How to save money on home insurance?
Homeowners’ insurance can be tough to swallow, but you’ll want to take a long look at this list of tips and strategies to lower your costs. While there are some factors that are beyond your control, such as the construction date of your home and its location, there are other things that you have input on. By following this article’s advice, you will learn how to effectively reduce your homeowner’s insurance premiums and start saving money today.
Raise Your Deductible
Whenever you open a new insurance account, the first thing that happens is that an investigation needs to be held to ensure the provider determines how much they believe you would be worth insuring. This lower amount is dubbed the deductible and it serves as a baseline for your insurance coverage taking effect.
File Claims Judiciously
Homeowner insurance differs from auto or other kinds of insurance in that you can file a claim for damage to your home or property even if you weren’t at fault. In general, an insurer will only pay out as much as the policy’s limits and your deductible. For instance, if you report an incident that costs $1,500 and has a $1,000 deductible, the company will pay $500 toward repairs.
Play It Safe
Some insurance companies reduce premiums for homeowners who take steps to reduce risk like installing an alarm system, deadbolt locks, and other devices. Insurance companies often offer discounts for having smoke detectors or a fire alarm, living in a gated community, and for updating the oldest homes with modern electrical, heating, and plumbing systems.
Address Risks to Kids
Home features like trampolines, swimming pools, or water features that could put children in danger are known as “attractive nuisances.” These things pose a risk to children on the property and attract them, and if they are injured, the homeowner could be liable. Taking out an insurance plan or adding liability coverage and removing the nuisance or barricading it off can help reduce your homeowner’s insurance premiums.
Bundle Your Insurance Policies
If you want to save money on auto insurance and homeowners insurance, consider bundling these policies with the same company. It’s called bundling, but it’s really isn’t a bundle at all! This is just taking advantage of something called cross-selling where you can get great benefits by combining several policies (like car and homeowner) into one package that could be more comprehensive than each individual policy altogether.