Looking for ways to lower your home insurance costs? Here are just a couple ways you can do it:
- Multi-Policy discounts. Ask your agent or broker if your insurance company offers discounts for adding auto, motorcycle, motor home, or life insurance policies to your account. You may not only save up to 25% on your homeowners insurance, you’ll consolidate your insurance and make it easier to manage.
- Ask about discounts for your line of work or college degree. Several insurance companies consider you a safer client if you have a college degree or work in government positions such as a police officer, teacher, firefighter, military, etc.
- Consider a higher deductible for your home. Insurance is designed to cover damage and injuries that you normally can’t afford. If you have a $500 or $1,000 deductible, look into $1,500 or $2,500 and see what the difference in rate is. A lot of times you will save enough money in just a couple years to make up the difference in deductible.
- Update and modernize your home. The age of your plumbing, heating, air conditioning plays a role in determining your rate. Older core features are more likely to break and cause a costly fire or leak.
- Consider replacing your roof with a more modern, fire resistant material. A new synthetic tile, or asphalt shingle roof will not only make your home look great, but they are some of the most fire retardant roofing materials available. Your roof age and material type make a massive difference in your rates.
- Review your coverage at least every other year to make sure you’re not insuring the structure for more than the estimated cost to rebuild. Many insurance companies have an inflation guard built into their policies, where they automatically increase the amount of insurance by 4-8% per year to keep pace with an assumed increased cost to rebuild.
- Before you file a claim for something minor, find out how much it costs to repair it. If you can repair inexpensively, then do that rather than filing a claim. Homeowners insurance claims happen much less frequently than auto claims, so insurance companies treat them more severely. Your rate will increase for 3-5 years and if you have more than 1 claim in a 5 year period, most standard insurance companies will non-renew you, forcing into the sub-substandard insurance market. You’ll end up getting worse coverage for more money.
CONTACT US AND SAVE ON YOUR INSURANCE
Owner of Paul Nelson Insurance, and resident of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties for 30 years.