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Tips for Keeping Your Home Protected
By Kristin Davis, Kimberly Lankford, and Elizabeth Razzi
Reader's Digest, January 2005
- Increase your deductible: going from $250 to $2,500 can drop a premium by 30%
- Never submit claims less than $1,000
- Check your Credit and CLUE reports and correct errors
- Keep a record of all claims
- Stay with a Carrier: Don't switch carriers just to save a few bucks. Chances are, at renewal (or even before) your policy will go up to match or surpass the original.
- If you do decide to switch, keep the old one until you are locked into the new one. At first glance a new carrier sounds great, but they might end up charging more for a claim than who you had originally, or their underwriting department might decline coverage altogether.
Water Claims are the worst kind of claim you can make. They really stand out and just one can get your policy canceled, according to the California Department of Insurance. Insurance Carriers share information about claims thru a database called CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange), so no claim is secret. The biggest problem with a water claim is the potential for problems down the road with rot and mold.
One last note - many carriers have been underpricing home policies for years and are now playing catch-up and increasing their rates even when no claims have been made. If you had no claims and your policy increased, this might be the answer!
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