Buying Your First Home? 4 Tips To Keep Your Home Insurance At An Affordable Rate
Now that you own a home, you're going to need homeowners insurance. While your home insurance won't be the most expensive aspect of home ownership, it will be a monthly expense that you need to consider. The last thing you want to do is pay too much for your home insurance. Here are four methods you can use to keep your home insurance at an affordable rate.
Install a Home Security System
When insurance companies provide you with a home insurance policy, they want to make sure that they're not going to be spending large amounts of money covering your losses. If they're concerned that your home is going to be a target for theft, which might be the case if you move into an area with a higher than average crime rate, they're going to increase the cost of your premiums. One way to reduce those costs is to install a security system in your home. Security systems that include a monitoring service can lower your insurance premiums by quite a bit.
Maintain Your Home
If your home is in disrepair, it may affect your insurance rates. That's because you'll need to file more claims to take care of the problems. This is particularly true when it comes to your roof and fencing. These are areas that can be damaged by wind. To keep your insurance costs at an affordable rate, make sure you keep your home well-maintained.
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Just because you have home insurance, doesn't mean you should use it for every loss. When it comes to keeping your insurance rates down, it's best to not sweat the small stuff. Don't submit claims for small loses, such as minor roofing damage after a wind storm. The more claims you submit, the more likely it is that your rates will begin to increase. To keep your rates as low as possible, take care of the small issues yourself, and save your insurance for the big problems that come along.
Keep Track of Your Credit
You might not think that your credit would have anything to do with your insurance rates, but it does. Now that you own your own home, it's important to keep track of your credit. Those little dings could cause your home insurance rates to skyrocket.
You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for your home insurance. The information provided here will help you keep your insurance rates affordable.