Your home is your most important asset. The building provides shelter for you and your family. It’s filled with memories and materials dear to your heart. Unfortunately every year thousands of homes are destroyed by fires, accidents, storms, theft, and property damage. Is your home covered?
One reason it may not have adequate coverage is the recent economic crisis, which is understandable. But what does not make sense is what will happen if a disaster does destroy your home. Then what financial shape will your family be in?
There are ways you can save on your home insurance costs. First of all, you can raise your insurance deductible. Just raising the deductible to the next highest level can save you hundreds of dollars a year on your insurance premiums. You are still covered, yet you are spending less for insurance. Just make sure you can meet the deductible in case something happens and you need to file an insurance claim.
Protect your home with safety devices such as smoke and burglar alarms if you haven’t already. Insurance providers reduce premiums for homes well protected.
Purchasing additional policies like car or life insurance from the same company will also reduce costs greatly. “Bundling” your policies, as it is commonly referred to as, reduces costs substantially.
Always insure your home for 100% of the cost to replace the home in the event of a disaster or damage of the property. “Insured to value” as it is defined, will save you money on your premium and provide you will adequate coverage.
Also, make sure you maintain a strong credit score. Many insurance providers will examine your credit report and scores as part of the insurance process. The providers use your credit score to help develop their own insurance score, which decides how high of a risk you are. The higher the risk, the higher the insurance premiums. Many insurance providers believe a good credit score is an indicator of responsibility, meaning you will pay your premiums on time and won’t file excessive insurance claims. You can obtain a copy of your credit report from the credit bureaus and review it for mistakes. Correcting mistakes can help boost your credit score. So can paying down debt.
As you can see, there are numerous ways to save or reduce your home insurance premium. Simply cutting back costs or eliminating the policy altogether is not very responsible. Protect your best asset.
Tom Martens is the syndication coordinator Insurance-south-africa.co.za. South Arica’s leading Insurance information portal.
Tags: car insurance, disability insurance, Finance Personal Finance, Household Insurance, Insurance, life insurance, Loans, Money, Personal Insurance, Property