Thursday, June 30, 2011

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How to Calculate The Auto Insurance Premium


In calculating the value of auto insurance premiums the various factors that are taken into account include information about the vehicle, the state of residence of the insured, the characteristics of car to be insured and profile of the driver. If the region of traffic where the car is driven has higher likelihood of accidents then that is also factored in.

Other factors that are checked include theft insurance, the protection level of the driver, usually at night if it is safely parked in a garage or remains on the street. A major factor that comes into play in calculating auto insurance premium is the model of car insured as some types of cars have a high rate of theft. The more expensive the model, the greater their demand in the market and the higher their risk quotient.

Another aspect carefully analyzed by insurers is the region of residence of the insured. if the car owner lives in an area that records many cases of robbery or theft of car or has statistics of high number of accidents, the price of auto insurance is likely to be increased..

Other relevant factors in the calculation of auto insurance are the ease of finding and price of spare parts. If the spare parts are rare and difficult to find or are costly, then the insurance company would have to spend more in the case of a repair after an accident. Consequently, the price of the auto insurance will be relatively higher.

The profile of the driver is also an important factor for computing the premium. If you are a married man then it will have a positive bearing on the cost of auto insurance. It’s even better if you have children. This is considered a situation that increases traffic prudence and consequently reduces the chances of a road accident through reckless driving.

On the other hand, a young driver aged less than 25 years with hardly any driving experience is on the other side of the scale and will have to pay a higher value to insure the car.

Many car insurers, particularly those who sell insurance online, offer the chance to calculate the insurance quote online directly from their site. Other sites facilitate the process of choosing your auto insurance by offering an online comparison of the price from different auto insurance companies thus simplifying the process of choosing your auto insurance. http://www.autocashinsuranceclaim.com

Merits of Short Term Auto Insurance Policy

Short term auto insurance is for those car owners who want to insure their car for a very short period of time and want to avoid paying high annual premiums.
 Short-term auto insurance is specially designed for those who need short-term coverage and are quite happy to meet any expenses over and above the coverage out of their own pocket.

This form of insurance is recommended for new car owners who are still deciding whether to opt for a long term insurance or not. One problem faced by first time car owners is that they don’t have an auto insurance and still need to drive the new car from the showroom to their home. Under such circumstances they can get temporary auto insurance and bring their car home. This also gives them the time to search for the best long term auto insurance that suits their requirements.

In fact short term auto insurance can also be used by people who do not have a car, but are finding ways to borrow a car and even for those who are happy to lend their car to someone else for certain duration of time. In such cases temporary insurance is your best option because it protects your car against the costs of compensation in case of damage or repair of your car following a mishap.

This coverage is called temporary or short term coverage because these policies provide the benefits only for a limited period of time, ranging from 3 days to a maximum of two months. The period of time may vary depending on the insurance company, but the policy can be extended if desired by the insurer.
 Unlike some of the other auto insurance policies, which require large volumes of documents and long processing time, short term auto insurance is extremely flexible and can also be purchased to insure the car for a single day thus allowing the applicants to customize their policy to their exact requirement and enjoy the benefits of the policy for their chosen period.

The registration process for this coverage is very simple and hardly takes any time to get approved by the insurance company. The necessary documents and forms can be downloaded directly via internet thus making the process a breeze.

Short term auto insurance doesn’t just save your valuable time, but also economic and financial complications. Also, with this form of insurance you do not have to pay hefty annual premiums for auto insurance when you require the services of the car for less than a year. http://www.allinsuranceclaims.com http://www.autocashinsuranceclaim.com

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The 15 Insurance Policies you Don't need

Hello Info Seeker,
I want you to prepare and keep a date with our blog as we keep updating with an interesting articles.

For today, While doing a searching &nbsp; with Google & nbsp; concerning the insurance policy i got this articles that is an eyes open to me and i want to share it with you here.
15 Insurance Policies You Don't need the future sells insurance. Because we can't predict the future, we want to be ready to cover our financial needs if, or when, something bad happens. Insurance companies understand this fear and offer a variety of insurance policies designed to protect us from a host of calamities that range from disability to disease and everything in between. While none of us wants anything bad to happen, many of the potential catastrophes that happen in our lives are not worth insuring against. In this article, we'll take you through 15 policies that you're probably better off without.

