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The Ultimate Guide to Buying Auto and Homeowners Insurance |
Companies will often sell you the idea that if you package your policies with their company, they’ll provide in return a discount – which they will. I’ve stood behind this fact for years and in many cases it turned out to be the best way to buy and save on auto and home insurance. However, in some cases its best to put your auto insurance with one company and your home with another, here’s why…
Take a close look at this table and you’ll begin to see exactly what I’m talking about… By the way, when you’re comparing quotes, setting up a table like this on paper is very helpful.
John Example’s insurance quotes: Please note, these are merely examples…
Company Name Auto Alone Home Alone Discounted Multi-line Policy Price
Travelers $675 $320 $945
The Hartford $400 $620 $970
Progressive $850 $600 $1350
Statefarm $700 $500 $1150
With John packaging his auto and home with Travelers he saves $50 with the multi-line insurance discount. However, as you can see, if John selects the auto insurance with The Hartford and the Home with the Traveler, without the multi-line discount he still only pays $400 for auto and $320 for his home totaling $720.00. If John is one for wanting more coverage this works great. Now he has more money to increase limits of liability to his auto insurance or add endorsements to his home policy.
These figures above are provided as an example only. If you want to compare your options the best way is to first get your auto and home quote and then ask for the quotes individually without the multi-line discount applied. Then just like its showed above, list the company names with the amounts for auto alone, home alone and then both packaged. This way you can determine if bundling up with one company is the absolute best choice for you.
More Things To Consider When You Need To Buy Homeowners Insurance
Personal Property Coverage
Personal property coverage is included on all standard home insurance policies. The question that comes to mind is how much personal property coverage is needed. Generally, personal property coverage limits are calculated off of a percentage of the coverage A, the primary dwelling limits. This calculation could be anywhere between 50% to 75% of the Dwelling coverage In many cases personal property limits may be as much as $100,000 or more. How much property do you have? You may be paying for too much or too little coverage. Before accepting the calculated personal property limits you may want to take an inventory of the personal property in your home. With an inventory you’ll have a better idea as to how much personal property coverage you need to insure and you’ll also have a written record in case a loss should ever occur.
One thing to keep in consideration is the fact that some property has special limits. Regardless of the limits of your personal property coverage, certain items will only be covered to special limit set by the insurance company. Below is an example of some items with special limits. Please note, these limits depend on the insurance company that provides the home insurance quote.
$500 – Animals, Birds and Fish
$500 – Money, Travelers Checks
$1,000 – Jewelry, Watches
$2,000 – Trailers and Campers
$2,000 – Watercraft
$2,000 – Manuscripts
$2,500 – Guns and Accessories
$5,000 – Silverware, Goldware and Tea Sets
So what happens if you have $20,000 worth of jewelry? Here’s where insurance riders come in. If you need coverage for a specific item that isn’t fully covered by your home policy, most insurance companies offer special endorsements to help cover that specific piece of property.
Changing Your Home Insurance Company, Getting Your Home Insurance Refund
Changing insurance companies for Homeowners coverage is much easier than you may think. You may also receive a refund if you have any unearned premium left on your current Homeowners policy. If you bought a home 6 months ago, a portion of your closing costs paid for an annual Homeowners policy which may have cost $600. If you replace that policy with a new policy 6 months prior to your renewal date, there will be $300 of un-earned insurance premium which the company owes you. You can purchase a new policy on a monthly, bi-annual or annual basis.
If you find a homeowners insurance policy for 2 payments of $200, you can make the first payment of $200 now and a second payment 6 months from now. So the bottom line is you’ll pay $200 now and receive a $300 refund check from your original insurer. Also, when it comes time to buy the insurance make sure the company knows you want the refund check sent to you, otherwise it may be sent to credit the account with the mortgage company.
I believe with knowing this, those who live in states with higher than average homeowners insurance can save greatly. According to a recent study, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida and Mississippi have the most expensive homeowners insurance premiums. These states are followed by DC, California, Kansas, Colorado and Alaska. It has also been found that Drivers in DC, New Jersey, New York, Florida, Massachusetts and Louisiana spend the most on auto insurance.
So in conclusion, those dealing with higher than average auto and home insurance rates in Florida, NY, DC and Louisiana should really consider quoting their auto and home and carefully reviewing what the best choice is – combining two policies with the same company or buying two separate policies from two different insurance companies.
We hope this ultimate guide to buying auto and homeowners coverage helps save you money and increase coverage all at the same time. Our resource is built to help you get cheap insurance rates. Learn more about how you can get cheaper car insurance rates.
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