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Cut your home insurance costs
Top 10 Tips to reduce your home insurance premium
You could be paying over the odds for your
home insurance by not taking advantage of discounts available from
insurers. Here are our top 10 tips for reducing your home insurance
premiums:
1. Fit a burglar
alarm – but to attract
up to a 5% discount, the system should be fitted by a NACOSS approved
company and include an annual maintenance contract. Also, don’t
forget that it must be operational every time you leave the house
empty.
2. Check your
door locks – check that
your door locks have the kite mark BS3621. If they do, most insurance
companies will knock off 5%.
3. Fit window
locks – just having
these will give you a 5% discount.
4. Fit smoke
detectors – you should
really have these from a safety point of view, but as long as they
are kept fully operational, most insurers will give you a 5% discount.
5. Don’t smoke! – most insurers
ask this question. If there’s a smoker in the house, there
will normally be an increase to your premium.
6. Set up an
approved Neighbourhood Watch Scheme – As well as giving
you a chance to get to know the neighbours, it will get you an
extra 5% discount.
7. Take a voluntary
excess – you can
expect to get 5% off for a £50 excess rising to as much as
20% for £250 which is worth thinking about.
8. Combine your
building and contents insurance under one insurer – You
may get a discount, but some accidents in the home could end
up being split over two insurers and it is much easier to deal
with one.
9. Think carefully
about additional accidental damage cover – This could increase
your premium by a further 25%, check the details carefully as
standard cover be sufficient.
10. Don’t claim unless absolutely
you need to! – it sounds silly, but it may well not be worth
making small claims. The potential negative effect on your premium
at renewal could possibly outweigh the benefit of making a small
claim.
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