Tom's Blog
Saving money is something we ALL want to do and we are always looking for ways to do it. Paying insurance premiums for your 2 biggest investments can seem costly when the premium bill comes in, but did you know there are 5 ways to save money on your home and car insurance?
(1) Raise Your Deductible
A deductible is the amount of money you choose on your policy to pay before the insurance company pays anything for a claim. The higher your deductible is, the lower your insurance rates will be for both your home and auto insurance policy. The best way to determine how much to raise your deductible is to ask yourself how much can you possibly pay out of your own pocket should you experience a loss. By increasing your deductible, you could save between 12% and 37% on your home and auto insurance rate. Doesn’t everyone want to save money?
(2) Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
If you are faced with a small homeowners or auto claim, should you turn it into your insurance company? If at all possible for your budget, DO NOT turn those smaller claims into the insurance company as it may jeopardize your claim history, making your premiums go up. Your main goal is to keep your rates as low as possible, so you must weigh the cost of paying for those smaller claims out of your pocket against the cost of the raised premium. The fewer claims you turn into your insurance company, the lower rate you will pay for both auto and homeowners. Save the claims notices for the BIG STUFF!
(3) Save a Bundle
Did you know that by combining both your home and auto policies with the same insurance company that you could save money? That’s right! The more policies you bundle with the same company, the more money you will save. This could mean savings for YOU up to 20%. Covering both of your biggest investments under one roof just makes sense, especially with that type of savings!
(4) Take Credit Where Credit is Due
We see commercials all the time about finding the number of your credit score. Just how important is your credit score? From buying a home or car to insuring your home or auto, it is VERY important! Insurance companies have studied the correlation between your credit rating and your degree of responsibility, safe driving, and claims occurrences.
They actually found that those people with higher credit ratings take better care of their homes and cars to prevent claims, act more responsibly in the operations of their vehicles, and have lower claims than those with lower credit scores.
Higher credit ratings mean lower rates for both auto and homeowners insurance! You must take your credit seriously if you want to save money!
(5) Use Your Independent Agent to Save
The great news about using an independent agent is they will work for you and not the insurance company. Their primary interest is to save you money by shopping all the available coverages to best suit your specific needs at an affordable cost to you.
An independent agent will take your credit rating into account and will shop your coverages to find the best rate possible if you have an excellent rating. However, if your credit rating is poor, your independent agent can still shop around for you to find the fairest rate for your lower credit rating; however, you will pay a higher premium! Saving money for you is important to your independent agent. Let the agent work for you to save the most money!
Contact Paramount Insurance Agency, a North Carolina independent agency, TODAY at 866-869-3335 so we can save you money on your North Carolina homeowners and car insurance! We insure customers for auto and homeowners insurance in Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, High Point, Cary, and Wilmington and all over the North Carolina area.
