Remaining under protection: 10 ways to lower home insurance costs

Written by Posted On Wednesday, 26 October 2016 17:37
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Having a first-class home insurance program that protects homeowners from the potential major money losses, caused by various accidents deriving from the natural disasters, inappropriate human conducts, faulty technology and other household issues, is connected to significant maintenance expenses. The feeling of being financially protected in case of the insurance-covered situation occurrence costs the owners of the living premises quite a something every single month. Some people even relate to the home insurance payments as to the installment payments for the consequences of a disaster that might never happen.

But, as they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry, which, when it comes to the home insurance, translates into ‘it’s better to pay a little for a while than wait for something to happen and waste a ton of money at once’.

At the same time, there’re several things homeowners may do to reduce the cost of their home insurance without detriment to the level and the reliability of the insurance coverage. These little agreement adjustment tricks and home improvements will hopefully contribute to that cause and allow you to save quite a considerable amount of money in the long run.

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Ways to lower home insurance

  1.   Don’t pay for something you don’t need. Review your insurance policy and exempt the provisions you don’t need the insurance for. For instance, if your house doesn’t really feature any sophisticated and valuable artwork or/and jewelry, you might cross them out of the list of the items under protection and save some money. In addition to that, you may review the cost of your expensive technology pieces (due to the fact that they lose their value over time) and lower the insurance cost that way. It’s important to remember to go over those provisions every two-three years to exclude the excessive insurance payments for the items that went down in cost or the items you no longer own.
  2.  If you’ve been cooperating with the same insurance company for a while, don’t hesitate to renegotiate the cost and ask for a minor loyalty discount. Normally, most companies have those available for their permanent clients.
  3.  According to the statistics, floods are among the top 3 reasons for the insurance claims. If your house is located in a high flooding risk area, find a general contractor and conduct a bunch of flood protection home improvements to minimize the flooding damages and lower your flooding insurance premium. By the way, if your local area is prone to flooding, you need to be aware of the fact that most standard home insurance policies don’t cover water damage, thus you need to opt for a separate flooding policy if you haven’t already. Also, you may learn about flood protection and prevention measures on Houselogic.com.
  4. Install smoke and CO detection alarms to improve your home safety use this factor as an additional accident precaution that convinces some of the insurance agents to lower your monthly policy payments.
  5. Seek for the retirement discounts. Most companies provide special insurance policies for the retired. And, if you’re 55 or older, you should totally make the full use of them.
  6.  Make your house less prone to intrusion. Cooperate with a reliable security installer to set up an elaborate security system in your home and backyard and lower the risks of intruder’s break-ins. The advanced door locks and security protectors for windows will add to that cause as well. The security measures will move your house from the ‘high risk of burglary’ zone and may serve as a persuasive reason for the insurance cost reduction. Some companies even encourage their clients to upgrade their home security and offer up to 15% insurance rate discounts. The only thing is that prior to making your security system choice, you need to talk to the representative of your insurance company to figure out which home security measures will guarantee the cost reduction. This will save you a ton of money on expensive equipment and security pro’s services.
  7.  If you haven’t made any insurance payment claims during an extended period of time, your company may consider you as a low-risk client. Thus, it may accept your application an insurance premium reduction, based on this reason.
  8. If you’re able to do so, increase your deductible (the sum you agree to pay out of your own pocket in addition to the insurance claim to cover the damage). However, you have to refrain from doing that unless you know that you’re able to bear such expenses no matter when something bad happens.
  9. Maintain your house in a great condition. Leaking roofs, water pipes lacking winter insulation, old water heaters, windows and doors without storm protection (within certain areas, of course), big tree branches hanging above the house, old fireplaces and chimneys, old buildings in general and many other factors that determine the general condition of your home and serve as insurance cost boosters. Try to eliminate them (for instance, hire a roofing contractor from HireRush.com to fix your roof and cross out one of the major damage concerns of insurance companies) and apply for an insurance cost review.
  10. Stick to the same company when buying your home and care insurance policies and try to get them at the same time to catch a discount most companies offer for a double purchase. Do your research to find the best deal, but make sure to base your choice primarily on the companies’ respectability and customer reviews.
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