Practical ways to save money on your home insurance!

There are things you can do to reduce your home insurance premium and insure that it stays low.   

• Increase your deductible. Most home insurance policies have a standard deductible of $500. If you are willing to take a risk, you can increase your deductible to $1000 or even higher. This could mean a substantial savings.
• Eliminate unnecessary coverage.   Many policies provide top up insurance for a number of different things.  Many of these top ups are targeted at affluent homeowners.  Often, a  "package" of insurance with lower limits for special property, outbuildings, and contents is still adequate for many homeowners.  If the top ups don't give you coverage you need eliminate them.     
• Don’t over-insure your home.   Remember the land your home sits on has value.   The land will remain regardless of the severity of the loss to the house itself.   Insure it for the amount it would cost to rebuild, not what you paid for the house and lot. 
• Don’t claim for small losses. If you make a number of claims against your policy, your premium will be affected. If you have a $500 deductible, and lose a $600 ring, is it really worth it to put in a claim for $100? If you have a discount for being claims free, you will lose it, and if you have more than one claim, a surcharge could be applied to your policy.    Once you determine how much the insurance company will be paying determine how it will affect your premium.  Sometimes it will actually cost you more to go ahead with the claim. Remember that some of the discounts can be affected for 3 years or more.  
• Keep your home in good shape.   Homes that are over 25 or 30 years of age will cost more to insure unless they are kept up to date.   By making sure your older home qualifies for preferred rates reduces your insurance bill by 25%.  If you are not offered preferred rates on an older home check to see if another company will.  
• Install a monitored intrusion alarm.   Not only will this give you some extra peace of mind, but it will substantially reduce your insurance premium.  Expand your alarm system to monitor other things like high water in your sump, unusually low temperature, fire, and smoke.  Some companies offer discounts for these extras.   If you can prevent a claim you get to keep your claims free discount.  
• Be a participant in claims prevention.   The top four types of claims that make up the majority of  losses are Fire, water damage, theft and windstorm.   They make up 93% of all losses paid.  Get to know how you can prevent and lesson these claims through preventive measures.  Prevent a claim and keep your discounts. 
• Check your discounts to make sure you are getting them.     When you renew your insurance policy each year remember that you may now qualify for a discount you did not qualify for before.   Review the available discounts with your agent so you don't miss out on one.  If you were entitled to a discount last year but did not get it, you can request a refund.   
• Keep your coverage up to date.    In the end, it boils down to having the right coverage.  When things change your policy has to change with it.  If you don't keep your policy up to date it could mean an uninsured loss.  Know what has to be reported and why.  Yes, sometimes reporting changes will actually increase your premium but could cost far more than you imagine.
• Think about the way you pay for your insurance.   If you pay monthly you are usually being charged a fee.  That can be 3% of the premium.  That does not mean you pay 3% interest.  The truth is, it is more like 8% interest, or even higher, depending on the down payment.   If you have a balance on your bank account you are only getting a half percent return.  We realize that you may not be able to pay the entire premium up front but those that can, are well advised to do so.  Especially when you consider that you can pay for the full premium with a credit card and get air miles from many of the companies.  

The No Hassle Insurance Guy    306-821-1620