The Save Money Blog

Posts Tagged ‘House Insurance’

I am all for being insured. I have had to use it a couple of times and I was glad that I had it. There are so many kinds of insurance available like health insurance, car insurance, disability insurance and so on. If you tried to cover all of your bases you could end up being what I call insurance poor. If you are struggling to save money or want to save money reviewing your insurance policies is a good place to start.

A friend was telling me her story last week about a car accident she was in. Her car was a beater and wasn't worth the collision payments she was making on it. She could have put her collision money away in a bank account and put that money towards a newer car. I was making mortgage insurance payments on a small mortgage I have while at the same time being covered under the terms of my life insurance. I was double paying.

Take a look at your policies and I bet there is a way you can cut down on your expenses.

There are enough annoying commercials on tv advertising every kind of insurance you could ever imagine. It almost looks like they are giving it away. It probably wouldn't hurt to look at insurance online and maybe get a quote or two to compare what you are currently paying. I work with a person that did just that and she ended up saving some pretty good money in the long run. If you are looking online and getting quotes done make sure you research any company that you are thinking of doing business with. Search for the name of the company and look for complaint type websites to get as much information as possible. People are bound to write bad reports about companies more than they would good one so you have to decide for yourself if they are just complainers or if they have a legit complaint. Just make sure you do the research before you commit.

I am a big tv watcher and usually get caught up watching the odd info commercial or paying attention to those commericals that are on over and over. Today they were playing one over and over about Mesothelioma cancer and how time is running out to get a claim in. It got me to thinking about insurance for some reason. Things change in people lives. One minute you are single and the next you are married with children. Is your insurance for your life, house and car enough for your current situation? It might be worth having a look over if your life has changed.

My friends were recently talking about saving some money on their house insurance. There are serveral ways that you can save on the amount of money that you pay every year in house insurance.

Invest in a home security system. Call your insurance company and see if they offer rebates for having home slarm systems. You would be suprised. You just have to make sure the the monthly fees aren't great than the savings for the year. If they then you aren't doing yourself much good if you are looking to safe.

Combine your policies. If you have different insurance companies for your different items you can get great savings by putting them all with the same company. It's like bunding your tv and phone services.

Raise your decductable up to $1,000. If you something goes wrong with your house and is under this amount the chances are you aren't calling them anyways. I have read you can save as much as 25% by just raising your deductable from $500 to a $1,000.

Those are just a coule of ways that you can cut down on your home insurance costs. Remember once you save a little on your insurance costs put it towards paying off that credit card or loan.

We had this promotion at my place of employment recently to get an insurance quote from a company that they were promoting. The hook was just by getting a quote you could enter into a draw for a tv. They have a second draw on now for money so I sat down and got some quotes on my house and car insurance, as did a few other people.

Here are a few things that I gained insight into by going through the process:

1. A friend did a quote two months ago and just redid one with the exact same information and the price went up by $400 for her car insurance. Something there just isn't adding up. Do your math when looking into changing companies and if something doesn't seem right it usually isn't.

2. Remember if you are switching half way through your policy then you will have to pay a fee to break your contract which might end up costing you more in the long run. That is if the savings with the new company you are switching to isn't as high as the cancellation penalty.

3. Be careful of introductry offers. Some companies will give you a sweet first year rate and then jack up the price by a large amount from there on in. Ask to see if what you are getting is the rate forever or just an introductry rate and if you are on the hook for anything past that date.

4. Make sure you are getting the same coverage and deductable amounts that you are getting now. You might be saving money but not have the same coverage.

I was leafing through the endless pages of my insurance policy the other day and was wondering when mine is up for renewal. It's a few months away. I am absent minded sometimes and forgot that I had renewed this year. I went to the companies website and you can sign up for a feature where they mail you a reminder prior to the insurance coming due. The best part of this is that you can look over your existing policy if you are happy or give yourself a bit of time to look at getting other insurance quotes. Either way you will have peace of mind that you are getting the best price for your insurance. If your company doesn't have that feature maybe add a notification to your planner software a month ahead of time to give yourself enough time.

It's always interesting how some people will shop around for days or even weeks before buying a lawnmower or a set of golf clubs but are happy paying the same insurance rates year after year. I was in the same boat, with the same company for year, paying the same rates that were going up every year. I woke up when I couldn't get my agent to call me back for a car insurance quote. I started calling around and found that I wasn't getting the best rate to begin with. Lesson? You are never too busy to take time out of one day a year to call around to different places and see how their rates stack up with yours. If you have like me you might just end up saving some money.

If you know somebody that doesn't like to spend money then chances are if you listen to them long enough then you will pick up tips on how to save money. I picked up a good one quite recently regarding saving money through my house insurance.

Think about your deductible. When I first started paying house insurance my deductible was $250. What I didn't realize was that the price you pay on your total annual house insurance cost is based on your deductible. The less your deductible is, the more your house insurance is.

Of course, this all depends on your current financial situation but if you have a piper burst that is going to cost you $350 to fix are you going to put it through insurance and risk having your rates go up or are you going to get if fixed and forget about it? If you have a break-in and they steal your $800 tv are you just going to replace it or put it through insurance? We both know that unless something major happens to your house you are not putting anything through insurance.

Then why not save some money each month or each year and bump your deductible up to an amount where you say to yourself and feel comfortable with just paying it off. Right now, I have had mine bumped to $1,000 for the past three years. Unless something that costs over $1,000 dollars happens I am not putting through insurance. It's a number I feel comfortable with and I benefit from the lower monthly or annual payment.

Think about what you can afford in the case of a minor happening and talk to your insurance company about increasing your deductible.