Lower Your Homeowner’s Insurance Costs
A lot of people check around periodically to see if they can lower their auto insurance costs. After all, we are inundated with commercials to “Save money on your car insurance.” But the homeowner’s insurance policy is often overlooked. Review the article below to see if you can lower your homeowner’s insurance costs.
Lower Your HO Insurance Costs
Homeowners insurance premiums often take a substantial bite out of a family’s budget. You may, however, be paying too much for this coverage. The following are some approaches you can use to reduce your homeowners insurance costs.
Try to increase your deductible to the highest one you can afford, even if the premium savings do not appear to justify it. This will decrease your premium and increase the likelihood that your loss history will be excellent, since minor losses will be paid by you and not your insurance company. A loss-free record over time saves premium dollars. For example, if you currently have a $250 deductible on your homeowners policy, consider increasing it to $500 or $1,000.
Consider purchasing a monitored burglar alarm. Alarms have proven successful in reducing burglary rates. In addition, most insurers provide premium discounts to consumers with these alarms, some as high as 20 percent.
Maintain your home in optimum condition. If a repair is needed, perform it as soon as possible. For example, loose or missing roof shingles should be repaired or replaced immediately. A home in excellent condition is much less likely to experience a loss.
Buy your home insurance and your auto insurance from the same company. Discounts normally apply when you do.
Get more personal lines insurance and risk management tips and ideas from IRMI.
Copyright 2011
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.
What if I Do Have a Car Crash?
You hate to think about it, but accidents happen. Are you prepared if you are involved in an auto accident? What should you do? Who should you call? What kind of information should you be getting from the other driver?
These are all good questions. Unfortunately, most of us are not prepared to answer these questions.
Of all the question that you may ask yourself, calling the police might be the most important question. No matter how small the accident, you should ALWAYS call the police. It’s always good to have a third party opinion, and there’s none better than a police officer.
Click on the link below and check out the video. It helps answer these questions just in case you are involved in a car crash.
http://www.libertymutualimages.com/ProfDave/#crash-advice
Monitor Your Teen’s Driving
Do you have a teenager who drives your vehicles? Teenagers’ highest risk of death is from an automobile accident. And teenagers have the highest rate of accidents compared to any other age group.
With today’s technology, you can monitor your teen’s driving habits. There is a “black box” available that you can install in your car that will monitor your teen’s driving habits. Is this too much oversight of our teen drivers? Or, is it worth it since your teen’s life is at stake?
My daughters aren’t old enough to drive yet, so I don’t have to make the decision right now. But, I’m sure it will be a hard decision when the time comes. See details about this topic below:
Monitor Your Teen’s Driving
Automobile accidents are easily the leading cause of death for teenagers across America, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). For both genders, drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 have the highest average annual crash and traffic violation rates of any other age group. NHTSA data also show that unaccompanied 16- and 17-year-olds crash nine times more often than adults.
Research indicates that young novice drivers tend to underestimate the crash risk in hazardous situations. Teen drivers also tend to take more risks while driving, partly due to their overconfidence in their driving abilities. One way for parents to reduce their teen’s chances of being involved in an auto accident is to use technology to monitor their driving characteristics and provide appropriate feedback.
A number of “black box” products are now available on the marketplace to facilitate monitoring drivers. These small devices (often the size of a pager and starting at around $280) can be simply installed into the auto your teen drives by plugging them into the Vehicle Data Link Connector (on 1996 and new vehicles). They can detect and record your teen’s speed, aggressive driving such as “jack-rabbit” takeoffs, failure to wear a seat belt, unsafe backing techniques, driving locations, monthly mileage, and driving times. Thus, if your teen’s curfew is at midnight and they get home at 1:00 a.m., you will know it.
With some of these products, you can simply pop the memory card out of the “black box” and plug it into your PC to display the reports and graphs. You can then review the results with your teenager, providing a great educational opportunity based on solid, technology-driven evidence. Research indicates that this type of monitoring and coaching pays off big dividends in the form of safer teen driving. Numerous companies offer these products in the marketplace, with some of the more sophisticated ones costing upwards of $1,000. A few insurers offer discounts for families who utilize these devices.
Get more personal lines insurance and risk management tips and ideas from IRMI.
Copyright 2010
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.
