Believe it or not, the overwhelming majority of homeowners out there in the Canada are paying a lot more for their home insurance than they should be – than they could be – and a lot of it has to do with their home insurance companies themselves.
Yes, you read that right. The home insurance companies – the companies chosen to protect our homes and our possessions (not to mention our loved ones) are reaching into our wallets with their other hand and grabbing as much cash as they can.
Luckily, they are pretty terrible at keeping this dirty little secret from us, which is why it’s going to be almost effortless for you to detect the problem before it happens, and way before you end up spending hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars more than you should.
Shall we dive right in?
Great! Let’s get to it!
Read the fine print of your home insurance plan BEFORE you sign on the dotted line
You need to make sure that you’ve gone over your entire home insurance policy contract BEFORE you sign on the dotted line, or you might end up agreeing to terms that you aren’t exactly wild about.
Most of the time, these contracts are as close to boilerplate as can be, which makes errors and omissions pretty much a given. And of course you’re sometimes going to come across an insurance company that’s a little bit less than ethical all the time – one that doesn’t mind changing the language of your plan at the last minute (and without a heads up), so you’ll need to be on the lookout for that as well.
Never sign without a thorough review of the details.
Be on the lookout for strange “service fees and charges”
You need to be 100% certain that your monthly premiums are as close to uniform across the board as humanly possible. When you’re bill is jumping wildly from one total to another you’re going to know you’re being taken for a ride.
Companies love to bury their odd little charges under the “service fees/charges” heading, so that’s where you’re going to want to look first. But if you find anything (ANYTHING) that looks out of place on your bill, be sure to bring it up.
You might be able to save a few hundred bucks a year just by watching your bills a little bit closer.
