Home Insurance: Money Saving Tips
2006-03-26
There are several clever ways to save money by lowering your home insurance rates. One way is to offer to purchase all your insurance polices from them not only the homeowners insurance. Most people have several insurance policies, such as auto insurance and medical insurance and these policies are often purchased from other companies than the home insurance company. By negotiating with the home insurance company you can usually receive a lower home insurance rate by letting the home insurance company take care of your other insurance needs as well.
Carefully reading through the insurance policy is also a good way of obtaining lower home insurance rates. If you live in an area where earth quakes have not occurred during the last 10,000 years you can lower your home insurance rate by purchasing your insurance from a home insurance company that do not cover earth quake related damages.
Another way of avoiding high home insurance rates is to make sure that your home is not over charged. Many home insurance companies will offer standard values and if you no that your furniture, electronics etcetera is worth less than the standard value you can lower your home insurance rate by lowering the limit. Keep in mind that some things rapidly loos values, e.g. computer, TV and VCR. Compare the limits in your insurance policy to the current value of your inventories once a year to see if you might be able to lower your home insurance rate.
Most home insurance companies will offer you a substantially lower home insurance rate if you raise your deductible. The deductible is the amount of money that you the will have to pay out of your own pocket in case of damage. If you know that you can afford a $1,000 deductible you can receive a substantially lower home insurance rate from the home insurance company by raising the limit from $250 or $500 (typical standard deductibles) to $1,000. When you compare home insurance rates from different home insurance companies it is important that you check how high the home insurance rate would be with a higher deductible.
You can also change your home in order to receive a lower home insurance rate from the home insurance company. Many home insurance companies offer lower home insurance rates for homes that are equipped with high quality home security, e.g. alarms and double locks on both doors. If you live in a gated community you should always bring that up when you negotiate with the home insurance company, since this will usually make the home insurance company decrease your home insurance rate. The age of your home can also effect your home insurance rate, since it is common for home insurance companies to consider older homes more risky due to old plumbing, electrical systems etcetera. If you have made significant improvements in your old house, such as installing new electrical systems, you should notify the home insurance company and try to negotiate a lower home insurance rate.
The last tip when trying to lower your home insurance rate is to quit smoking, since non-smokers are offered lower home insurance rates by several home insurance companies. Smoking causes more than 20,000 residential fires a year in the United States, so it is natural for the home insurance companies to consider smokers potential hazards. If you household consists of non-smokers it can make the home insurance company drop the home insurance rate significantly.
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