Affordable Home Insurance Rates — These Tips Work

Affordable Home Insurance Rates: You don’t have to do exceptional things in most cases in order to bring down your rates. It’s usually little things that help you get big discounts. Following are several things that will help you achieve that goal…

1. Make sure every door that leads outside has dead-bolt locks. It’s harder for burglars to break into homes that have such locks. And as you know, the lower the risk of burglary in a house, the more affordable premiums it will draw.

2. Cut down on your homeowners’ liability coverage while you get an umbrella policy instead and you’ll lower your rate substantially. You pay a lot less for better coverage from liability claims this way.

Don’t forget what the liability part of your home insurance policy caters for: To protect you from losses you could suffer because of injuries to people on your property. Lawsuits that may result from any injury claims are as well covered. However, every liability coverage has limits that might inadequate to deal with some lawsuits.

Nevertheless, an umbrella insurance policy will easily cater fully for even the most cost-intensive of lawsuits and all you’d have to pay are very small premiums.

3. While obtaining cheap rates should excite you, you should be more interested in an insurer’s rating. You do NOT want to pay your premiums diligently only to discover later that your insurer can’t keep to its part for a number of reasons. Do your best to check with your state’s department of insurance website. You can easily verify an an insurance company’s rating there (and even if they even licensed to provide insurance in your state).

BBB, A.M Best Company, Phelps, Inc., Standard & Poor’s Insurance Rating Services, Moody’s Investor Services, Inc. are resources that you will do well to visit before you buy a policy from any company.

4. A home that has a smoker or smokers will receive more expensive rates. With over 23,000 residential fires being as a result of smoking you will agree that it is actually an important issue. Do your best to make sure nobody smokes in your home and you’ll get cheaper premiums. If you were a smoker at the time you bought your policy, you are eligible for a discount if you have stopped. If your insurer refuses to reduce your premiums after you’ve stopped, switch to another insurance company.

5. Make sure you don’t leave ladders hanging around. You might be providing thieves with the very tools they need for their activity. Don’t also leave your tools, machinery or such on the lawn or anywhere in the open as they could result to accidental injury and increase your liability claims. Burglars will have an easier time breaking into a home that provides them such opportunities. Keeping these things properly will save you a lot of heartaches along with cheaper premiums.

6. You will save a lot if you only have between 25-30 minutes. Visit, get and compare home insurance quotes from several insurance quotes sites. The lowest offer should be your choice easily. Nevertheless, you have to go beyond simply the lowest price to the best price to value ratio. The lowest priced may not offer the best price/value for you as an individual.