Homeowner Insurance -- 7 Sure Tips

You can get high value coverage without breaking the bank. You only need the right recommendations and the discipline to practice what you'll learn to get a more affordable rate. Here are several tips that will help you achieve this goal...

1. It is more expensive but needless to insure the land on which your house is standing. People who ignorantly do this pay for more insurance than would be of any benefit. They just insure their house for its entire value without removing the cost of the land.

If you did this quickly call your agent and check through your home insurance policy. Subtract the cost of your land and use only the cost of your structures and its contents.

With such a review you will lower your rates considerably and still leave with enough home insurance coverage. Since insurance is for valuables that you can't afford to lose, insuring the land which can neither be lost or damaged isn't a smart move.

Insurance Quotes

2. What you pay as premium is influenced by your credit rating. You'll attract higher home insurance premiums if you have a poor credit rating. A bad credit rating implies that you've not been paying your bills promptly. No insurer is happy with this as it suggests a pattern you are quite likely to repeat in the payment of premiums. If you're considered a likely defaulter, it makes you a higher risk and attracts much higher premiums than otherwise.

So do all within your power to pay all your bills in a timely manner. It makes it easier for you to get lower rates among other things.

3. Yearly premium payments will save you much when compared to monthly payments. Your insurance carrier sends 12 notices for monthly payments as opposed to one for yearly payments. This increases their overhead.

If you include the fact that each check you make out is considered a transaction by their bankers, you will see that they still spend some more on transaction charges for each check you pay in. 12 checks are 12 transactions which incur 12 separate transaction charges. These and other costs so incurred by your insurer are ultimately borne by you, the insured..

Therefore opt for annual payments instead if you want to save through this means. The real amount you could save might differ but expect to save up to a month's premium worth with most insurance companies if you settle for this option.

4. A fire-safe home exterior will help bring down your rates. You'll be doing the right thing if you ensure there's nothing that's inflammable close to your home. As easy as it seems, cutting back bushes and maintaining them up to 10 feet from your structures will help lower your rates. The likelihood of fire in a home is one very strong issue that shapes your home insurance premium.

5. Motion-sensitive lighting lowers your home's risk of burglary and, as a result, makes it easier for you to get cheaper home insurance premiums. Burglars will avoid any place where their movement will be easily observed. And motion-sensitive lighting does just that. Since thieves avoid homes with such lighting, you lower your home's risk of burglary and, by extension, your premiums.

Insurance Quotes

6. Fixing dead-bolt locks on all exterior door will lower your home insurance premium. This makes it hard for intruders or burglars to break in. And as you know, the less the risk of burglary in a house, the more affordable rates it will draw.

7. Do you have locks on all your windows? If you don't you will be spending more because of that. You'll save even a lot more if you go further to get burglary-proof bars fitted on every window. Even though some people do not like this because it makes them feel like a prisoner in their own house, it really does lower your premium by a good amount. If you are not opposed to this quickly fix them in your home and get lower rates.