Articles from August 2010

Home Insurance Quotes

With all the rising costs in the world consumers are looking for ways to cut costs and save money. Americans spend billions of pounds every year on their home insurance policies. It does not take a genius to figure out that every homeowner needs insurance, most people consider their home to be their greatest asset.

Thousands of homeowners are reaping the rewards that comes from filling out a FREE home insurance quote. Many are receiving 25-30% discounts on their policies while becoming more educated about the home insurance that is right for them. Here are a few tips that might help you when you are shopping for that “Perfect” insurance policy.

Increase Your Deductible

Just like auto insurance, policies have deductibles, and the same rule of thumb applies–carry the highest deductible you can afford. The higher your deductible, the more premium credit you can expect to receive from your insurance company. Your savings could reach 25% by increasing the deductible from 100 to 1000.

Improve Your Home Security

Most insurance companies offer discounts for smoke detectors, burglar alarms, dead bolts, fire extinguishers, and Neighborhood Watch Areas. Homes with a fire and burglar alarm system hooked up to a third-party monitoring company receive higher discounts than homes with local bell alarms.

Consolidate Policies

Insuring two or more vehicles with the same insurance company can save you 10 – 15% on your premiums. If you cover your homeowners insurance and auto insurance together, you can reduce your premiums by another 10 – 15%.

Construction Type

Before buying a home, consider its construction type, such as frame or concrete block and steel (CBS). A wood frame house typically costs more to insure than one built mostly of concrete.

Verify Distance To Fire Stations And Windstorm Areas

If you live in the country, you’ll probably pay higher rates for your insurance than if you lived in town. Why? Its because of the longer distance to your local fire station. If you live more than 5 miles from the nearest fire station, and more than 1,000 feet from a fire hydrant, you will most likely pay a higher premium.

Before purchasing your home, you may want to get a quote for both and flood insurance. Insurance companies may not offer you windstorm or flood coverage, depending upon the area in which you live. If your home is in a hurricane prone area and your insurance company offers windstorm coverage, then installing approved hurricane shutters should result in a premium discount.

Claims Free Record And Renewal Discounts

If you have not had a claim under your policy during the past 3 – 5 consecutive years, you could receive up to a 15% discount, depending on the insurance company. Plus, most companies will discount your premium if your policy has been in force for 3 straight years.

Mortgage Free Discounts

Some insurance companies target who have paid off their mortgage and offer them premium discounts of up to 5%.

New And Renovated Home Discounts

A majority of insurance companies offer a discount for new homes, and you may qualify if your home was built in the last 10 – 15 years. Also, a recently renovated home costs less to insure, so find out when the last major electrical, heating and plumbing update was completed on the home.

Live-In House Keeper

Some insurers offer up to a 2% premium credit if you have a live-in employee as they feel it could reduce the likelihood of burglary.

Conclusion

After reviewing the foregoing savings tips, you may think that if you added up all your credits you could receive a 70 90% reduction in your premiums. Unfortunately, it doesnt work that way. Certain safety or other measures you take may qualify you for being placed with the “preferred” company of a particular insurance group. This “preferred” company will be able to give you more premium credits than a standard company is able to.

Home Insurance

It seems like accidents, disasters, and catastrophes only strike when you’re uninsured. Even if your policy only lapses one day, that will be the day that the neighbor’s tree falls into your house. Not having home insurance these days is a bad idea, for every year on the news we hear about some new tragic event that has occurred because Nature had her way. Even a simple summer thunderstorm can cause wreckage and property damage. And you know that it’s better to be prepared, even if insurance seems never to pay off.

Though the entire idea of paying money to a company every single month “just in case” something happens seems a little ridiculous, these days you can’t get by without insurance. Even the incredibly lucky will have unlucky days. The last thing you want is to be the one throwing your hands up and lamenting the next time there’s a flood, tornado, or earthquake. Repair costs to damaged property and destroyed valuables often ends up being much more costly in the end.

So, you know that you have to have insurance on your home. But that doesn’t mean that you can afford to pay costly rates to protect your property. After all, everyone has to live within a certain budget, and usually there isn’t room for much extra. So how can you safely insure all your property and still afford to live on your property?

It’s always a great idea to shop around and find the cheapest quotes, but who honestly has the time to stay on the phone all day? There are ways to find the best deal on your home insurance without wasting a lot of your own valuable time. First, know how to cross-deal and, if possible, lump your insurance together.

