just getting stuck with some inflated cost estimator.  It's a replacement cost policy where you can insure for closer to a cash value limit (or not, your choice).  USAA comes highly rated by Clarke Howard and friends of mine who are with them.  If you have the military family history to qualify, it's worth checking into.

[Chris Mason]

USAA has great insurance policies. Sometimes they are a bit of a nightmare for me to get necessary paperwork out of to close a mortgage, so if timing is tight or you are in a rush...

1. Close using some other insurance provider to check the box for the mortgage. Almost any insurance provider out there is better than USAA on timing.
2. Switch it to USAA later on, when timing isn't tight.
3. Get a pro-rated refund for those days the old insurance provider will not be insuring your property. 
4. Notify the loan servicer of the change, send them paperwork for the new USAA insurance policy.
5. If you have an escrow account, expect a refund from that as well when they do the annual escrow analysis and realize they over-collected now that you're paying so much less for HOI.

If you're trying to close in whatever time-frame is normal for your market, disregard all the above. The above only applies to scenarios where (in my market) it's normal to close in 30 days, but for some reason (like getting the offer accepted when the seller is motivated by time) we need to close in 21-25 days.