1. Private Mortgage Insurance The infamous private mortgage insurance (PMI) is well known to homeowners because it increases the amount of their monthly mortgage payments. PMI is an insurance policy that protects the lender against loss when lending to a higher-risk borrower. The borrower pays for this insurance but derives no benefit. Fortunately, there are several ways to avoid paying for this unnecessary policy. PMI is required if you purchase a home with a down payment of less than 20% of the home's value. The small down payment is viewed as putting you at risk of defaulting on the loan. Put down at least 20% and the PMI requirement goes away. Alternatively, you can put down 10% and take out two loans, one for 80% of the sale price of the property and one for 10%, although interests rates can prevent the economics of this maneuver from working out in the homeowner's favor.

2. Extended Warranties Extended warranties are available on a host of appliances and electronics. From a consumer's perspective, they are rarely used, particularly on small items such as DVD players and radios. If you purchase a reputable, brand-name product, you can be fairly certain it will work as advertised and that the extended warranty is statistically likely to be unnecessary. If you spend $5,000 on a giant, flat-screen television, the policy is still unlikely to pay off, but might make you feel better. For everything else, forget it.


3. Automobile Collision Collision insurance is designed to cover the cost of repairs to your vehicle if you are involved in an accident. If you have a loan out on the car, the loan issuer is likely to require that you have collision insurance. If your car is paid off, collision is optional; therefore, if you have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of a new car, collision insurance may be an unnecessary expense. This is particularly true if you are driving an old car, because cars depreciate so quickly that many vehicles are worth only a fraction of their purchase price by the time the loan is paid in full.

4. Rental Car Insurance Most auto insurance policies offer additional coverage for the cost of car rentals, touting it as a useful feature if your car is ever involved in an accident and needs to spend some time in the repair shop. This may sound like a good idea, but in reality, most people rarely rent a car, and when they do, the cost is relatively low and hardly worth insuring against. Although rental car insurance is relatively inexpensive, amortized over the course of a lifetime you are still likely to spend far more than you will benefit.

5. Car Rental Damage Insurance Many auto insurance policies already cover rentals, so there's no need to pay for this twice. Check your policy before you pay. Depending on where you rent the vehicle, you may also be able to pay a small fee for insurance on your rental when you pick it up at the rental center. If this fee is less than what you'd pay for a year in your old policy, choose the fee over the policy.

6.Flight insurance coverage is completely unnecessary. Despite media portrayal, airline accidents are relatively rare, and your life insurance policy should already provide coverage in the event of a catastrophe.


7. Water Line Coverage Water companies have made an aggressive push to sell policies that cover the repair of the water line that runs from the street to your house. The odds are in your favor that you will never use this coverage, particularly if you live in a newer home. If you live an average suburban neighborhood and you do need to repair the water line, the distance to the street is short, the likelihood of a problem is low and repair costs are a few thousand dollars or less. The same goes for policies offered by other utility companies.

8. Life Insurance for Children
Life insurance is designed to provide a safety net for your heirs/dependents. Because children don't have heirs to worry about and, statistically speaking, most kids will grow up safe and healthy, most parents should not purchase life insurance for their kids. Instead, use the money that you would have spent on life insurance to fund an education plan or an individual retirement accounts (IRA).

9. Flood Insurance unless you live in a flood plain or an area with a history of water problems, don't even bother buying flood insurance. If none of the homes in the area has ever been flooded, yours is unlikely to be the first.

10. Credit Card Insurance purchasing coverage to pay your credit card bill in the event you cannot pay it is a waste of money. A far better idea is to avoid running up your credit cards in the first place, so you won't need to worry about the bills. Not only do you not save on the insurance premiums, you'll also save the interest on your debt
11. Credit Card Loss Insurance Federal law limits your liability if your credit card is stolen. Your out-of-pocket costs are limited to $50 per card and not a penny more. In fact, many credit card companies don't even try to collect the $50.

12. Mortgage Life Insurance Mortgage life insurance pays off your house in the event of your death. Rather than add another policy - and another bill - to your list of insurance plans, it makes more sense to get a term-life policy instead. A good life insurance policy will provide enough money to pay off the mortgage and to cover other expenses as well. After all, the mortgage isn't the only bill your survivors will need to pay.

 13. Unemployment Insurance
This coverage makes minimum payments on your bills if you are out of work, which sounds like an attractive proposition. A better plan is to save your money and build up an emergency fund instead. You won't have to cover the cost of the insurance policy and, if you are never out of work, you won't spend any money at all.


