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Everyone wants cheap home insurance. But several factors influence the insurance rate for your specific property, such as its age, location, and construction type. For instance, homes in areas that are at low risk of crime and natural disasters are some of the cheapest to insure.
Furthermore, when you look for home insurance, you should not base your decision solely on the cheapest available option, as it could not include coverage for many important elements. Having said all of that, whatever type of home you have and whatever coverage specifics you want, there are several ways in which you can find the cheapest home insurance for your needs. Here are the five best ways of going about it.
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1. Use Comparison Sites like PolicyScout
You need to shop around if you want to find the cheapest home insurance. But rather than spending time contacting individual insurance firms, it is much easier and better to use an online comparison site. PolicyScout is one of the best.
When you search for cheap home insurance via PolicyScout, you will find options from some of the leading insurance companies that provide the best rates for customers. You can compare various types of inexpensive home insurance plans, as well as other plans such as health insurance and Medicare.
When you compare different home insurance policies with PolicyScout, you can save costs on your home insurance and even enroll for the policy online.
2. Do Not Over Insure
Home insurance covers two primary things: the building and its contents. The building insurance should cover the cost of rebuilding your home, not its current market value. So, when taking out building insurance, make sure it is the rebuild cost that is covered; it will be lower than the market value.
You should also spend time working out how much the contents of your home are worth. You do not want to overpay for contents insurance when the replacement costs of the items do not justify the high price. Make an inventory of all your contents and work out how much it would cost to replace the items to ensure you get a fair and inexpensive contents insurance policy.
3. Get Multiple Policies with One Insurer
If you take out your building insurance and contents insurance with the same insurance company, you could get a discount. Furthermore, if you get multiple policies for your different insurance needs, such as auto and life insurance policies, you could get an even bigger discount.
4. Consider a Higher Deductible
The higher your deductible is, the lower your monthly payment will be. A deductible is the amount you agree to pay your insurer in the event of a claim before the coverage kicks in. So, if you raise your deductible from $500 to $2,500, you could save around $260 each year.
Having a higher deductible is one of the best ways of lowering the cost of your home insurance. But it only makes sense to do it if you have enough savings to payout should you need to make a claim.
5. Maintain a Good Credit Score
In most states in the US, insurance companies consider your credit score before they calculate your premium. Your score can sometimes dramatically affect your home insurance rates. So, by ensuring you have a good credit score, you could get a lower premium. The reason is: when you have excellent credit, you are less likely to file a claim.
On the other hand, if you have bad credit, you will be seen as a greater risk and may need to pay a higher premium. If your credit score is not great, work towards improving it so that you can then get a lower premium on your home insurance.
