Home insurance is important. With increasing unforeseen events reported every year, like thefts, natural disasters, fires, etc.; home insurance has become a necessity rather than a luxury.
Most of us spend more time on purchasing grocery than we usually spend on buying our home insurance. The reason is that we do not understand it and choose to get dissuaded with so many company advertisements and unwanted advice.
The best way to understand home insurance policy is to read the terms and conditions carefully, getting your queries resolved frequently. For this, you can approach the company itself and a financial advisor.
However, do you have the prerequisite knowledge before approaching an expert or the company?
Here in this article, we give you some strategies for saving money on your home insurance, to prepare yourself beforehand for your policy –hunt and will provide you with the necessary ammunition for your consultation sessions.
You must keep these strategies at the back of your mind, which will enable you to make a wise decision.
- Do a lot of comparisons when shopping. You no more have to call and respond to companies; just do your initial research. Just search for policies and quotes online. You can compare the features as well. Do your comparisons patiently and do not rush into buying a policy just because you find it cheap.
- Leave out the value of the land when purchasing or insuring your home. Technically, land does not get damaged due to a natural calamity.
- Raise your deductibles; this reduces your premium even further. The deductible is the amount that you are required to cover from your side. When you raise your deductible for a policy, then you will notice that your premium amount may get reduced by a greater amount.
- Make a wise decision initially for the best company and then stay with the same company for some time; this will make you eligible for loyalty discounts on your premiums.
- If you maintain a good credit record, then the insurance company is more likely to offer you a discount. Start improving your credit rating; try to pay off your mortgage, which will increase your reliability.
- You may require reviewing your policy once a year. This will allow you to either reduce or increase your cover based on your requirements
- You may not care, but the construction material used for the house, its facilities, or its location actually determines how expensive your home insurance will be. The logic behind this is simple; for instance your home lies in an earthquake-prone zone, and then it will be more likely to get destroyed. So insurance companies bear this risk and hence charge you more for your policy. Similarly, houses having wood components, swimming pools, hot tubs, the age of your home, etc. may increase your premium. Hence, while buying your house always consider the cost of your home insurance.
- You may sometimes wonder why there are so many things to insure, and you do not afford it. This means that your uninsured items will stay exposed to risk. But you can avoid that by purchasing multiple policies with the same company. You can buy your home insurance along with your car insurance from the same company, which may cost you less for both the policies.
- Houses that have home security systems are less likely to get burgled. This will make your insurance company more confident in offering you an affordable policy so you may receive a discount.
Other easy ways to make your home insurance cheap is to simply inquire about discounts your company offer and whether they apply to you or not. Discounts are offered to senior citizens, non-smokers, etc.
Also, always remember to keep a copy of estimated value of home and belongings including valuables. You can keep photos, etc. and store them in a safe place so that they make your claim process hassle-free.
And finally, make sure you select the right company for all your insurance needs. Because buying a home may be expensive but buying insurance isn’t.
Contributed byhttp://www.ltinsurance.com/
Thanks for the strategies! I really wanted to save money for my home insurance so this post of yours is really helpful! Hope to see more posts of you.
I really like our house, and have been paying to keep it protected for years. It sounds like a great idea to check the policy once a year to see if you need to reduce or increase coverage. I wouldn’t want to overpay for something that I don’t need.