14. Disease Insurance Policies are available to cover cancer, heart disease and other maladies. Instead of trying to identify every possible disease that you may encounter, get a good medical coverage policy instead. This way, your medical bills will be covered regardless of the problem you face.

15. Accidental-Death Insurance Unless you are extraordinarily accident prone, an accident is unlikely. Major catastrophes such as car wrecks and fires are covered under other policies, as is any harm that comes to you while at work. Accidental-death policies are often fraught with stipulations that make them difficult to collect on, so skip the hassles and get life insurance instead.
Hope you enjoy the articles
Edet Nse
Internet Consultant
 http://www.autocashinsuranceclaim.com

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Home insurance system

According to my recent research online, i came a cross the wikipedia.org, brief details and explanation about the home insurance system. hope you will enjoy it here.
According to the resources, In the United States, most home buyers borrow money in the form of a mortgage loan, and the mortgage lender always requires that the buyer purchase homeowners insurance as a condition of the loan, in order to protect the bank if the home were to be destroyed. Anyone with an insurable interest in the property should be listed on the policy. In some cases the mortgagee will waive the need for the mortgagor to carry homeowner's insurance if the value of the land exceeds the amount of the mortgage balance. In a case like this even the total destruction of any buildings would not affect the ability of the lender to be able to foreclose and recover the full amount of the loan.

Home insurance in the United States may differ from other countries; for example, in Britain, subsidence and subsequent foundation failure is usually covered under an insurance policy.

Reportedly, United States insurance companies used to offer foundation insurance, which was reduced to coverage for damage due to leaks, and finally eliminated altogether.
Further highlighted on the history of home insurance

<b>History</b>
The first homeowners policy per se in the United States was introduced in September 1950, but similar policies had existed in Great Britain and certain areas of the United States. In the late forties US insurance law was reformed and during this process multiple line statutes were written, allowing homeowners policies to become legal.

Prior to the 1950s, there were separate policies for the various perils that could affect a home. A homeowner would have had to purchase separate policies covering fire losses, theft, personal property, and the like. During the 1950s, policy forms were developed allowing the homeowner to purchase all the insurance they needed on one complete policy. However, these policies varied by insurance company, and were difficult to comprehend.

The need for standardization grew so great that a private company based in Jersey City, New Jersey, Insurance Services Office, also known as the ISO, was formed in 1971 to provide risk information and issued a simplified homeowners policy for resell to insurance companies. These policies have been amended over the years.

The Types of policies are as follows according to wikipedia.org
Currently, the ISO has seven standardized homeowners insurance forms in general use:

HO1 – Basic Form Homeowner Policy
A basic policy form that provides coverage on a home against 11 listed perils; contents are generally included in this type of coverage, but must be explicitly enumerated. The perils include fire or lightning, windstorm or hail, vandalism or malicious mischief, theft, damage from vehicles and aircraft, explosion riot or civil commotion, glass breakage, smoke, volcanic eruption, and personal liability. Exceptions include floods, earthquakes.

HO2 – Broad Form Homeowner Policy
A more advanced form that provides coverage on a home against 17 listed perils (including all 11 on the HO1). The coverage is usually a "named perils" policy, which lists the events that would be covered.

HO3 – Special Form Homeowner Policy
The typical, most comprehensive form used for single-family homes. The policy provides "all risk" coverage on the home with some perils excluded, such as earthquake and flood. Contents are covered on a named peril basis. (Note: "All Risk" is poorly termed as it is essentially named exclusions (ie, if it is not specifically excluded, it is covered))

HO4 – Renter's Insurance
The "Tenants" form is for renters. It covers personal property against the same perils as the contents portion of the HO2 or HO3.

HO5 - Premier Homeowner Policy
Covers the same as HO3 plus more. On this policy the contents are covered on an open peril basis, therefore as long as the cause of loss is not specifically exluded in the policy it will be covered for that cause of loss. (can also be achieved by endorsing an HO15 to the HO3)

HO6 – Condominium Policy
The form for condominium owners.

HO8 – Older Houses
The "Modified Coverage" form is for the owner-occupied older home whose replacement cost far exceeds the property's market value.
Coverage rates

According a 1998 NAIC report, 83% of homes were covered by owner-occupied homeowners policies. Of these, 87% had the HO3 Special and 9% had the more expensive HO5 Comprehensive. Both of these policies are "all risks" or "open perils", meaning that they cover all perils except those specifically excluded. 3% were the HO2 Broad, which covers only specific named perils. Others include the HO1 Basic and the HO8 Modified, which is the most limited in its coverage. HO8, also known as older home insurance, is likely to pay only actual cash value for damages rather than replacement.

