Report: Raise home deductible, save a bundle
What’s bigger in Florida than in Texas or Hawaii?
Don’t say the lines at early-bird specials, wise guy.
It’s the savings from raising your home insurance deductible, according to a new report.
Florida homeowners can enjoy the nation’s third-biggest savings by raising their insurance deductible from $500 to $2,000, research shows — an average of $255.
Floridians can save an average of 23 percent on their insurance with such a move, according to research published by InsuranceQuotes.com, affiliated with Bankrate.com of North Palm Beach.
Interestingly, that’s not as true in some other states with lots of property near the ocean.
Premiums vary with the risks and regulations in each state, but the savings were calculated as minimal in Hawaii (4 per- cent) and Texas (6 percent).
It is true you pay more out of pocket if you do have a claim. But that happens less often than you might think: only 4.8 percent of U.S. homeowners file a claim in any given year.
“If Florida residents are willing to bite the bullet and increase that deductible, they can save money,” said senior analyst Laura Adams.
Of course, be sure to check what deductibles your insurer allows and confirm it makes sense financially in your case.
But if you have the discipline to bank the savings from lower premiums — as a reserve fund for deductibles or to fix smaller issues yourself — you can come out ahead over time.
In Florida especially, it may be a good idea to think of property insurance as a protection against truly big risks, like fire or a hurricane, rather than filing a lot of little claims that raise your chance of being dropped by your insurer or charged higher rates later.
For potential savings, Florida trailed only North Carolina (41 percent) and Rhode Island (26 percent).
Since Florida has the costliest home insurance in the nation, it could well prove a strategy worth checking out.