By Bruce Guzman
Keeping your insurance coverage current – be it home, auto, or health – is critical, regardless of how much you need to cut from your budget. Allowing coverage to lapse, can have serious financial repercussions. A serious illness, major damage to your home or a car accident could force you into bankruptcy.
With the high cost of insurance these days, it only makes good sense to shop around for the best deal on insurance coverage. Insure dot com is a great site that will provide you with quotes from several companies. You may be able to get a better deal on insurance coverage by simply changing companies, or by raising your deductibles. Another idea is to just go with bare bones coverage and ditch all the bells and whistles that you may have with your policies.
In addition, be sure you are getting all the discounts that you should be getting. For example, you could get a discount on your car insurance if you don’t drive your car to work. Discounts are also available for those who insure their home and auto with the same company. Some companies will also cut your rate for auto insurance if you take a defensive driver course, or course that refreshes your knowledge and driving skills. You can save pretty good money with most insurance companies on your home owners insurance if you install an alarm or other safety items as well.
I’ve put together a list of 7 tips to help you save on both your auto insurance policy and home owners policy. These tips have helped me save significant sums over the past several years and I’m sure they will do the same for you.
Homeowners Insurance
1. When you provide the value of your home when applying for a homeowners insurance policy, don’t include the value of your land your home sits one. Insure your house alone.
2. Check with your insurance company to see if you will save any money by installing deadbolt locks, smoke detectors and Co2 detectors. If you’ve already got these things and your insurance company provides a discount for them, be sure you are getting that discount.
3. If someone in your family has been a smoker in the past, but has quit, check with your insurance company to see if you are entitled to a premium discount. More and more, those who have smokers in their family pay a higher premium because cigarettes are one of the leading causes for house fires in the US.
Auto Insurance
4. If your vehicle is an older model and is paid off, consider dropping your collision coverage. This is especially true if you are spending more each year on your insurance coverage than the car is worth. Another option in this case would be to increase the deductibles for collision and comprehensive coverage. If you owe money on your car, regardless of how old the car is, your lender may not allow you to drop the coverage until the loan is paid off in full.
5. Be sure you are getting all the discounts you are entitled to, including:
- If you have anti lock brakes, automatic seat belts and airbags
- If you are in a particular profession. Professions such as teachers and engineers, for example, have fewer accidents, so their rates are lower.
- If you’ve served or are currently serving in the military, you may be entitled to a discount.
6. If you need to buy a brand new car, but a low profile, low performance type. Don’t get the jazzed up sports car if you are planning on saving money on your insurance.
7. Find out if you belong to an association that has arranged for discounts on car insurance. The Triple A is one such association.
Bruce has been helping folks with personal finance issues for several years. He started writing about them online in 2008. In addition to his writing, Bruce also operates a number of informative web sites. You can check out his latest website here: Black Leather Ottoman featuring the Round Leather Ottoman
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