One of the most common questions
we get from new and long-term
home insurance customers is
"how do I lower my home
insurance premium?"
There are many steps you can
take to reduce risk and be
proactive with choosing your
coverages that can ultimately
help you lower your home
insurance premium.
In today's video, we're gonna
be going over nine ways that
you can potentially use to
reduce your home insurance
premium. So let's get started.
First, you can look to increase
your deductible.
Briefly the deductible is the
portion of your covered loss
that you will be responsible
for paying before your
insurance will pick up the
rest. Typically,
insurance is there to cover
those big losses and not
maintenance or small claims.
So if you increase your
deductible to say twenty five
hundred or even five thousand,
you can usually have
significant savings on your
home insurance premium.
We suggest choosing a
deductible that fits your
financial scenario.
One that won't put you in an
uncomfortable position should
you have to pay.
But one where your home
insurance premium fits your
budget and is not overwhelming.
Two: Eliminate unnecessary
coverages. If you don't have a
garage, collectibles or any
jewelry, why bother to insure
them? Many home insurance
policies these days will
include some of these things,
even if you don't need coverage
for them.
That's why at Square One we
allow you to customize your
policy completely, so you're
not paying for unnecessary
coverages for things you don't
even own.
The third tip, don't over
insure your belongings.
Complete a household inventory
checklist. We've included one
in the description below.
This will help you make sure
you've taken inventory of all
your items, so you really can
insure it to the correct level.
Many home insurance policies
will insist that you insure
your personal property based on
an arbitrary amount of your
home's value.
This can often lead to over
insuring your personal property
and paying for coverage that
you don't really need.
In instances like this, you
should look for a provider that
can provide you customized
coverage for your property,
so you're not over insuring your
belongings.
Four: Don't over insure your
home.
Make sure you insure your home
to its rebuild value, not what
you paid for it.
What you paid was market value
for your house and land.
And in some places, depending
on when and where you buy your
home, this could be
significantly higher than the
actual cost to rebuild.
Meaning that you're paying an
unnecessary amount in insurance
premium to rebuild to the
market value, when you only
need to rebuild to the rebuild
value of your home.
Five: Consider future potential
premium increases before making
a claim.
Insurance has always been there
to help you with those big
losses that you can't handle
alone. For this reason,
when you make multiple small
claims, you could lose a
claims-free discount and even
surcharges may be applied to
your premium, ultimately
increasing enough to outweigh
the event of the small claim.
For instance, if you had a
$500 deductible and a covered
loss to your $600 TV,
is it worth making that claim
for one hundred dollars?
If you have a claims free
discount, you could lose that,
which in the long run may cost
more than that hundred dollar
claim. Six:
Keep your home in good shape.
If you replace that rotting
deck or fix those dangerous
stairs, you're going to be
preventing the risk that
someone could be injured on
your property.
Ultimately helping you reduce
the risk that you'll ever have
to pay a deductible or lose any
claims-free discounts that you
have with your home insurance
policy.
Tip seven: Replace plastic
plumbing hoses with braided
steel hoses.
Water loss is by far the most
significant category of
insurance claims for insurance
companies and providers.
The rubber and plastic hoses
attached to these appliances
quickly wear out, dry,
bulge and then burst.
One burst hose can cause
thousands of dollars in water
damage in just a few minutes.
And if you're away from your
home for a couple of days or
the afternoon, one burst hose
in a few hours can cause tens
of thousands of dollars in
damage, not to mention the
disruption to your
lifestyle while everything is
sorted out.
So make sure you look at your
appliances and see if you can
replace them with the braided
steel hosing.
This will ultimately save your
claim-free discount as you
won't need to make a water loss
claim from the plastic plumbing
hoses. Tip eight:
Update your home.
Is your roof nearing its life
expectancy? Is the hot water
tank over 10 years old or
showing signs of any rust or
wear? Does the furnace work
properly or does it continually
run all the time?
You want to keep an eye on
these things and keep them
updated as well.
Your insurance provider may
offer discounts for these
updates to your home and you
also reduce your chance of a
potential claim.
Tip nine.
Find a home insurance provider
that offers free monthly
billing. In many instances,
if you'd like to pay for your
home insurance premium on a
monthly basis, many home
insurance providers will charge
you financing fees and usually
interest. However, at
Square One where different,
you can pay your home insurance
premium on a monthly basis
without any financing fees or
interest. So there you
have it.
Nine tips on how you can
potentially save money on your
home insurance premium.
So if you'd like to get a quote
that you can completely
customize, you can head over to
square one insurance Stockholm.