The place where you live affects the cost of your contents or buildings insurance. Here are some tips that will help you decide where to live and decrease your home insurance premiums:

Avoid flood risk areas, especially if they are low lying. If your house is at an at-risk area, it would be harder to insure and it will have a higher premium for flood claims. Check the crime rates in the area. A higher crime rate causes a higher premium. Urban homes costs more expensive to insure than rural homes. Find a property where you can park your car in a garage or off-street parking lot. This will help decrease your car insurance premium.

By protecting your home from theft and damage, you could prevent needing to claim your home insurance and reduce contents and buildings insurance premiums. Here are some tips to keep you and your home safe:

1. Keep your valuables safe. Store them away from plain sight.
2. Fit a burglar alarm. If you life in an area where thieves are rampant, insurance may require you to install one
3. Acquire a safe.
4. Check your door locks and see if they are strong.
5. Put locks on your windows. These may reduce your premiums.
6. Install a gravel surface so that if anyone is nearby, their footsteps will be heard.
7. Install a smoke alarm
8. Keep a fire extinguisher ready.
9. Cancel the newspapers so they wouldn’t accumulate on our doorstep and tell no one is home.

In buying earthquake insurance, you may want to consider the following in selecting the right plan:

- which structures does the insurance cover? (dwelling, garage, home extensions)
- will the policy also cover the contents of the home?
- will additional living expenses be covered if the house is severely damaged?
- what are the exclusions and limitations of the coverage?
- how much deductible should be paid before the insurance may be availed of?

Consider the costs of rebuilding your house and replacing broken items inside the house – your policy cover all these. Make sure that your rights in claiming are clear before signing the policy.

According to researchers, it is only a matter of time before another disastrous hurricane strikes the US coastline. With the increase in population and improvement of economies in the coastline, there will be greater financial loss.

AIR Worldwide Corp. listed the top ten places for hurricane to strike, which includes areas in Florida, New York State, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Massachussets, Missouri, South Carolina and Virginia.

A worst-case scenario, according to Landsea, would be a Category 5 hurricane that hits Miami directly, swerves off to slam New Orleans that will cause severe flooding along the Gulf Coast. With this scenario, the US could experience losses of up to two $100 billion at once.

(source: insure.com)

Buildings insurance covers your home’s main structure. It will recover the costs of repair or rebuilding if it incurs damage. Some of the causes of structural damage are subsidence or sinking of land, fire, and extreme weather. It covers also any permanent fixtures in your house like kitchen surfaces, showers, baths, taps, basins, light fittings and built-in wardrobes. Most policies include cover for boundary walls, gates, pools, drives, paths and outbuildings. However there are exclusions and you must check these. Also, if your house needs to be rebuilt or you need to move out, you will be provided temporary accommodation.

Here are some basic home insurance tips that might help you out in these trying times:

1. Choose a reputable company. Premiums may be higher with bigger companies, but at least they have money to back you up, unlike fly by night outfits who are just out to get their grubby hands on your hard-earn cash.

2. Be detail-oriented. Try to take a good look at the fine print and understand what it says. If not, you might find yourself paying for certain coverages you don’t need. This also makes for less confusion in the long run, when problems arise, as you’re properly informed.

3. Research for the best deal. The best deal doesn’t come easy – you need to take notes and compare payments and benefits for each of the companies you’ve feel are the best to answer your insurance needs.

Have received some pricey gifts from your parents, friends or hubbie, then get your insurance to cover it fast so you can get it replaced if the unthinkable happens. Burglaries and theft are on the rise and homeowners should take every precaution to protect the home and it’s contents. Installing a home alarm system to detect such incidents even when you are out of the house can mean life and death for you and your family. ample lighting outside the house and removing hiding places or at least illuminating them/maintaining them can deter burglars.
Homeowners insurance has the ability to cover such contents through add-on’s that would have you declare the valuables or items you wish to cover. The insurance company will then have to get the market value of that item or get it appraised for an estimated value they will pay you when it is stolen when the home is broken into. A quality vault in the home would also be a good deterrent for it will make it harder for thieves to get these valuables but they can only protect these things and not your family members who happen to be in the house so do secure the house, for you and your family.

Haggling may be out of the question during the good days but recession has sent many people negotiating with their providers for better more competitive prices. Insurance may seem as a fix-priced industry but with too may people in between you and the actual firm, haggling must become natural. Agents usually get commissions from sales of policies but these can be negotiated from. The actual policy price is still the same, the agent is the one who sacrifices a little for you in the process.
Not accepting your request for a re-evaluation of your policy, take your business somewhere else. The hard economic times are sure to have many providers eager to take the place of your current one (it may actually get the old provider to offer a lower price as they try to keep you.)

現在の不況下においては、出費を減らす方法を見つけることが重要になっています。 保険は生活の中で必要不可欠です。 保険にかかる費用を節約するための一つの方法は、保険会社一社を利用し、すべての保険を「まとめる」ことです。 現在、保険会社の多くは、自分の会社の自動車保険と住宅所有者保険の両方に加入した財産所有者に保険料の値引きを提供します。 最近の調査で、70％以上の財産所有者が保険をまとめていることが明らかになりました。 また、お金の節約以外にも、保険にかかる月額費用の支払いを1回の支払いでできるという便利さがその利点の一つです。 保険をまとめた加入者は保険会社に満足している傾向が強く、また、保険会社と長期にわたる関係を築く傾向が強くなります。 さらに、保険会社一社を利用するということで、その会社の規定ややり方に詳しくなり、将来における保険の管理や追加が以前よりも容易になり、便利にもなります。

Image Source: thedailygreen.com

Here are a few tips for anyone whose house was damaged or destroyed by a hurricane. Make some temporary repairs to your house to prevent further damage. Do not spend too much on repairs because the insurance adjuster still has to inspect the extent of the damage. Keep the official receipts of whatever expenses you have incurred for the necessary repairs so that your insurance company can pay you back. Inform your agent about the damage and request her to come inspect your house. If the effect of the disaster is far-reaching, remember that your agent will be very busy. Try to be patient.