Its no secret that insurance rates are on the rise. The home insurance market is being impacted by significant increases in labor, materials and a huge increase in reinsurance pricing. While most pricing are on the rise, your policy doesn’t have too. There are several ways to lower your insurance rates, some can happen at any time, some at purchase of the home, some are long term and slow.
Here are a few examples of each.
- For the quick fix number one is shopping your coverages. If you have been at the same company for a decade, I can nearly guarantee you can save money by shopping for coverage. I recommend shopping every 3-5 years and if you have an independent agency such as Millennium Brokers Group a quick call will take care of all the fork for you. If you are at a national captive agency and the agent only represents one carrier you will need to put it more work, like calling a great independent agency.
- Increase your deductible. Raising your deductible immediately reduces your cost, but make sure you pick a deductible you can afford. As your deductible is the first dollars paid on a claim
- Not to infringe on Flo, but seriously, consider bundling your coverages. I our agency less than 5% of our clients save money using 2 separate carriers. They offer discounts and sometimes offer common cause of loss deductibles when multiple pieces of property are damage. Such as waiving your auto deductible if auto and home damaged from hailstorm.
Saving money on future insurance cost when buying a home should be at the top of your house buying checklist.
- On a home purchase, how old is the roof? Does it have damage? Can a roof be negotiated into the price? Insurance can very 40% in pricing based on roof age. Not to mention you also have 5 times more carriers wanting your business when your roof is less than 10 years old.
- Location Location Location. Buying a house location is key for value but also in insurance. House in town may save money with a great fire district rating opposed to the house in the country with a low rated fire department rating. Flood plain or in a low area that could become a flood plain will cost you thousands of dollars or could.
- Age, new houses will save you money over older homes.
The final things you can do to save money on home insurance are pretty long term.
- Have and keep good credit! This is huge, the saving from good credits scores can lower rates easily by 25-30%.
- Pay off your home. Homes with not mortgages do receive a discount.
- Insure your home properly and for replacement cost. Believe it or not but insuring a home for ACV coverage (its value to you, known as actual cash value) cost more than replacement cost even though it is a lessor number. Why, because ACV homes are usually not well taken care of, and 2 they are almost always an issue at claim time and carriers price it accordingly.
If want to know more give us a call to review your policy. Our team at Millennium Brokers can help do a full policy review and compare rates with about 15-20 companies.