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Monday, May 24, 2010

You May Be Paying Too Much For Homeowner Insurance

We all hate paying too much for stuff we hardly ever use and Homeowners Insurance falls into this category.  The prospects of a malady to the place we all hold near and dear is what prompts us to have adequate insurance to replace our homes and stuff should the need arise. It is also a condition of financing a home. Very few of us have the financial reserves to replace things and insurance fills this need.  Banks want their money if the place burns down or is destroyed by a force of nature or act of god.

I decided to check other companies as we thought we were paying a lot of cash  for homeowners insurance with falling values and lower replacement costs.  We checked three companies and they all use an estimator to figure the replacement costs of your digs.  All three companies we checked were pretty close on the replacement values except for the current insurer.  Their valuations were significantly higher. What was going on with the difference?

Here's the deal.  You need to initiate the process of having your home value reset and your insurance premium will reflect the new (perhaps lower) costs of replacement in this economy.  The insurance companies won't do this for you.  You have to ask..you don't ask, you continue to pay higher premiums.  This is how all the insurance companies can tell you they are lower in cost if you switch to their company. 

Replacement costs for homes and businesses have dropped dramatically in the past two years.  We were paying an insurance premium reflecting higher than estimated cost  to replace/rebuild our home.
A call to your agent will initiate the process.  Check your "DEC SHEET" aka declarations page and ask the value to be checked.  It could save you some cash come renewal time on your homeowners policy.

2 comments:

  1. Good advise. Coincidentally, I had this checked a few months ago when I was looking at all of my bills to reduce costs. Although I stayed with the same insurance company, my premium saw a large drop. I would recommend that folks contact their home owners' insurance company.

    On a side note, while reducing costs, I canceled my DirecTv service, sighting cost, contract, and value as my reasons. A day later the company called me and I have nearly twice the number of channels for a lower price with no contract. I guess they needed the money too.

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  2. Paul you might check how your ISO rating affects your homeowners insurance as well. Caldwells will be going up shortly.

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