Advice on Selecting Home Insurance that Provides Real Protection
Homeowner’s insurance is a kind of general insurance. Well-being of a home is threatened by a number of natural as well as man-made factors. Natural factors may include calamities like earthquake, tornado etc while man-made factors comprise of burglaries, accidents, etc. All of these cause a lot of damage to the contents of the property, so the homeowner requires a protection to cover the expenses that he incurs in rehabilitating the household post such incidents to normal. Let’s make a point-wise list of factors that should be considered while buying homeowner’s insurance.
- Optimum cover: Your policy should be able to provide the protection in real sense. It is better to evaluate the value of house contents and cost of reconstruction before buying any plan. This allows you select the policy with sum assured that covers your expenses in real sense and ensures your peace of mind at the same time.
- Premium amount: There is no point in paying too much as premium when the same cover is made available to you at less cost. Conduct an in-depth research on existing market players and choose the one that fits your budget perfectly.
- Easy procedures: You are not signing a sales deed but just a simple policy buying form after all. Hence, it is not wrong if you expect few signatures and less documentation. Procedure made as simple as cakewalk saves your time and effort considerably.
- Timely processing of claims: Find out about the track record in terms of claim settlement time taken by the insurance company. Of course, you do not need an insurance provider that makes you run pillar to post when it comes to redeeming the money locked in.
- Go for word of mouth: A person who has taken an insurance policy and gone through all the aspects of this relationship in the past is the best source of correct information. Talk to your family, friends, co-workers about the insurance companies that they dealt with in the past. Doing so, you will save yourself from being trapped in rosy picture painted by the aggressive sales force of insurance companies.
- Insurability of the house: In addition to assessing the insurance companies’ performance, it is good to take a look at the house. How old the house is, how many claims you have made in the past, is there any fire station or home rescue entity nearby etc are some of the important questions that may even deny you the insurance.
Shopping for home owners insurance does require proper research. However, this is now made easy by a number of comparative charts that are available online tabulating the features of various insurance products offered by existing companies.
You have already committed for the loan collateral, missing on the payments or the default can come heavy on you. You can lose on your assets. There are chances of losing some hundred points to your credit rating as well. At times there are some instances in the past, like the recession which were beyond your control, but had a very bad impact on your credit history. There were a lot of people who had to face CCJs, foreclosures or even bankruptcy on account of these situations. Instead of getting discouraged by bad credit history, you should look out for options and the lenders who are ready to offer loans to people with bad credit history. You may be required to compromise on the interest rates, tenure, repayment terms and the flexibility because the lenders will need to cover the extra risk they have to bear.
Find more about additional covers offered with the policy, liability insurance being the most important. It covers you from the accidental damages caused by occupants. Also, review your policy every three years and get it updated as per the prevailing market conditions and coverage features. A little bit of awareness can help you gain more benefits in the long run.
Author Box:
Peter Dav advises wisely on picking the right insurance for your needs. He however insists scrutinizing all the kodukindlustus products before you settle for the favorable one.
Category: Home Insurance
