Twelve Ways To Save On Your Home Insurance

Here are 12 ways to slash the cost of your home insurance. A wide variety of discounts are available, ranging from the type of building material used to build your home to how close you live to a fire station. These discounts will vary by state and insurance company.
Shop around
Check with several different home insurance companies to get rate quotes (an independent insurance agent can provide rate quotes from a variety of companies). Do your friends or family members like their home insurance company?
Raise your deductible
The deductible is the amount of money you have to pay toward a loss before your insurance kicks in. Typically, home insurance deductibles start at $250.
Increase your deductible to:
$500 and save up to 12 percent on your premiums.
$1,000 and save up to 24 percent.
$2,500 and save up to 30 percent.
$5,000 and save up to 37 percent.
Make sure you can afford to pay the higher deductible out of pocket if something should happen.
Buy your home and auto policies from the same company
Many companies will give a multiline discount if you buy both home insurance and auto coverage from them.
Consider insurance when buying a home
If you’re looking at buying a home, think about the cost of insuring the home. A newer home’s electrical, heating, and plumbing systems and overall structure are likely to be in better condition than those of an older home. This can lead to a discount on your premiums.
You’ll also want to consider the construction of the home and where you live. If you live on the Atlantic Coast, you’ll want the house to be able to stand up to wind damage, while on the Pacific Coast, you need to keep earthquakes in mind.
Insure your home, not the land
While your home and its contents are at risk from fire, theft, windstorms, and other perils, the land your home sits on is not. Don’t include the value of the land in deciding how much home insurance you need to buy. Your agent can help you assess the coverage you need.
Improve security and safety
Items such as dead bolt locks, burglar alarms, and smoke detectors can usually bring discounts of 5 percent each, depending on the company. Your insurance company may also offer a significant discount of 15 or 20 percent if you install a sophisticated home-security system. If you’re thinking about buying such a system, check with your insurer to see which systems you’ll get a discount for.