Don"t Settle For Your Current Homeowner Insurance - Get the Best Deal by Knowing These 3 Things
When it comes to matters financial, many of us seem to settle for the quickest option that comes our way that we can afford.
It's just too hard to make comparisons and wrap our minds around all those money matters.
Well, true, but arming yourself with a little general knowledge will go along way in saving you a pretty penny, especially when it comes to insurance.
I single out insurance because it's the one payment we continue to make all through life, and saving even a few dollars each month is very significant.
There are a few things which if you know, will generally drive down the cost of your insurance - you will be able to get the lowest rates, combined with the best benefits so that your entire package eventually becomes a good one.
In this article, let's point out 3 of them: 1.
The state of your credit will significantly impact the rates that an insurance company is going to offer you.
The cleaner your credit report, the more likely you are to always ask for a better rate by pointing this out.
The insurance company takes a clean credit report as a clean bill of health from other financial institutions that have dealt with you before.
Defaulters are looked at as not very financially responsible and also not very reliable people.
You may be wondering if it's better not to present one at all than to present one which says you're a defaulter.
The entire system uses a scoring method, and the score for presenting and defaulting are more or less the same.
The thing to do if you have a murky credit report is present it anyway, and then start working towards cleaning it up.
For each step of progress that you make, present the evidence to the insurance company to show them that you are working hard to clean up the situation.
2.
If the insurance company finds that things are generally in order with whatever you want to insure, be it health, life, housing or a car, they will give you better premiums.
No one, for instance, is in a hurry to insure a Richard-Branson like character for life at the normal rates because tomorrow he could decide that he's going to jump off 1000metre cliff for fun and the insurance company will be in a fix if anything happens to him.
They will ask him for higher premiums based on his lifestyle and hobbies.
The same goes for any other kind of insurance; an old, battered car is more of an accident risk and therefore will attract larger premiums.
A dilapidated, old house as well.
Keep your things in good condition, including your health and you will find that you will save lots in premiums.
3.
The more things that you insure with one company, the more likely you are to get a discount if you ask for it.
Because you have given them lots of business, they will look at your overall value to them instead of on an item by item basis and the overall value will be more.
This means that as much as possible, go and find a one-stop insurance shop and give them all your insurance policies to hold.
It's good for you as a consumer to know that it's rare that an insurance company will offer you a discount if you don't ask for it, so make sure to ask.
Sit down, work out something that you feel is reasonable, maybe up 10% of the premiums they offered you, and based on any or all of the above 3 premium-savers, ask for a discount.
It's just too hard to make comparisons and wrap our minds around all those money matters.
Well, true, but arming yourself with a little general knowledge will go along way in saving you a pretty penny, especially when it comes to insurance.
I single out insurance because it's the one payment we continue to make all through life, and saving even a few dollars each month is very significant.
There are a few things which if you know, will generally drive down the cost of your insurance - you will be able to get the lowest rates, combined with the best benefits so that your entire package eventually becomes a good one.
In this article, let's point out 3 of them: 1.
The state of your credit will significantly impact the rates that an insurance company is going to offer you.
The cleaner your credit report, the more likely you are to always ask for a better rate by pointing this out.
The insurance company takes a clean credit report as a clean bill of health from other financial institutions that have dealt with you before.
Defaulters are looked at as not very financially responsible and also not very reliable people.
You may be wondering if it's better not to present one at all than to present one which says you're a defaulter.
The entire system uses a scoring method, and the score for presenting and defaulting are more or less the same.
The thing to do if you have a murky credit report is present it anyway, and then start working towards cleaning it up.
For each step of progress that you make, present the evidence to the insurance company to show them that you are working hard to clean up the situation.
2.
If the insurance company finds that things are generally in order with whatever you want to insure, be it health, life, housing or a car, they will give you better premiums.
No one, for instance, is in a hurry to insure a Richard-Branson like character for life at the normal rates because tomorrow he could decide that he's going to jump off 1000metre cliff for fun and the insurance company will be in a fix if anything happens to him.
They will ask him for higher premiums based on his lifestyle and hobbies.
The same goes for any other kind of insurance; an old, battered car is more of an accident risk and therefore will attract larger premiums.
A dilapidated, old house as well.
Keep your things in good condition, including your health and you will find that you will save lots in premiums.
3.
The more things that you insure with one company, the more likely you are to get a discount if you ask for it.
Because you have given them lots of business, they will look at your overall value to them instead of on an item by item basis and the overall value will be more.
This means that as much as possible, go and find a one-stop insurance shop and give them all your insurance policies to hold.
It's good for you as a consumer to know that it's rare that an insurance company will offer you a discount if you don't ask for it, so make sure to ask.
Sit down, work out something that you feel is reasonable, maybe up 10% of the premiums they offered you, and based on any or all of the above 3 premium-savers, ask for a discount.
Source...