If you already own a car, boat, or have any type of insurance on anything (even life insurance on yourself), you may be able to get a better deal all the way around. Call your insurance provider or insurance agent and tell them you’d like to talk about home insurance, you already have existing insurance, and can they be linked together? You’d be surprised how many companies offer deals this way, and in some cases your existing insurance becomes much cheaper. Even if you are only renting, you’ll find that renter’s insurance is affordable and can lower your car insurance costs. For those who already have insurance policies, or need multiple insurance, the best thing to do is to get all the insurance you need from one agent or company. Not only is this often much cheaper than buying several different policies, it saves you a lot of aggravation and extra bills. It’s much easier to write a single check for all your insurance every month than five different checks to five different companies.

Another way to find the best quotes on home insurance is to use the Internet. Through any search engine, you’ll be able to find sites where you can compare the quotes of several different companies at the same time. Often by filling out a single online form, shoppers will be able to compare many policies at once. Calling around on the phone to essentially do the same thing could take hours, but with the Internet getting quotes is as simple as clicking a button. Many sites offer these quotes for free, so you shouldn’t pay anything just to get home insurance quotes.

Home insurance is something that all homeowners should have. Rental insurance can protect renters, and is often purchased at very affordable prices. Insurance doesn’t have to be expensive, and getting the best rates doesn’t have to be a hassle. By finding the best deals, and getting the best price, you’ll have money in your pocket and your home will still be secure.

Get Cheap Car Insurance For Your Teenager – Three Tips

Get Cheap Car Insurance For Your Teenager – Three Tips To Save Money

Our children bring us great joy first words, first steps, and first days of school, to name a few. Our children also bring us great worries and expenses, many of which are preventable. An event that brings us both worries and expenses is when our teenagers begin to drive. Statistics for auto-related injuries and fatalities keep us biting our nails until our teenagers get home, and the same statistics have us emptying our bank accounts every month for high car insurance costs.

While we may not be able to drive our teenagers every where they need to go for the rest of their lives, there are several ways we can get cheap car insurance for our teenagers.

1.Have your teen driver take a driver education course in school, as well as encourage your teen to make good grades. Many car insurance companies offer discounts to those teen drivers who have taken driver education courses and make fairly high grades.

2.Add your teen driver to your own car insurance policy. There is no reason to purchase a completely separate car insurance policy for your teen driver when you can add him or her to your own car insurance policy. This alone will save you money, and you may even be able to get a multipolicy discount, too. Ask your own car insurance agent.

3.Drive responsibly. If your teenager sees you speeding, ignoring stop signs, and giving in to road rage, he or she will most likely develop the same driving behaviors. These behaviors lead to traffic citations and traffic accidents, both of which will lead to higher insurance prices, as well as injuries and fatalities.

Sure, we can not stop our children from eventually driving, but we can find ways to get cheap car insurance for our driving teenagers. Some of these ways will also help our teen drivers become safe, responsible drivers. It is a win-win situation!

Finding a car insurance

One of the best things to do before looking for a car insurance estimate is to see exactly what the state requirements are as far as what the necessary minimum coverage is in order to have adequate coverage. This is something that might be better to do without the assistance of an insurance agency if possible because their job is to sell insurance and they make more money with the more coverage they are able to sell.

Most of the time, a car insurance estimate will include collision, liability and comprehensive coverage on a vehicle. Most households have two or more vehicles and every car should be included when seeking out a car insurance estimate. There are a few things that can be done to make getting a car insurance estimate easier and more accurate especially when dealing with more than one car insurance company.

Hunting around for a car insurance estimate is not something most people enjoy doing. It is one of the worst chores that is required in order to have a vehicle on the road, but it is worth seeking out the most competitive car insurance estimate available. Although getting a car insurance estimate from a number of companies isnt a desirable task; many people spend far more than they absolutely have to each year on their auto insurance because they simply havent taken the time to compare rates and policies with other auto insurance companies. It would be hard to find someone who would walk into an appliance store and decide to spend 200.00 more on a washer that offers the same exact quality and features as the one next to it that costs far less. It doesnt make too much sense to do the same thing with car insurance.

In order to spend less time on the phone when looking for a car insurance estimate, it is a good idea to have a number of items handy including a drivers license, vehicle identification numbers, make, model and year of each car and even the name and contact information for the company that is financing all vehicles if applicable. There are also a number of factors that can be taken into consideration when seeking a car insurance estimate that may mean additional savings per year. Features on each auto including airbags, auto alarms, anti-lock brakes and other things may mean discounts on auto insurance. Some insurance companies will even offer discounts for having more than one policy with their company as well as insuring multiple cars through with their coverage. Additional discounts may be found through other things like accident-free driving record, defensive driving course incentives and other discounts.

Other circumstances may cost a driver more with certain companies when looking for a car insurance estimate. Men under the age of 25, single drivers, younger drivers under the age of 21, the number of miles driven per day and even the kind of car that is driven can cost a person more money on car insurance when shopping around. The best part about this is that not one car insurance will probably charge the same amount of money for the same coverage so shopping around will prove that there are better choices available.