Saturday, February 7, 2009

Affordable Home Insurance Rates -- Have You Used These Tips?

By Chimezirim Odimba

Affordable Home Insurance Rates: You don't need to do great things in most cases in order to bring down your rates. It's generally small things that result in massive savings. I'll take the pains here to reveal such things...

1. Having dead-bolt locks on all exterior door will reduce your home insurance rate. They will make it harder for burglars to get into your home. And as you know, the less the risk of burglary in a house, the cheaper premiums it will attract.

2. If you can purchase an umbrella policy and then reduce your home liability coverage you will save a lot. The extra advantage here is that although you will spend much less, you will also receive superior coverage.

Remember what the liability part of your home insurance policy is for: To protect you from losses you could suffer due to injuries to people on your property. Moreover, if a lawsuit results from such an injury, it also takes care of it. But like all things in insurance, there is a limit to the amount that is covered and your home liability coverage might even be totally inadequate.

Nevertheless, an umbrella insurance policy will typically cater fully for even the most cost-intensive of lawsuits and all it would have cost you is just a negligible premium amount.

3. Affordable quotes, while interesting, should be considered only after checking the insurance provider's rating. You do NOT want to pay your premiums faithfully only to realize later that your insurer cannot keep to its part for a number of reasons. It doesn't take much time to verify from your state's department of insurance's website. You can simply verify an an insurance company's rating there (and even if they even licensed to sell insurance in your state).

Independent organizations like BBB, A.M Best Company, Standard & Poor's Insurance Rating Services, Moody's Investor Services, Inc. will also give you information that will help you determine if an an insurance company is worth it.

4. Having a smoker in your home will raise your rates substantially. With over 23,000 residential fires being as a result of smoking you will agree that it is actually an important factor. Non-smoking households pay less than homes with smokers. If you're a smoker at the time you bought your policy, you are entitled to a review if you have stopped. What if your insurer refuses to give you discounts because some companies do NOT have non-smokers discounts? Then it's time to shop for an insurer who does unless you get something else to justify your continued stay with such an insurance company.

5. Make sure you do NOT leave ladders hanging around. They could actually help a burglar. Don't also abandon your tools, machinery or things like that on the lawn or wherever in the open as they could result to accidental injury and increase your liability claims. just as with ladders, tools and such could aid a burglar in breaking into your house. Keep them well and you'll not increase your rate.

6. You can get cheaper quotes on home insurance today by visiting a minimum of five quotes sites. Each site will take you about 5 minutes or less to receive quotes. (Some folks present information that are not quite correct about themselves. That isn't wise since the quotes you'll get this way will NOT do you any good). You'll have to pick the best home insurance quote for you from the list of quotes returned. That's all there is to it. But you could easily save hundreds of dollars.

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