Sunday, April 26, 2009

8 Very Easy Tips For Purchasing Cheaper Home Insurance

By William Hazelhurst

Noone likes having to pay for homeowners insurance but it is a necessary evil for most of us. However, this does not mean you need to pay through the nose for it though and so here are 8 very simple tips to lower the cost of your homeowners insurance.

1. Shop around. By comparing prices from a number of insurance companies you will almost certainly be able to lower your premium payments by a substantial amount. This could seem to be obvious, but research suggests that a surprisingly large proportion of people either simply renew their existing plan or ask for just one or two quotes. Many insurance web sites automatically compare dozens of plans for you thereby making this one of the simplest ways to reduce your home insurance bill.

2. Purchase your insurance online. If you get your plan online you will often get a discount of up to 20% on normal prices because there are less administration costs involved and the savings can be passed on to you.

3. Combine both your contents and buildings plans. A lot of insurers will allow you a discount if you arrange both types of home insurance with them and this generally works out cheaper than getting the two plans from different companies.

4. Pay upfront. While the vast majority of insurance companies let you pay your premiums each month many of them will charge interest for this. So, if you are able to afford to pay a full year's premium in advance, then this will work out cheaper in the longer term.

5. Don't submit claims for small amounts of money. Putting in many small claims can raise your insurance costs because your insurance company may consider you to be a greater risk and raise your premiums. You may also lose any no claims discount that your plan has. Of course, you are entitled to submit a claim for anything that your policy covers but ask yourself whether making a small claim is really worth the work involved and any possible future increase in costs.

6. Consider arranging for a high voluntary excess on your plan. Policies feature something which is known as an 'excess' and this means that the policy will not pay out on claims under a specified value. On some policies when you choose to increase your excess your premium payments will be reduced.

7. Increase the security on your home. Raising your home security with better door locks, window locks, lighting, and alarm systems will normally result in reduced premiums.

8. lower your level of cover. Many plans include benefits that you may not need like cover for personal items when you are traveling or 'free' legal advice. Study your policy and see which sections of it you really need.

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