- Increasing your deductible is an area where you can save significant amounts of money on your home insurance. The Typical home deductible is $1,000. Increasing your deductible to $2,500 can save you up to 12%. $5,000 can save you up to 26%. It is important to have that money as disposable income if you choose to go with the higher deductible because, of course, you will be responsible for the first $2,500 or $5,000.
- Do not put in small claims that could be paid out of pocket. I see this all too much with homeowners. Without the support of a claims advocate, many homeowners think if it is covered than you should put the claim in. This cannot be further from the truth. Small claims in many cases are looked at by the insurance company to be worse than a big claim. The insurance companies usually view big claims as unavoidable, and without home insurance would cause a serous hardship for the homeowner. This is what home insurance is designed to protect against. Home insurance is not designed to cover a few shingles blown off the house from wind. If you can afford to pay for it out of pocket, pay it. Small claims will lead to significant surcharges and multiple claims can even lead to being non-renewed by the insurance company. That will usual double or even triple your rate if you are forced to be placed with Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriters’ Association.
- Give up smoking. Smoking accounts for more than 23,000 residential fires every year. Many insurance companies reduce premiums if no one smokes in the house. Giving up smoking will also save you far more than what you save on your home insurance bill.
- Install an Alarm system in your home. Alarms can offer up to a 15% discount on your home insurance. The level of percentage depends on the performance of the alarm. For instance, having an alarm that is monitored by a company like ADT provides a much better discount than one that is just sound only and not monitored. Having both your burglar and your fire alarms monitored offers the largest discount percentage.
- Another area to save money with home insurance is by either buying a newly constructed home or having substantial improvements made to your home. New construction homes cost far less to insure than older homes. If you have an older home, you can still take advantage of this by updated the major systems of your home such as the roof, electrical, heating, and plumbing.
These are five things that you can do to save on home insurance. The most important one that I did not list is simply being a responsible homeowner. Repair things that need to be repaired in a timely fashion. Shovel your driveway and walkways during storms. Make sure your gutters are clear and able to move water away from the home. These are just some of the things you can do to minimize the likelihood of a claim occurring on your property. Responsible homeowners are far less likely to have a claim than those who do not take care of their homes in this way.