Smart consumers are always finding ways to lessen their household expenses without significantly lessening the quality of their lifestyles and safety and security levels. Here are ways to reduce your house insurance cost without lowering the amount of your insurance coverage.
First, buy your house insurance and car insurance policies from the same insurance company. Some insurance firms also offer insurance packages called umbrella policies or bundled policies that include your house insurance, auto insurance and other liability insurance.
Secondly, increase your home insurance deductible to about 1 percent of the amount of your house insurance so your insurance firm can reduce your insurance premium by about 25 percent. An insurance deductible is the portion of damage you will bear or pay before the insurance firm pays your claim. Deductibles are used by insurance firms to prevent small claims and to help them carry risks.
Another way is to remove special coverages that you do not need from your house insurance policy, like coverage for expensive house contents such as paintings and antiques and jewelry if you do not have them and coverage for earthquake if you are not in an earthquake-prone area.
Make sure your homeowners insurance agent has included all discounts available from your insurance firm, like discounts for updated fire and burglary systems, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. If you are a non-smoker or if you are more than 55 years old, the insurance firm might have some discounts for you.
Eliminate risks that most home insurance firms consider as costly hazards, such as owning a trampoline, dangerous dogs like pit bulls and rottweilers and a swimming pool.
Ask for advice from your agent about how you can improve your risks to get more premium discounts. Insurers put credits on home improvements that reduce damages during storms and that reduce accident risks.
Maintain your good credit score or further improve it by not using up all your available credit card limits, by not having too many credit accounts and by paying all your monthly dues on time.
Lastly, before you switch house insurance firms to avail of lower rates, make sure the discount you will get from the new insurance firm is much higher than the loyalty benefits you are getting from your current insurance firm. Make sure also that the new insurance company has been operating and servicing insurance claims adequately for many years. See to it that your house insurance firm is a reliable and reputable company by checking the site consumeraction.gov/insurance.shtml and the sites of the top rating agencies.
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