Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Tested Tips For Cheap Premiums And Extensive Cover

By Chimezirim Odimba

It's yours to decide whether or not to insure your home if you bought it cash without any mortgagor. But in spite of this you will agree with me that people still opt to keep a home insurance policy even after they have cleared their mortgage. For most of us our home represents our single most important investment and/or property. Therefore, we really don't mind the extra expense that buying protection against its loss entails.

But we all will be glad to much less if the quality of coverage we get won't be compromised. Good a thing, this article presents practical ways to reduce your home insurance rates.

Having your premium removed automatically from your account will bring about lower premiums. Simply let your bank know that you intend to set up an EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) in favor of your insurance provider. Apart from being more convenient, you'll get a discount for this.

Do you have smoke and fire detectors installed? Fix the right numbers of smoke and fire detectors for your size and type of home if you intend to use this to get lower rates.

The reason for this deduction in your rates is that these make it much easier for fires to be spotted before they can cause any damage. And since the risk of fire in a house is important in calculating home insurance rates, you'll pay far less by taking this step.

Get a group home insurance policy if you can because you'll attract a cheaper rate with it. It's also a good idea to check with associations you are part of if they have any group discount from any insurer.

I will, nevertheless, recommend that you still get and compare quotes from other insurance companies that your association may have no group discounts with. This is because you may end up finding an insurance company that is willing to take less than you will even receive with an group discount. There is stiff competition in the home insurance niche and you can benefit from this to get lower rates if you spend some time to do thorough shopping and comparisons. Don't leave ladders in places where someone can easily use them. You might be helping thieves with the very equipment they need for their operation. Don't also leave pieces of tools lying around. Like ladders, tools and such could aid a burglar in breaking into your house. Keep them away safely and you'll be avoiding a high rate.

Take out some time to visit at least 5 insurance quotes sites that return quotes on home insurance policies. It should take you around 25 minutes.

While you visit each site, make sure you give the same information. Doing otherwise will give you misleading results. After you've obtained your home insurance quotes, compare them to see which serves your interest best in price/value.

While obtaining cheap rates should be of interest to you, you should be more interested in an insurance company's rating. It is one thing to pay your premiums diligently and another thing for an insurer to abide by policy terms. It does not take much time to find out from your state's department of insurance's website. You can easily find out an insurance company's rating there (and even if they even licensed to sell 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'll do well to visit before you purchase a policy from any insurer.

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