Do you live in a gated community? Did you know that you can get a discount on your homeowners insurance if you live in a gated community? Experts claim that the discount is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%, so if you are in a gated community be sure to tell your insurance representative. This makes sense because the amount of random traffic, that is traffic by people who don’t live in the community or aren’t visiting someone in the community, is going to be a little lower so the risk is lower. It is even better if your gated community has active security personnel monitoring the gates (as opposed to a few hours of active security plus swipe access) so be sure to tell your insurance representative of your situation.
So you have your homeowners insurance all set, you’re paying a good price on your premiums, and you pretty much have it all under control, what else can you do to make sure you don’t get screwed in case something happens? Keep your insurance information updated regularly. Keeping them informed of any changes ever six months or so is probably good enough but what’s important is that you keep them informed.
If you have some new pieces of jewelry, make sure they are covered by your rider. If you bought a few pieces of expensive electronic equipment, make sure you have photos and receipts to back you up. Did you have an alarm system installed? Let the company know because you might be eligible for a discount. Basically, keeping them informed will make things much easier if disaster strikes.
Damage to your house, or other covered structures like a shed or detached garage, by rodents or rabbits (or squirrels, mice, rats, etc.) is not covered by your homeowners insurance. If you’re like me and have an attic, you probably discovered a few enterprising squirrels decided to gnaw a hole in the side of your siding or wood and make themselves a nice little home. Unfortunately, that damage isn’t covered by your typical homeowner’s policy (it’s unlikely you can get coverage but never say never).
That being said, the damage is usually going to be low in cost so it would fall within your deductible anyway so paying extra to get covered for that would be a waste of money in my opinion.
Let’s say you have a pair of earrings insured by your homeowners policy, in the event that you lose one of them, your homeowner’s policy (if that item is covered, in the case of jewelry you’ll have to get a separate rider) will generally pay to repair or replace any part required to restore the pair or set it back to its condition before the loss. For example, if you lose one of a pair of very nice candlesticks, your insurance should replace the missing one. If you damage it, they will pay to repair it (subject to your typical deductibles).
If they don’t, they can always opt to pay the difference in cash value of your property before and after the loss. How they calculate that difference in the event of damage is where it gets tricky and depends on the item but likely your insurance company will have a schedule of some kind and involve an appraiser.
Did you know that your credit score and history affects how much you pay for premiums with insurance companies? It does and improving your credit score can reduce the amount you have to pay to the insurance company, something you probably wouldn’t have known unless you read about it somewhere (like here!) because it’s not very obvious.
What it comes down to is risk and history has shown the insurance companies that people with lower credit scores are, in general, riskier situations to insure than people with higher credit scores. Whether you agree with that or not, the math doesn’t lie and insurance companies aren’t in the business of being spiteful. They’re in the business of making money off insuring people, the numbers had to have told them something for credit score to be a factor.
Now, how can you improve your credit score? The credit score has many components and they’ve been written about over and over and over again so I won’t go into it here. Essentially be a responsible borrower, don’t have too many lines of credit, don’t use too much of your credit, and make your payments on time. Past that, you’ll have to search online about credit scores but those are the basics.
Improve your score, reduce your premiums.
One of the unfortunate side effects of the sub-prime lending meltdown is that home prices have started to fall in the area and as a result you may be able to reduce the dollar amount of your coverage and save yourself a few dollars. If your home cost you $500,000 and you’re insured for that amount, I don’t believe there is much benefit to you having half a million dollars of coverage if your home is only valued at $400,000 (for example). If, however, you are covered for replacement cost, as opposed to value, this is something that doesn’t really apply to you.
So, if you’ve recently had a home appraisal and saw that your value went down, perhaps consider getting the amount of insurance correspondingly reduced. One caveat though, you may not be saving enough money to make this idea really work for you and you might not want to reduce your insurance coverage “just in case.”
Here is a harrowing tale from a couple in Glendale, California about trimming trees. They were served notice from the fire department that the trees on their property had branches that were growing dangerously close to their home. So they hired a tree trimmer, paid him $3,000, and had him pare back some of the branches. On the day of the trimming, the city’s urban forester happened to be in the area and saw them trimming without a permit and fined them. An arborist was sent out to assess the damage of the trimming and they were levied a penalty fine of $347,000!
Ultimately it was resolved, they will have to pay a smaller fine, but the lesson of the day is to ensure you have the correct permits before performing any such work!
Last year, one of Gerri Willis’ Five Tips was focused around homeowners insurance. At the time, she was focusing on the fact that insurers were dropping homes like it was going out of style and so the tips had that flavor. That being said, these tips are still valuable for anyone looking for homeowners insurance.
- You have options. There are plenty of insurers out there, even if you were recently dropped by one, so keep on looking and you’ll find one that fits your budget and your needs. If you’re in a particularly badly hit area, you may find that your state has started some insurance program.
- Get the blueprint. There are three ways to get coverage: go with a big company (State Farm, Nationwide, All-State), go with a broker that will find the best option for you, or call up a direct agent like someone AIG Direct or Geico.
- Meet your needs. Make sure you know how much you’ll need, “Estimate how much it would cost to replace your home by calculating how many square feet you have and multiply that number by the local construction cost per square foot for homes in your neighborhood.”
- Shop around. This is good advice no matter what, shopping around is the best way to find the best price for what you need.
- Get flood insurance. Flood insurance isn’t standard, so make sure you get some.
Source: CNN Money
It’s easy to become complacent when you’re a renter, to ignore some burned out light bulbs as someone else’s problems, to walk by unlit areas convinced you’ll never go through them, or to just go about your day ignoring the various safety issues near your place of living. So, the next time you see a burned out light, a broken lock on your doors or mailboxes, or some dark corridor that probably should use some light… tell management. You don’t want to have an incident only because you didn’t say something.
If you own… fix your problems because they might come back to bite you!
If you’re concerned that burglars are going to pilfer your home when you’re out, then don’t ever go out. Oh, you want to go out? Well, don’t let the burglars know that! Here are some ideas for what you can do to make your home look occupied:
- Keep your lights on when you’re out (or put them on a timer, turning on and off reasonably).
- Keep a radio playing.
- If you’re on vacation, stop deliveries of the newspaper and other such things. A pile of newspapers means no one is home and that a burglar should come on in.
- Don’t leave a note! (”Hey Kelly, we stepped out until 3, feel free to break inside and steal our stuff”)
- Arrange to have your lawn taken care of if you are going to be away for a while.