Like our mobile phones and utility bills, home insurance is one of our essential monthly outgoings, which protects our property against natural disasters, theft, and other risks. In Ireland alone, 1.3 million homeowners are home insurance policyholders, yet despite it being everyday essential many people fall victim to paying over the odds for their home insurance.
Overpaying for your home insurance can put individuals at financial risk, which can be easily avoided by understanding what you’re paying for and knowing how to shop around for home insurance quotes. There are many ways that you can reduce your premium without compromising on the cover you need, some of which we outline in our quick guide below:
Avoid falling into the auto-renewal trap
You might think that repeat customers are more likely to pay less than new customers, but this is not the case regarding home insurance. Since many providers increase renewal prices for existing customers, they can offer lower-cost prices to more recent customers to make their company look more cost-effective than others.
Avoid falling victim to this by shopping around for home insurance quotes or even bartering with your current provider each year. You can do this by using comparison sites like CompareNI.com, which enable homeowners to compare home insurance quotes from various providers to see which offers the best coverage at the most affordable prices.
Even when you’ve received a home insurance quote from one provider, nothing is stopping you from contacting a few providers and seeing if the price could be reduced. So, the next time your renewal period comes around, consider visiting CompareNI.com and see how their comparison tool could help you lower your premium today.
Look after your property
If you’ve purchased your brand-new home, this point will less apply to you. Still, if your home is of considerable age, it is essential that you look after it to the best of your abilities since insurers will want to know how well-maintained it is before taking you on as a client. If your home is well-maintained, you are less likely to make a claim on your insurance – which could affect the overall price of your policy.
You may also want to consider your home’s surroundings, such as trees, hedges, and other risks, as they could cause damage to your property like heave, general wear, subsidence and much more. If your property could be affected by one of those above, ensure that you maintain them, providing that they are not protected by legalisation, to avoid increasing your premium.
Buy contents/buildings insurance together
Buildings and contents insurance are available for homebuyers to purchase separately or all together in one policy. Suppose you’re unsure whether you’d like to buy both or just one policy. In that case, it is generally better to buy both simultaneously since it is usually cheaper to buy them as a bundle from one provider.
As well as making it easier for homeowners to claim against something that has affected their home and its contents, taking out both policies also means that you only have one renewal to manage each year instead of multiple.
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