How to Save On Your Home Insurance Quote
Nobody wants to pay more for their home insurance than they have to. Adequately insuring your home and its contents is absolutely essential and in some cases may even be mandated by your mortgage provider.
However, this doesn’t mean there are not some steps you can take to lower your home insurance quote. We have put together some top tips to help you lower your premium and get the best home insurance quote possible.
Estimating Your Buildings Value
One of the most significant factors in your home insurance quote will be the value of the property you are insuring. A common mistake among consumers is to insure the market value of their property or even the price they originally paid for it. In actual fact you will only need to insure the cost of rebuilding your house, known as its reinstatement value. This can often be significantly lower than the market value of your home and over insuring your property can result in an inflated premium. If you do not have an estimate for your rebuild costs, The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has a handy online tool that can give you an instant estimate. Of course, it is equally important that you do not underinsure your property, so make sure that any additions to your property such as extensions or conservatories are included in your policy.
Accurately Estimate the Value of Your Contents
Another important factor in determining your quote will be the value of your home’s contents. While you will want to make sure that you are adequately insured for every possible eventuality, overestimating the value of your contents may result in you paying an unnecessarily high premium. Remember that insurance will only cover the replacement cost of your contents if you need to make a claim, so overstating your contents’ value will mean you pay a higher premium with no benefit. As such, it is a good idea to itemise your contents and get as accurate as possible an estimate on their replacement value.
Consider Taking a Higher Excess
The excess on your home insurance is the amount you will have to contribute in the event of a claim, with your insurer paying any remaining balance. You also cannot make a claim for an amount which is lower than your excess, so it is important to keep this in mind. However, if you do choose to take a higher excess in your home insurance policy, we will reward you with a discount on your quote. This is a great way to reduce your premium if you feel you are unlikely to make claims below a certain amount, while still offering you full protection should you need to make a large claim in the future.
Install Burglar and Fire Alarms
A working smoke alarm is an absolutely essential piece of equipment to keep you and your family safe. As such, you should always install at least one smoke alarm in your home and regularly replace the batteries and check it is in good working order. In addition to the peace of mind a smoke alarm offers to you and your family, installing smoke alarms can also help to save you money on your home insurance. Due to the reduced risk, we will offer you a discount on your quote if you have two or more smoke alarms fitted. Similarly, a burglar alarm can also help to reduce the premium you will have to pay. This is particularly true in the case of a monitored alarm system which is connected to a 24 hour monitoring system.
Consolidate Your Insurance Products
You can also help to reduce your home insurance quote by purchasing more than one insurance product at the same time. In addition to our great value house insurance policies, we also offer competitive car insurance from just €310 with a 30% online discount. When you purchase both home and car insurance from AIG, we will reward your loyalty with a discount of 20% off your home insurance premiums.
Buy Your Insurance Online
Our last piece of advice is to always purchase your home insurance online. Not only does buying online offer you a fast and convenient way to get a quote and purchase on your own terms, it is also where you can find the best deals available on home insurance.
To see our latest deals on home and contents insurance, please visit our home insurance page. Or if you would like to learn more about what is involved in getting a quote, visit our quotes page now.