The remaining 13% of home insurance policies were covered by renter's or condominium insurance. Two-thirds of these had the HO-4 Contents Broad form, also known as renters insurance, which covers the contents of an apartment not specifically covered in the blanket policy written for the complex. This policy can also cover liability arising from injury to guests as well as negligence of the renter within the coverage territory. Common coverage areas are events such as lightning, riot, aircraft, explosion, vandalism, smoke, theft, windstorm or hail, falling objects, volcanic eruption, snow, sleet, and weight of ice.

The remainder had the HO-6 Unit-Owners policy, also known as a condominium insurance, which is designed for the owners of condos and includes coverage for the part of the building owned by the insured and for the property housed therein. Designed to span the gap between the coverage provided by the blanket policy written for the entire neighborhood or building and the personal property inside the home. The Association's by-laws may determine the total amount of insurance necessary. In Florida, the scope of coverage is prescribed by statute - 718.111(11)(f) .

In addition, about 2.4% of homes were covered by a dwelling fire policy[6] which covers property damage to a structure and is typically sold to noncommercial owners of rented houses. It may also cover the owner's personal property (such as appliances and furnishings). The owner's liability may be extended from their own primary home insurance and, thus, may not comprise part of the Dwelling Fire policy.
Typically consumers can save money by purchasing their insurance directly from a company rather than through an agent, but there are not many companies which sell home insurance directly.

However, an experienced agent can provide expertise (especially expertise with the local insurance environment) that a company may lack.

Classes of coverage
For each policy, there are typically 5 classifications of coverage. These are based on standard Insurance Services Office or American Association of Insurance Services forms.
Section I — Property Coverages
Coverage A – Dwelling
Covers the value of the dwelling itself (not including the land). Typically, a coinsurance clause states that as long as the dwelling is insured to 80% of actual value, losses will be adjusted at replacement cost, up to the policy limits. This is in place to give a buffer against inflation. HO-4 (renter's insurance) typically has no Coverage A, although it has additional coverages for improvements.
Coverage B – Other Structures
Covers other structure around the property which are not used for business, except as a private garage. Typically limited at 10% to 20% of the Coverage A, with additional amounts available by endorsement.
Coverage C – Personal Property
Covers personal property, with limits for the theft and loss of particular classes of items (e.g., $200 for money, banknotes, bullion, coins, medals, etc.). Typically 50 to 70% of coverage A is required for contents, which means that consumers may pay for much more insurance than necessary. This has led to some calls for more choice.

Coverage D – Loss of Use/Additional Living Expenses
Covers expenses associated with additional living expenses (i.e. rental expenses) and fair rental value, if part of the residence was rented, however only the rental income for the actual rent of the space not services provided such as utilities.

Additional Coverages

Covers a variety of expenses such as debris removal, reasonable repairs, damage to trees and shrubs for certain named perils (excluding the most common causes of damage, wind and ice), fire department changes, removal of property, credit card / identity theft charges, loss assessment, collapse, landlord's furnishing, and some building additions. These vary depending upon the form.
Exclusions                       

In an open perils policy, specific exclusions will be stated in this section. These generally include earth movement, water damage, power failure, neglect, war, nuclear hazard, intentional loss, and concurrent causation (for HO-3).
  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, <a href="http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_insurance">

The 15 Insurance Policies you Don't need

Hello Info Seeker,
I want you to prepare and keep a date with our blog as we keep updating with an interesting articles.

For today, While doing a searching  with Google  concerning the insurance policy i got this articles that is an eyes open to me and i want to share it with you here.

15 Insurance Policies You Don't Need

Fear of the future sells insurance. Because we can't predict the future, we want to be ready to cover our financial needs if, or when, something bad happens. Insurance companies understand this fear and offer a variety of insurance policies designed to protect us from a host of calamities that range from disability to disease and everything in between. While none of us wants anything bad to happen, many of the potential catastrophes that happen in our lives are not worth insuring against. In this article, we'll take you through 15 policies that you're probably better off without.


