If you've begun to despair of ever finding affordable high risk home insurance in California, take heart because not only is it possible to cut the cost of your homeowner's coverage by several hundred dollars each and every year. It's actually surprisingly easy.
Let's start by making sure that you are paying your monthly premium automatically from your savings or checking account. Auto-pay means that your company doesn't have to mail you an expensive bill every month and so they are more than happy to reward you with a savings of around $100 a year.
Insurance companies don't like to pay claims for burglaries so they will reward you for making your home safer by reducing your monthly premium. What can you do? Add floodlighting that's triggered by motion, make sure every window has a working lock, trim bushes back away from windows and make sure every single exterior door has a deadbolt lock. Then let your agent know what you've done.
Home protection companies also don't like injury-related claims, so if you replace uneven concrete walkways, fill in all potholes, repair any lose or broken boards on porches or decks and make sure all porch and deck railings are secure you should see another savings.
If there is a retired person living in your home make sure your agent knows about it as having a mature person living in the home most of the time decreases the chances of fires and flooding caused by an unattended broken water pipe and that saves your insurer money - and they pass a portion of that savings along to you.
Increasing your standard homeowner's deduction from $500 to $1,000 can save you as much as 25% each and every month on your premium. That's a huge savings and it's yours for the asking.
And finally, you can get your homeowner's policy at a wholesale price simply by buying it online. That's right. Online brokers have almost no overhead. They also have a ton of competition. It doesn't take an economics major to put two and two together and realize that that is the formula for some really spectacular savings.
In fact, many people report saving as much as 20% to even 30% simply by doing a little shopping online. Remember, if you have a mortgage your lender has every right to insist that you buy a home protection policy, but there's nothing to say that you can't buy your insurance online and save hundreds of dollars each and every year.