Homes cost $100,000 and more on average. You would insure a car for far less than that, so it is common sense to do so for a home. The problem is that many citizens don’t do so, as it isn’t required and often times it just isn’t within the budget of everyone to do so without first learning how to get discounts.

Raise your deductible whenever you can. A higher deductible means that you are able to get a discount monthly rate, but then if something does happen you will have to pay more out of pocket to make a claim. A small deductible might only be a few hundred dollars, while a large deductible could be as higher as $5,000. Make sure that you set the deductible to an amount you could actually pay in the case of an accident.

It is recommended that you constantly keep your insurance company updated on your personal belongings. An insurance company will not insure items and objects that have not been claimed by you. Do a review of your belongings and any changes to your home at least once a year and submit them to your insurance company for safekeeping.

You will notice that insurance agencies cover a broad range of insurance types- not just solely home insurance. You can now get car insurance, life insurance, and other types from the same company. Agencies like to give small discounts for customers who have more than one insurance plan with them- it never hurts to ask even if they don’t.

A common error when calculating total insured value is to include the cost of the land in which the property sits on. You don’t need to do this, unless demanded by the insurance agency. The cost of the land is often left out since damages don’t impact the land, but rather objects within or on top of it. There may be some exceptions to this case, but in general you won’t run into any problems.

Find a home inspector to do a review of your home. Some insurance agents will even require it before they insure your home. This might lead to some upfront costs that you may not like, but it’s necessary in order to keep your home from falling apart. Faulty pipes is a good example, as it is something you could live with but in the future it will potentially cause massive water damage. If that does occur, insurance agencies might decide to not rule in your favor.

Closing Comments

Home insurance doesn’t have to drain what little funds you have after bills are paid. Check around and get as many quotes as you humanly can. With more options, you’ll also have a slew of prices and features to choose from to best match your income and insurance needs.

Learn more on Mortgage Payment Protection and Life Assurance.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Home Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.