1. Private Mortgage Insurance
The infamous private mortgage insurance (PMI) is well known to homeowners because it increases the amount of their monthly mortgage payments. PMI is an insurance policy that protects the lender against loss when lending to a higher-risk borrower. The borrower pays for this insurance but derives no benefit. Fortunately, there are several ways to avoid paying for this unnecessary policy. PMI is required if you purchase a home with a down payment of less than 20% of the home's value. The small down payment is viewed as putting you at risk of defaulting on the loan. Put down at least 20% and the PMI requirement goes away. Alternatively, you can put down 10% and take out two loans, one for 80% of the sale price of the property and one for 10%, although interests rates can prevent the economics of this maneuver from working out in the homeowner's favor.


2. Extended Warranties
Extended warranties are available on a host of appliances and electronics. From a consumer's perspective, they are rarely used, particularly on small items such as DVD players and radios. If you purchase a reputable, brand-name product, you can be fairly certain it will work as advertised and that the extended warranty is statistically likely to be unnecessary. If you spend $5,000 on a giant, flat-screen television, the policy is still unlikely to pay off, but might make you feel better. For everything else, forget it.



3. Automobile Collision
Collision insurance is designed to cover the cost of repairs to your vehicle if you are involved in an accident. If you have a loan out on the car, the loan issuer is likely to require that you have collision insurance. If your car is paid off, collision is optional; therefore, if you have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of a new car, collision insurance may be an unnecessary expense. This is particularly true if you are driving an old car, because cars depreciate so quickly that many vehicles are worth only a fraction of their purchase price by the time the loan is paid in full.


4. Rental Car Insurance
Most auto insurance policies offer additional coverage for the cost of car rentals, touting it as a useful feature if your car is ever involved in an accident and needs to spend some time in the repair shop. This may sound like a good idea, but in reality, most people rarely rent a car, and when they do, the cost is relatively low and hardly worth insuring against. Although rental car insurance is relatively inexpensive, amortized over the course of a lifetime you are still likely to spend far more than you will benefit.


5. Car Rental Damage Insurance
Many auto insurance policies already cover rentals, so there's no need to pay for this twice. Check your policy before you pay. Depending on where you rent the vehicle, you may also be able to pay a small fee for insurance on your rental when you pick it up at the rental center. If this fee is less than what you'd pay for a year in your old policy, choose the fee over the policy.


6. Flight Insurance
Flight insurance coverage is completely unnecessary. Despite media portrayal, airline accidents are relatively rare, and your life insurance policy should already provide coverage in the event of a catastrophe.



7. Water Line Coverage
Water companies have made an aggressive push to sell policies that cover the repair of the water line that runs from the street to your house. The odds are in your favor that you will never use this coverage, particularly if you live in a newer home. If you live an average suburban neighborhood and you do need to repair the water line, the distance to the street is short, the likelihood of a problem is low and repair costs are a few thousand dollars or less. The same goes for policies offered by other utility companies.


8. Life Insurance for Children
Life insurance is designed to provide a safety net for your heirs/dependents. Because children don't have heirs to worry about and, statistically speaking, most kids will grow up safe and healthy, most parents should not purchase life insurance for their kids. Instead, use the money that you would have spent on life insurance to fund an education plan or an individual retirement account (IRA).


9. Flood Insurance
Unless you live in a flood plain or an area with a history of water problems, don't even bother buying flood insurance. If none of the homes in the area has ever been flooded, yours is unlikely to be the first.


10. Credit Card Insurance
Purchasing coverage to pay your credit card bill in the event you cannot pay it is a waste of money. A far better idea is to avoid running up your credit cards in the first place, so you won't need to worry about the bills. Not only do you not save on the insurance premiums, you'll also save the interest on your debt.
11. Credit Card Loss Insurance
Federal law limits your liability if your credit card is stolen. Your out-of-pocket costs are limited to $50 per card and not a penny more. In fact, many credit card companies don't even try to collect the $50.


12. Mortgage Life Insurance
Mortgage life insurance pays off your house in the event of your death. Rather than add another policy - and another bill - to your list of insurance plans, it makes more sense to get a term-life policy instead. A good life insurance policy will provide enough money to pay off the mortgage and to cover other expenses as well. After all, the mortgage isn't the only bill your survivors will need to pay.


13. Unemployment Insurance
This coverage makes minimum payments on your bills if you are out of work, which sounds like an attractive proposition. A better plan is to save your money and build up an emergency fund instead. You won't have to cover the cost of the insurance policy and, if you are never out of work, you won't spend any money at all.



14. Disease Insurance
Policies are available to cover cancer, heart disease and other maladies. Instead of trying to identify every possible disease that you may encounter, get a good medical coverage policy instead. This way, your medical bills will be covered regardless of the problem you face.


