Investor
5 ways to save on home insurance
29-Apr-2019
Home and contents insurance premiums can be expensive. To help prevent home and contents insurance taking an increasingly big chunk of your budget, here are our tips for cutting the cost without cutting your cover.
Looking for cheaper home insurance? Home insurance providers take several variables into consideration when determining the premium you have to pay to get the level of cover you want for home and contents insurance. We’ve put together an explanation of the most important variables insurers use when determining how much you should pay, and a shortlist of a few ways you can save on home insurance.
What makes home insurance cheaper? 5 ways to save on home insurance
From car to health to travel and our own life, insurances are one of the few services that we pay for – but hope never to use! If you are a home owner then home insurance as well as contents insurance is something that you really should have. Even if you’re just renting, contents insurance will help to protect your bank account in the event of theft or destruction.
You don’t necessarily want the cheapest home insurance product available – because there’s a lot more to a good quality insurance product than price alone. But you do want to get the right balance between price and features.
So here are five quick tips for helping to reduce the cost of your home and contents insurance:
1. Take advantage of multi-policy discounts.
In Australia’s competitive insurance market, insurance firms fight hard over every insurance contract, offering online discounts and sign-up deals to encourage customers to switch.
But to prevent their current customers from switching, many insurance firms encourage customers to have all their different policies (such as home, contents, car, boat, etc.) with them by offering multi-policy discounts. These discounts may then be applied to each of your insurance products, cutting premiums all round to result in some serious savings!
2. Ask for a loyalty discount.
If you’ve been with the same insurer for a number of years, it could be worth calling up and asking for a loyalty discount, particularly if you’ve been a good customer – i.e. you haven’t made many claims. Some insurers offer such discounts automatically, but if you’re not sure, it’s worth asking the question. Even a discount of 5% or 10% can save you a respectable amount of money.
3. Choose a higher excess if you can afford it.
You can lower the cost of your premiums by opting to pay a higher excess in the event that you claim. The “excess” is the amount of loss that you will need to cover from your own pocket before the insurance kicks in.
Remember though – you will need to cough up the excess amount when you make a claim, so you need to ensure that you can easily access that amount of cash. A higher excess naturally means you’ll be less likely to make a claim, as you might wonder whether it’s worthwhile for less expensive damages or losses. That’s not a great deal. You shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket for things that your insurance covers.
You can check the amount and type of excess that applies to your policy by looking at your Certificate of Insurance.
4. Discount for safety features and home security.
Taking action to protect your property against burglary or destruction can help to reduce the cost of your home and contents insurance. So if you have installed security alarms, deadlocks or smoke alarms, ask your insurer to reduce your premium.
Home security is more relevant for contents insurance. The more deterrents there are for a would-be burglar at your home, the lower your contents insurance premiums will be. A baseball bat under the bed or the family Shitzsu “Lady” won’t cut it as far as your insurer is concerned. Instead, you could consider installing security screens on all doors and windows, a home alarm system, home alarm monitoring, etc.
When it comes to preventing natural disasters, measures such as cyclone-proofing the structural foundations of your home can make a difference if you live in Northern Queensland or other cyclone-ridden areas along the coast of Queensland, NSW, or Western Australia.
5. Don’t just pay your renewal.
With differences in premium increasing slightly each year in most states and territories, it’s important to shop around for a better deal by comparing home and contents insurance providers and products.
SOURCE: Canstar
Looking for cheaper home insurance? Home insurance providers take several variables into consideration when determining the premium you have to pay to get the level of cover you want for home and contents insurance. We’ve put together an explanation of the most important variables insurers use when determining how much you should pay, and a shortlist of a few ways you can save on home insurance.
What makes home insurance cheaper? 5 ways to save on home insurance
From car to health to travel and our own life, insurances are one of the few services that we pay for – but hope never to use! If you are a home owner then home insurance as well as contents insurance is something that you really should have. Even if you’re just renting, contents insurance will help to protect your bank account in the event of theft or destruction.
You don’t necessarily want the cheapest home insurance product available – because there’s a lot more to a good quality insurance product than price alone. But you do want to get the right balance between price and features.
So here are five quick tips for helping to reduce the cost of your home and contents insurance:
1. Take advantage of multi-policy discounts.
In Australia’s competitive insurance market, insurance firms fight hard over every insurance contract, offering online discounts and sign-up deals to encourage customers to switch.
But to prevent their current customers from switching, many insurance firms encourage customers to have all their different policies (such as home, contents, car, boat, etc.) with them by offering multi-policy discounts. These discounts may then be applied to each of your insurance products, cutting premiums all round to result in some serious savings!
2. Ask for a loyalty discount.
If you’ve been with the same insurer for a number of years, it could be worth calling up and asking for a loyalty discount, particularly if you’ve been a good customer – i.e. you haven’t made many claims. Some insurers offer such discounts automatically, but if you’re not sure, it’s worth asking the question. Even a discount of 5% or 10% can save you a respectable amount of money.
3. Choose a higher excess if you can afford it.
You can lower the cost of your premiums by opting to pay a higher excess in the event that you claim. The “excess” is the amount of loss that you will need to cover from your own pocket before the insurance kicks in.
Remember though – you will need to cough up the excess amount when you make a claim, so you need to ensure that you can easily access that amount of cash. A higher excess naturally means you’ll be less likely to make a claim, as you might wonder whether it’s worthwhile for less expensive damages or losses. That’s not a great deal. You shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket for things that your insurance covers.
You can check the amount and type of excess that applies to your policy by looking at your Certificate of Insurance.
4. Discount for safety features and home security.
Taking action to protect your property against burglary or destruction can help to reduce the cost of your home and contents insurance. So if you have installed security alarms, deadlocks or smoke alarms, ask your insurer to reduce your premium.
Home security is more relevant for contents insurance. The more deterrents there are for a would-be burglar at your home, the lower your contents insurance premiums will be. A baseball bat under the bed or the family Shitzsu “Lady” won’t cut it as far as your insurer is concerned. Instead, you could consider installing security screens on all doors and windows, a home alarm system, home alarm monitoring, etc.
When it comes to preventing natural disasters, measures such as cyclone-proofing the structural foundations of your home can make a difference if you live in Northern Queensland or other cyclone-ridden areas along the coast of Queensland, NSW, or Western Australia.
5. Don’t just pay your renewal.
With differences in premium increasing slightly each year in most states and territories, it’s important to shop around for a better deal by comparing home and contents insurance providers and products.
SOURCE: Canstar