News 4043 Home Insurance Lower Monthly Premiums

This article from the Motley Fool provides some sound advice regarding homeowners insurance. While it may be tempting to save money by cutting corners or underinsuring your home, this is not the wisest practice. The Motley Fool offers several suggestions on how to lower your premiums without jeopardizing your home.

• Figure out how much money you would need to replace your structure and your personal belongings. Buy that much insurance and no more.
• Ask you agent for discounts. Many home insurance companies offer discounts for things such as safety or anti-theft devices or discounts for building materials that protect against hurricanes, wildfires or other natural disasters. Also consider insuring your home and your car with the same company, there are usually group discounts for that.
• If you can afford the possible out-of-pocket expense, raise your deductible. Although you'll pay more of your own money in the event of a claim, you'll pay less in premiums each month. Be careful not to raise the deductible to an amount you'll never be able to afford should you need to use it.
• Shop around. A little competition can go a long way toward helping you track down the lowest available rates. Many companies change their algorithms for calculating rates occasionally so check around at least once per year.

Read more: Save on Homeowners Insurance (The Motley Fool via Yahoo! News) There are several ways you can save on your homeowners insurance policy. One way is to insure your home for less than it's worth -- that should easily lower your premiums. But that's a dumb way to save because it defeats the purpose of insurance, which is to protect you against a financial loss.