15. Accidental-Death Insurance
Unless you are extraordinarily accident prone, an accident is unlikely. Major catastrophes such as car wrecks and fires are covered under other policies, as is any harm that comes to you while at work. Accidental-death policies are often fraught with stipulations that make them difficult to collect on, so skip the hassles and get life insurance instead.



Hope you enjoy the articles.
Edet Nse
Internt Consultant

15 ways to save on homeowners insurance

According top a www.sure.com the 15 ways to save on home owners insurance is a complete guide to home owners for complete insurance guideline on how to reduce your home premiums.
By Insure.com

You can save money on homeowners insurance if you know how. Discounts from your insurance company are available for a variety of reasons, ranging from the type of building material used to build your home to how close you live to a fire station.

Here are 12 ways you can save money on your homeowners policy:
Shop around. Check with several different insurance companies to get rate quotes. Do your friends or family members like their insurance company? Get online quotes from sites like MSN Money.

Raise your deductible. The deductible is the amount of money you have to pay toward a loss before your insurance kicks in. Typically, deductibles start at $250. Increase your deductible to:
• $500 and save up to 12% on your premiums.
• $1,000 and save up to 24%.
• $2,500 and save up to 30%.
• $5,000 and save up to 37%.
Just make sure you can afford to pay the higher deductible if something should happen.

Buy your home and auto policies from the same company. Many companies will give a discount if you buy both homeowners and auto coverage from them.
Consider insurance consequences when buying a home. If you're looking at buying a home, think about the cost of insuring the home.

A newer home's electrical, heating and plumbing systems, and overall structure are likely to be in better condition than those of an older home. This can lead to a discount on your premiums.
Also consider the construction of the home and your geographical location. If you live on the East Coast, you'll want the house to be able to stand up to wind damage; on the West Coast, you need to keep earthquakes in mind.

Insure your home, not the land. Although your home and its contents are at risk from fire, theft, windstorms and other perils, the land your house sits on is not. Don't include the value of the land in deciding how much homeowners insurance you need to buy.

Improve security and safety. Items such as deadbolt locks, burglar alarms and smoke detectors often bring discounts of 5% each, depending on the company. Your insurance company may also offer a significant discount of 15% or 20% if you install a sophisticated home-security system. If you're thinking about buying such a system, check with your insurer to see which systems they recommend and which will earn you a discount.

Stop smoking. Smoking accidents account for more than 23,000 residential fires every year. Some insurers offer to reduce premiums if no one in the home smokes.
Try senior discounts. Insurance companies have found that retired people stay at home more and spot fires sooner than working people. Older people also have more time for maintaining their homes. If you're at least 55 years old and retired, you might qualify for a discount of as much as 10%.

Ask about group coverage. Alumni and business associations often work out insurance deals with an insurance company, which includes a discount for association members. Ask your association's director about any such deals.

Stay with an insurer. If you've kept your coverage with a company for several years, you may receive special consideration. Several insurers will reduce their premiums by 5% after you've been with them for three to five years, and some companies will discount you as much as 10% after six years.

Check your policy annually. You want your policy to reflect the value of your home and belongings. If you review your policy every year, you will be able to make the necessary adjustments. If, for example, you just sold a valuable painting, you won't need the same amount of coverage. But if you added a garage, you'll need to increase your coverage.

Look for private insurance first. If you live in a high-risk area (one that is especially vulnerable to coastal storms, fires or crime) and think you'll be forced to buy homeowners coverage from your state's high-risk insurance pool, check first with an insurance agent. You may find that you can still buy insurance at a lower price in the private insurance market than from the insurer of last resort.
Make payments electronically.

Many companies now charge up to $5 for mailed payments, so have your payments automatically deducted to shave that cost. Sometimes the deductions can come from your credit card, so you don't have to worry if the money is in your bank account when payment time comes.

Check your credit rating. Many companies check your credit and base your policy on the information they find. Make sure your credit is in good shape, and if it's not, seek out companies that do not run credit checks.

Get replacement-cost coverage. Actual-cash-value coverage reimburses you for the cost of your property at the time of the claim, minus the deductible. This can result in a lower claim payout than you expect. If your TV is worth $50, for example, that's all you'd get to buy a new one. Replacement-cost coverage will reimburse the full value of an item based on the cost of purchasing a new one. The upfront cost is greater, but you are more likely to receive accurate compensation for your possessions.

Articles from Insure.com
and posted by www.allinsuranceclaims.com