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Many factors can make your home insurance go expensive or cheap. When you are the owner of a house, you consider yourself a lucky person. When you own a house in a good area, you are twice as lucky but when you are the one with the good insurance on your house - think of yourself as of a "jackpot" winner.

The amount you will have to pay for your insurance plan depends on lots of elements. First of all, it is wrong to think nobody will check up on you and your insurance past so we advice you not to try to hide anything. It is always better to stay honest.

You house is like a map that can take you anywhere. But it is not enough to have a home in a prestigious neighborhood. Your rates can be crazy high even when it looks perfect on the outside. Let us take a look t the factors that can influence the payments you will have to make and try to point out the ways to cut the costs where possible.

You house is new. But guess what? The methods of construction and materials employed for construction were not strong enough to make it withstand the storm damage, fire or earthquake. Therefore we can see that some materials used for the house construction will affect your payments - homes made of bricks will be less costly to insure when stick frame houses will cost quite expensive to insure. Brick doesn't get burned down easily that is another reason for the cost difference between those two.

Age is only a number - this is exactly what we are used to saying. But when it comes to insurance age does matter. If you are the owner of an old house it will cost you more to insure it while newer houses cost less due to the fact that the materials are stronger. This also means the percentage of failure is smaller.

We all want our houses in a good are. Unfortunately, not all of us get those, but this doesn't mean we don't have to insure them. Yes, it is true that if your neighborhood is pleasant your insurance plan will cost you less. The location can affect your payments greatly. There are areas that are dangerous to live in as burglary is very common there. The house owners that live in these areas pay almost twice the price the people living in nice areas pay. We know it is unfair, but so true. Cheap home insurance is mostly for those who afford to pay for it, funny though.

Deductibles and coverage amounts differ from one policy to another. Your deductible is the amount of money you will have to pay out of pocket before your policy kicks in. It is necessary to take this into consideration as well. Another important fact - the amount of coverage you get will affect the amount of money you will pay for your home insurance.

You can get additional coverage whenever you need or feel like you need some. The more insured you will get - the better it will be for you when the replacement time comes.

But don't let anyone think you can't find a good solution. You can get a cheap home insurance when you own a good home. Remember this.

Insuring own house can look like a tricky business to most people who are not quite familiar with the ins and outs of insurance coverage. Some people are even afraid of getting adequate coverage because they don't know what to do if they will actually need it. And taking the fact that insurance is not the cheapest of services these days it's quite evident that many people will choose to leave their houses uncovered. Still, if you value your house high enough to be worried about losing or damaging it having it covered is a must. And if you are confused about how to proceed after the disaster has already struck in order to get respectful coverage, here are some great tips to follow in order to file a claim and get what you should with no trouble at all.

In case of a flood

• Do not wait until the water flows away. Contact your insurance provider in order to file a claim as soon as your house gets flooded. Learn what exactly your company will need to learn to start the process.
• Analyze your insurance policy with your agent.
• Call your insurance provider as soon as possible even if your policy does not cover your house against flood insurance. Certain policies still have special coverage to pay for your living costs if you are forced to move out of your house.
• It's recommended to group damaged and undamaged items as soon as it is possible. Do not throw away or destroy any damaged things before your insurance provider sends in the claim adjuster for inspection. If there are any deteriorated materials that decompose and turn to hazardous garbage you should contact your home insurance company first in order to get an approval for removing it from your property.

Keep your losses in a record

• Take clear and detailed pictures if all the damages to your property and belongings.
• If there is damaged equipment or appliances, record the serial numbers if there are any.
• If it happens that you have any pictures of your property before the damage, present them to your homeowners insurance adjuster for an easier appreciation. Ask your friends or relatives, they may have some pictures of your home too.
• Keep all the receipts if you move out of your house after the flood and have to live elsewhere for some time.
• Keep the receipts of any services regarding repair or cleaning connected with the situation. Make sure to include the receipts for rented appliances, equipment or any other additional costs as well.

In case you don't have your house insured yet, you'd better find out if your policy will cover you in case of a flood right when comparing homeowners insurance quotes. Most standard insurance policies won't include flood coverage and you will have to purchase an additional weaver to include this type of coverage into your policy. This is definitely a must for those who have their houses in medium and high flood risk areas (near rivers, lakes, dams, oceans, etc.).

Tornadoes are a type of natural calamity that is quite characteristic for the US, namely its South-Eastern part. And if you have a policy for insuring your house and living in that area you really want to make sure you are covered to the right extent before the disaster strikes. Here are some useful and very helpful tips regarding tornado coverage that will be quite interesting to those who risk with their property every time the hurricane season comes their way.

