Home Insurance Uk - How To Obtain Cheaper Home Insurance
Everyone wants to obtain cheaper home insurance
and recently, a number of books have been spotted
on the internet offering to give you the secret
of obtaining cheap insurance in return for a sum
of money. Most of these are absolute rubbish, there
is no special way to obtain cheaper home insurance,
there are no secret deals, for the main it is just
hard work phoning around trying to find and insurance
company that offers what you consider to be a reasonable
deal.
Many people ask why premiums vary so much from insurer
to insurer. Quite simply, they are all looking for
different things, you may find that one insurance
company is very competitive in one area, but not
in another. This could be for a variety of
reasons as insurance is calculated on an individual
basis after you have answered a set of underwriting
questions.
There are many factors that affect the pricing of
insurance and with a particular insurance company,
you may just fit their target market, lots of things
are taken in to consideration such as the postcode,
your occupation, your sum insured and even your
date of birth. Many people ask why should your age
effect the pricing of your insurance, well statically,
insurers know that fewer claims coming form older
people, hence many will offer a discount. There's
not too much you can do to increase your age to
obtain a discount from your home insurance but what
can be done to help secure a discount.
1) Excess, this is a term applied by insurers to
the first portion of a loss that the policyholder
must pay in the event of a claim,. Thus if you have
a £50.00 excess and you have a valid claim,
the insurers will settle less the £50.00 excess.
You could offer to pay a higher excess and most
insurers will offer you a discount. Be a bit careful
with this as excess fall in to two groups, voluntary
and compulsory. Most polices will come with a compulsory
excess so any voluntary excess you offer to pay
will be on top of this.
2) Fit smoke detectors to your Home- These very
cheap devices are obtainable almost everywhere and
not only can they prove to be a life saver, many
insurers will offer a small discount if you have
them fitted.
3) Improve the physical security at your Home. -
Many insurance companies offer discounts if you
have good physical security at your home, this would
include key operated window locks, 5 lever mortise
deadlocks on the final exit doors. If you are unsure
what to fit ask your insurance broker or speak to
your local crime prevention office.
4) Join a neighbourhood watch scheme. - Often joining
a neighbourhood watch scheme can result in a small
discount being offered.
5) Fit an alarm to your property, you can usually
obtain cheaper home insurance if your property has
had an alarm fitted. Be careful though as alarms
differ greatly in their effectiveness and the discounts
an insurer is prepared to offer. Most will require
that the alarm has been fitted by a professional
company that have a governing body and that the
alarm is maintained on a maintenance contract. Alarms
can be expensive to fit in relation to the actual
discount offered. Always check first with your bro0ker
or insurer before paying for an alarm to be fitted.
