Home insurance is a necessity for homeowners. After all, a home is a very big investment and it is only proper that you provide adequate insurance coverage on your investment so that you will not be on the losing end should anything happen. The issue with home insurance is that it can be very costly, especially when you are trying to get the best coverage possible. The reason for this is that insurers assess your home insurance premium based on the risks that your home is exposed to. Here are ways on how you can reduce the cost of your home insurance premium.
Increase Your Home Security
By increasing your home security, say installing surveillance systems, replacing your door locks with more durable and dependable ones, adding grills to your glass windows, installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers around the property, and making sure that all your doors and windows are hard to break into you will surely get discounts on the home insurance you are getting. Adding any of these safety home improvements will surely help in reducing your home insurance premium.
- Consolidate Policies
Most home insurance companies provide discounts if you insure all your insurance needs with them. For example, if you have a car, you can get discounts if you insure your car with them. Some discounts can even amount up to 30% in total insurance cost savings. The additional advantage to doing this is that you only need to deal with one broker or agent when getting your home insurance.
- Appliance and Equipment Upgrade
If your home is a bit aged, replacing the roofing, the electrical, the plumbing, HVAC, and water heating system will surely allow you to get discounts on your home insurance premium. The reason is because your home is no longer in a risky situation which is why insurance adjusters can quickly deem your home as safe and therefore issue with a low home insurance premium.
- Credit Score
While it may not really look like credit score does not have anything to do with insurance rates, it actually does. This is because a good credit score indicates your overall responsibility. As the theory goes, if a person is deemed responsible, then the insurers will have less insurance claim to worry about. This means that insurance companies are giving individuals with good credit scores lower insurance premiums.
- Do Not Over-Insure
There are lots of home insurance coverage that seems very tempting. However, it is important that the cost of the home insurance premium you are paying should not be the cost of your home. The overall value of your home can be calculated to its selling price so this should be the rough estimate on what you will be aiming for. Keep in mind that insurers will not pay for more than what it is really going to cost to rebuild the property anyway. Make sure that you only get the necessary insurance coverage you need and that you are insured correctly.
- Keep Free from Low Deductibles
Deductibles are part of your claim which needs to be paid before your insurer pays for any claim. Lower deductible means higher premiums. Most homeowners will carry around a $500 deductible. However, if you raise your deductible to around $1000, you will be able to get better savings on your overall premium. This is better savings than going for a much lower deductible. Of course, you also need to keep in mind that you should never raise your deductible to an amount that you cannot pay just because you are looking to get better savings as this may bite you in the end when making claims.
- Shop Around
When it comes to buying home insurance, it always pays to do some research. If you are buying home insurance, try to research on the coverage that you need so that you won’t be asking a lot of questions on coverage when it comes time to buying it. Once you are ready to buy home insurance, try to ask for different home insurance quotes from different insurers. Insurance brokers will usually be able to provide you with different quotes under one stop. Once you have different insurance quotes from different insurers, you have the option of choosing which insurers you may want to buy home insurance from.
