What to Consider When Taking Out Home and Content Insurance
If you are a homeowner then you absolutely need to have home and content insurance to protect not just your home, but your personal belongings. Home insurance will cover the costs associated with damage done to the structure of you home due to an accident or bad weather. On the other hand, content insurance covers your personal belongings that are inside your home that have been damaged.
If you have a home mortgage, your lending company will probably require you to have at least home insurance. However, it is highly advised that you always purchase home and content insurance whether you are required to or not. Below are some things you should take into consideration when taking out home and content insurance.
Type of Coverage
There are two basic types of insurance policies you can take out, which are total replacement cover and sum-insured cover. Total replacement cover will cover that entire cost to rebuild your home or reimburse you for the actual value of your property. Sum-insured cover is the most common type of policy and will cover you loses up to a set amount. You need to determine what type of cover will work best for you.
Amount of Coverage
You also need to determine how much cover you need to take out. Home insurance is a little easier to determine because you probably want to take out at least the valuation of your home. In addition, your home mortgage lender may require you to take out a certain amount of insurance. Content insurance is a more difficult to determine. You must try to place a value on all of your personal belongings. You can choose to take a content cover out for the current estimated value of your belongings, or how much it would cost to actually replace the items. The insurance company can help you determine what would be a good valuation for you.
Deductions
Many home and content insurance companies offer certain types of deductions on their policies. For example, you may be able to get a discount for installing a home security system in your home. If you already have extra security measures in place, be sure to tell you insurance company about them to see if you are eligible for a discount. You may also want to ask the company what type of discounts are available to determine if it would be feasible to add any of these features to your home in order to receive the discount.
Shop Around
Finally, you want to make sure that you shop around at different insurance companies to see which company offers you the best policy for the best rate. It is recommended that you obtain at least three different quotes before making your final decision. If you already have other insurance policies, such as auto or life insurance, make sure one of your quotes is from that company because you may get a special deal for having multiple policies with them. You also want to check the reputation of any company you choose to use.
These tips will help you get the right type of home and content insurance to protect you and your family. It is important to have your policies updated on a regular basis. As you obtain new assets or the value of your assets increases, you will also need to increase the amount of your cover. Too often, homeowners forget to update their policies causing them to be greatly underinsured at the time damage occurs.
Feel free to share any tips on how you have saved money whilst picking your insurance.
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