Step 1: review your insurance policy

In contrast with storm and flood coverage, the insurance details connected with tornadoes are less complicated due to the fact that wind damage (which a tornado eventually delivers) is included into a standard insurance policy. Moreover, tornadoes are usually characterized by less devastation due to surge or flood that is associated with typical hurricanes.

Still, it never hurts to find and analyze your insurance policy. Even those who do not live in "Tornado Alley," the part of the US spreads across the north of Texas through east of Nebraska and northeast of Indiana, can suffer damage due to tornadoes. Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas are the states where the appearance of twisters is more likely but this doesn't mean that you are perfectly safe in other areas.

Step 2: clear the things up afterwards

After the tornado has gone away contact your home insurance company immediately. There are time limits with some insurance policies, setting a certain period during which you are able to file a claim. This period usually varies from one state to another, as well as between companies. Inform your insurer about the degree of damage delivered by the calamity. Insurance claims are usually processed with the cases of the most severe damages being processed first and then carrying on with less serious impact.

Provide your insurance company with all the contact information you can. The insurer should be able to contact you immediately if they make a decision or need additional information. The period of time that will be required for processing your claim strongly depends on how complicated your case is and how bad the damage was. It could be a couple of days, or a couple of months.

Step 3: document the damage

When you have the opportunity take pictures of the damage delivered by the tornado, preferably immediately after it goes away. This will be a great assistance for processing your homeowners insurance claim. Record any conversations and store any receipts you receive after the storm. Your personal degree of organization is directly related to how swiftly any problems will be resolved. In case you forgot the value of some items that were lost or damaged by the tornado you can contact your credit card provider and check the purchase list for the numbers.

Step 4: be on the lookout

Some service hunt for tornado victims, offering costly or temporary repairs that won't do much good in the long run. Don't rush off signing contracts and letting the people do their job. Investigate the offers, compare them just like you would compare home insurance quotes, address your local Better Business Bureau and hire the professionals who have good feedback and working experience rather than those who will show up first near your devastated property.

For most of us purchasing a home is the biggest investment to mike during the whole lifetime. And it's reasonable that such an important investment needs reasonable coverage. That's why you need homeowners insurance.

What's included in homeowners insurance?

In case you finance your house purchase through a mortgage, your lender is most likely to require you buying basic homeowners insurance. The basic homeowners insurance includes coverage against the following risks:

• Theft
• Fire and lightning
• Smoke
• Frozen pipes
• Ice and snow

Basic insurance policies also include liability coverage for cases when someone is injured in your house. In case there are legal actions taken against you it will also pay for court fees. Basic insurance will also cover your costs in case it's impossible to live in the house due to fire or any other damage.

What's left out of coverage?

To learn what is not included into the coverage you should read through your policy, especially the Exclusions part. Things not covered by standard policies vary from one company to another, but most likely they will include damage due to earthquake, flood, nuclear accident, war, act of terrorism and similar. Still, you can purchase additional coverage for such events to be included into your home insurance policy. Wear and tear damage is never included into the policy because it's considered to be maintenance, which is the owner's sole responsibility.

How much coverage do I need?

When buying a house through mortgage loan your lender will require you to purchase minimum home insurance coverage (which is usually the purchase value of your home). However, it's usually not the amount of coverage to meet your insurance needs. Instead, try calculating how much money it would require to rebuild your house entirely and use this amount as the base for getting the right coverage amount. Speak to your agent when completing the insurance policy to calculate the exact amount, or even run a full inspection for qualified appraisal.

Typically, liability limits are around $100,000, however it's too little to protect your assets in case of legal action. You may opt to raise your limits up to $500,000 for an additional price. Sometimes it may be useful to get umbrella coverage, which pushes your limits beyond $1 million, however such coverage is typically offered only when you have both your auto and home insurance from the same carrier.

Money saving tips

Of course homeowners insurance can be quite costly sometimes. Especially when you have many items under additional coverage. In order to keep the coverage you need while still having reasonable rates you might want to consider raising your deductibles first. Deductibles are the amount of money you will have to pay out of your own pocket for the damage before the insurance policy kicks in. and the higher is that amount the lower will be your premium. The usual deductible within standard policies is $250. Try raising it to $500 or even $1000, and your rates will go down by up to 15%.

Another good way to make your home insurance cheaper is installing security features such as alarm or video, special locks and so on. This way you protect your assets and the insurance company is likely to give you a good discount for that.

Let's start off in Florida where State Farm has just sent out notices to 15% of the 810,000 people holding home insurance that their policies will not be renewed. For the record, the insurer has to give six months' notice of its intention to refuse renewal. This is supposed to give adequate time for all homeowners to make alternative arrangements. This move to drop some 125,000 policies is quite significant so what's going on? The answer is unfortunate and going to become a problem around the country. Every state has a Department or Office of Insurance that's responsible for licensing and regulating the selling of insurance. One of the standard conditions in every one of the fifty US states is that each licensed insurer should have adequate capital reserves to pay out on all claims as and when they fall due.

