fbpx

Money Saving Articles

Tips for lowering home insurance costs

Tips for lowering home insurance costsSaving money on your homeowners insurance is easier than you think and you do have the option of shopping around. Follow these tips to lower your home insurance costs.

Before buying a house, make sure to lookup the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE) report. The CLUE report tracks insurance claims for properties and if your house has a bad claims history, your insurance premiums will be much higher.

Make sure you shop around to get the best homeowners insurance rates possible. You can compare quotes online just like you do with car insurance. Remember to call your local insurance agents and see if they can do anything for you; local agents have more incentive than ever to lower their rates to get you to sign with them.

Combine homeowners insurance, auto insurance and any other insurance policies you have to get the biggest discounts. It usually pays to have combined policies, but make sure to do your research beforehand so you get the best deal.

Lower your home’s insurance risk by installing and maintaining all proper safety features, such as smoke detectors, deadbolts and security systems. Don’t forget to ask your agent about anything else you can do to lower your home’s risk. Alarm systems can sometimes decrease your premiums up to 20%. Smokers also have higher premiums because smoking accidents account for over 25,000 residential fires every year.

Don’t buy coverage you don’t need. Many people are overprotecting their home without even realizing it. For instance, if you live in an area that isn’t prone to earthquakes, don’t pay extra for earthquake coverage. If you don’t have expensive jewelry, don’t add a jewelry floater to your policy.

Improve your credit score and stay on top of all financial matters. Your credit score is a huge part of determining your insurance rates so make sure you aren’t hurting yourself by letting your score dip.

Raise your deductible. If you can afford a higher deductible, your premiums will go down significantly.

Only make claims that are much higher than your deductible. If your deductible is $1,000, don’t make a claim for $1,200. You’re only going to get $200 back and the claim may raise your premiums the following year by that much or more.

Don’t include value of the land when deciding how much coverage to get. Your house is at risk of theft, fire or vandalism, but the land your house sits on is not.

4 Responses

  • Posted by Frank on Jan 10, 2011

    Good ideas, thank you.

  • Posted by Chris on Jan 21, 2011

    These are great ideas for lowering home insurance.

  • Posted by Joe on Jan 24, 2011

    Wow this is a great resource…great articles for saving money.

  • Posted by Mickey on May 30, 2011

    Also check what your coverages actually are. I just found out that I was covered for $75,000 for the contents of my home. When I actually found out what was covered and how, I only have about $25k that I could actually claim. I had been paying for coverage I couldn’t have ever used.

Post a Comment