Homeowner Insurance -- Seven Proven Tips

Contrary to what you might be made to believe, it's a lot easy to attract a cheaper rate. The only things that stand between you and attracting a better rate at the moment are relevant information and a determination to use the tips you get -- Nothing more. Below are several steps that will help you get to this goal...

1. It's more expensive but needless to insure the land on which your home is built. Folks do this without knowing. They just insure their home for its entire value without deducting the cost of the land.

If you did such ignorantly, you'll have to re-evaluate your home insurance coverage and go through it again with your agent. Deduct the land's value and you will realize that you will need far less coverage.

Your rate will be less and you'll still have sufficient coverage if you do this right. No matter what you do and who you get in contact with, remember that the only things you insure are things that can be lost or damaged and your land is not one of such.

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2. Your credit history has a serious impact on your rate. People who have excellent ratings pay far less than those who have poor ratings. What your credit rating reveals is how you treat your bills and it speaks badly about you if it's a poor one. No insurer is happy with this as it shows a behavior you are quite likely to repeat in the payment of premiums. This makes you less attractive to them and you, therefore, are made to spend much more than someone else with the same profile that has a very good rating.

Therefore, it will do you much good to clear all your bills once they are due. You will attract lower premiums if you do.

3. Making your premium payments once every year will save you a lot when compared to monthly payments. An insurer is compelled to send you 12 notices for monthly payments as opposed to one for annual payments. This increases their overhead.

The cost shoots up if you add the fact that they pay transaction fees for processing each check you give them monthly as payment. Twelve checks mean 12 transactions and will draw 12 separate fees.. And, believe it or not, these extra overheads are ultimately built into your rates.

Therefore choose annual payments instead if you want to make savings this way. What you'll save could be as much as 8.5% of your total monthly payments over the course of just a year.

4. Make sure that the exterior of your home is fire-safe and your premium will be more affordable. Having things that are very inflammable or that aid combustion around your building will make you pay higher rates. As simple as it seems, cutting back bushes and maintaining them up to ten feet from your structures will help reduce your premium. Fire-safety is a strong point that is used to calculate what you pay in premiums.

5. Motion-sensitive lighting lowers your home's risk of burglary and, therefore, makes it easier for you to get cheaper home insurance premiums. Your home becomes a no-go area for thieves since they'll be noticed easily. Your rate will be lower you have lowered your home's risk of burglary with this kind of lighting.

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6. Make sure each door that leads outside has dead-bolt locks. They will make it harder for burglars to break into your home. The more protected your home is against burglary, the lower the risk involved in insuring it.

7. Having window locks on each of your windows will help reduce your home's risk of burglary. You will save even much more if you go further to get burglary-proof bars fixed on all of them. So, if you don't mind having burglary-proof bars in your home, have them fixed and you will be charged much less in your home insurance premium.