Before the recession, this was not a problem. All the insurers had their reserves invested in stocks and bonds. While the DJIA and other exchanges continued on an upward trend, the world sat back and assumed nothing could go wrong. This overconfidence meant that insurers were slow to pull their money out of the markets when the recession started to hit. As a result, almost all the insurers lost a big slice of their capital worth. In early 2009, State Farms in Florida realized it was likely to be insolvent in about two years if the projected number of claims were made. It approached the local Office of Insurance and did a deal. It would reduce the number of homeowners insured and increase the premiums for the remaining policyholders. This would reduce its exposure to claims and increase its capital reserves. Even with this plan, A M Best reduced the rating of State Farm to "fair" based on the expected continuing deterioration in its earning capacity.

When a company with some 18% of the market in homeowner policies admits it's within two years of insolvency, this is a serious concern. Now look with a clear eye at the rest of the insurance companies. They are in the same position, struggling to meet claims out of the reserves in hand. And thereby hangs a slightly different story. There's no federal insurance industry. Every insurer is obliged to set up separate subsidiaries to trade in each US state. In theory, the obligation to hold reserves is specific to each state. But the larger companies have been moving money around from one subsidiary to another, always ensuring there's enough in hand on each reporting date. This is close to dishonesty because, if you ask each Department or Office of Insurance, they will tell you the insurers must have permanent reserves and not merely the qualifying amount on the reporting date. But the insurers have been getting away with their sleight of hand for the last eighteen months.

So when you are looking round the local state's market for a homeowners insurance policy, do not simply get multiple quotes through this site's search engine. You should also check in with A M Best for the latest rating on the companies offering the most competitive terms. If you expect to stay with the same company for some time, make sure it's financially secure before you buy the policy. Otherwise, when you come to make a claim, you may find all those premiums will be lost and that homeowners insurance policy is just so much waste paper.

Have you felt the earth moving on 26th February, 2008? If you felt the earthquake that night a year ago, or not, since then the UK home insurers have received tons of claims related to the damages brought by it.

In contrast to the floods of last summer, when lots of homeowners didn't get their coverage for the damage, leading providers state that most home insurances will be covered for the earthquake damages. In case you have also suffered the property damages, the Association of British Insurers provides several advices to assist you on getting your coverage fast without the noise.

Contact your insurance provider as fast as you can

The sooner you contact your provider, the faster they may get an appraiser to value the damage. As well, contact your home insurance company to learn the exact procedures that must be followed. Some companies might have set up a process to proceed with the payouts faster, due to the large amount of claims related to the recent earthquake.

Immediately check if your property has damages that threatens your safety

The earthquake's strength could have caused damage, which makes your home not safe. One of the first things you have to do is check your property to value its safety. Some of the most prone places are roofs, subsistence, tiles, chimneys, and walls.

ontact appropriate services to check your property, in case you think the pipes or wiring are damaged

Fallen masonry, or cracks in walls frequently point to the structural damages of your property. In such case the damage might bring more troubles in the future. In case you think that water, gas, or electric lines into your house could have been damaged, contact appropriate services instantly.

Go to the alternative lodgings, if you have any at your home

Check your home insurance policy for certain advantages, which will make life simpler, in case you must evacuate your property. If the property is damaged by an earthquake and becomes unsafe, your cheap home insurance might cover the expense of alternative lodgings till it's fixed and safe to live in. Certain policies might supply the necessities' replacement coverage, if you can't enter the property to use them.

Take pictures of the damages to support your claim and get your home insurance quotes

Photos might help your home insurance provider to value your damage faster. Sometimes, the insurer could value your claim without the help of an assessor, but that's odd.

Don't begin repairs till the insurer approves your claim

Be sure that you only hire valid workers and repair contractors. Don't trust doorstop builders.

Do not destroy the evidences

Hold damaged possessions for appraisal and evidence of your loss. Wait till all work receipts are done to receive full home insurance quotes.

If by luck you've escaped the February's earthquake damages, you should still remember certain things. The ABI assumes that every fourth UK homeowner doesn't have a home insurance at all, and many of those, who do, are underinsured. Thus, you have a chance to review your home insurance quotes and policy and make certain you're properly protected.

Did you make a clam on your insurance policy? If you did it because of the recent earthquake or not, please take several minutes to share your experience - write a home insurance review. It's an awesome way to recompense good client service or express your discontent for all those who read, including your home insurance providers.