| |
Tips to Reduce Your Home Insurance Costs
All homeowners are looking for ways to reduce our home insurancecosts. Costs continue to rise and budgets get tighter andtighter with each passing year. Here are 8 tips to reduce yourhome insurance costs. 1. Increased Home Security Most homes are fitted with some sort of security device. Tomake the most of your Home Security Discount make sure that youhome is fitted with: dead bolt locks, smoke detectors, fireextinguishers and a burglar and fire alarm that are monitored.You do not have to have all of these to receive a discount onyour home insurance so even if you only have one or two makesure that you ask for the savings. 2. Keep your credit score as high as possible. While it would seem that a good credit score would have nothingto do with insurance rates, it is a fact that they do. HomeInsurance companies are using your credit score as anindicator of responsibility. The theory is the more responsiblethe individual the less claims they will have. So, insurancecompanies are giving lower rates to those individuals with abetter credit score. 3. Consolidate your policies. Most, if not all companies that sell home insurance, offerdiscounts for insuring your autos with them. These discounts cansometimes save you up to 30% off of your total insurance bill.Plus, you get the added convenience of having one agent for bothyour home and auto insurances. 4. Protect your home with updates. Discuss with your agent about the possibilities of receivinghome insurance discounts for keeping your home in good repair.Some home insurance companies will offer savings for a anewroof, electrical, HVAC, plumbing updates. The discounts aregenerally not enough to warrant the replacement but if youneeded it anyway, be sure to get the discounts if applicable. 5. Make sure you are not over insured. Your home insurance coverage should not necessarily be what youpaid for them home. Land values are calculated into the finalsales price and should be considered when insuring thestructure. In others words you cannot hurt the dirt. A good ideais to call local builders and ask them what new homeconstruction cost per square foot is going for. Take thatnumber, multiply that times your square footage and that is theamount that your home should be insured for. Companies will notpay more than what it is going to cost to rebuild the homeanyway, so make sure you are insured correctly. 6. Stay away from low deductibles. The deductible is your portion of the claim that must be paidbefore the insurance company pays for the claim. The lower yourdeductible, the higher your premium will be. Deductibles canrange anywhere from $100-$5000 or more. The majority ofhomeowners will carry a $500 deductible, but the savings one canreceive by raising your deductible to $1000 can be significant,up to 20%. It doesn't take too many claim free years to make upthe difference between the two deductibles, but remember youshould never raise your deductible to a level that you could notafford to pay. 7. Ask your Home Insurance Agent Most of the time, an agent will make sure that you arereceiving 100% of the home insurance discounts that you qualifyfor, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Some insurance companies havediscounts that others do not. Some offer discounts that mostwould never dream as being a discount such as 55 and retired,non smoking, military service, law enforcement, single parentdiscounts, etc. 8. Don't be afraid to shop Around Home Insurance shopping is easy. Insurance shopping online iseven easier. Companies like ours at HometownQuotes.com (yes, Iam biased) have given you the ability to get multiple homeinsurance quotes by filling out a form that takes about fiveminutes to complete. Also be aware that not all insurancecompanies are created equal. There are some bad ones out therebut most, at worst, are pretty good. Getting the best price isgreat, but check up on the company offering you that price atreputable insurance rating sites like Moodys.com or AMBest.com.
|
|
