1. Increase your voluntary excess
Your insurance excess is the amount of money you agree to pay on a claim before the insurer pays the rest. For example, if you had a 200 pound excess and a £500 claim you would pay £200 and the insurance company would pay 300 pounds. If you choose to increase your excess, you will be charged a lower premium. You can make serious savings by doing this. When you are comparing policies, play around with changing the excess amount to see how much you can save.
2. Fit smoke alarms
Fire alarms are reasonably cheap, especially when you compare it to the cost of a home or the loss of a life. Most home fires are caused by cooking or smoking. Never leave your cooking unattended, don't leave matches or lighters laying around and don't smoke in bed. Be aware if you have young children that they love to play with all things new and exciting. They may turn the cooker on, cover lamps or light paper. All of these things may cause a fire in your home.
3. Install new locks
If you have just moved into a new home, you do not know who may still have a key. The cost of changing your locks is much less than having all of your worldly possessions stolen from under your nose. Make sure you install quality locks - preferably 5-lever mortise locks.
4. Have security lighting installed
Theives like to work in the cover of darkness and don’t like to be in the spotlight. Use movement sensors with your lighting to surprise unwanted visitors and keep them at bay. A blast of bright light will also raise attention with yourself or neighbours in the middle of the night.
5. Install time switches on internal lights
Your home is most at risk to theft when you are not there. Lights that are switched on at a particular time will give outsiders the impression that you are in the house when you are not. You can stagger the intervals the lights come on and off in different rooms make it appear like you are moving about the house.
6. Have an alarm system installed
Ask your insurer if they have a preferred supplier of home alarm systems. By installing a professional alarm system can sometimes reduce premiums by over 5 %. That is a great saving, and it will give you peace of mind that your home is safe.
7. Don't leave your keys under the mat
This will be the first place a thief will look. If you want to hide your house keys, put a little thought into somewhere a thief would never think of looking. Also don't keep your keys on a hook close to the front door where a thief may be able to hook the keys with a wire through the front letter box.
8. Insulate your external pipes
Pipes can easily freeze in the great British winter. By lagging (wrapping insulation around the pipe) your external pipes will reduce the chance of them freezing. If pipes do freeze you can often get leaks in cracked pipes or burn out pump motors as the water will not travel through the pipe.
9. Regularly check you house and property for subsidence.
Subsidence is generally covered by your home buildings insurance. It is important to detect movement as soon as possible to minimise the damage to you house. Look for cracks in walls and unevenness in walls and floors.
10. Only claim if you have to
The lower the number of claims you make, the higher your no claims discount will be. If a minor issue happens, consider carefully prior to claiming the item on your insurance. If you do submit a claim and loose your no claims discount, will this cost you more in the long run?
In order to save money on your insurance you have to compare providers. Ideally you should do this once a year to make sure you are always getting the best price.
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