Cheap House Insurance

Compare how your personal property insurance limits stack up to the reality of the technology and other higher ticket items in your home before it’s too late.

Home insurance is a fairly standard insurance policy that covers your home and includes several different types of coverage. Coverage to replace damage to the actual house and land is one of the areas covered, as is liability for accidents that happen due to your fault or on your property.

Other insured areas include covering the personal possessions that belong to the homeowner and others living in the home. This is called Personal Property Insurance. This type of insurance has an overall payout value that would be paid if you lost everything. And on some items, like computers, there are specific limits to what the policy would pay.

Do you even know what the limits are on the personal property coverage for your home insurance policy? Take a minute to look through your policy, and then do a quick walk through of your house. As you look around, make a list of the plasma or HDTV’s, the Wii, the computers, digital cameras, printers, Blackberry’s, and IPods, etc.

If some of these things are for your home office, write those on a separate sheet of paper and add in office furniture, and supplies as well as items like paper shredders, flash drives and that store of printer ink you keep. What would fire or water do to your business files? If something happens to all that stuff…can you work? How long would it take to get up and running again? Especially if you only have the standard home insurance policy, that covers a home business. I’m betting a $1000 isn’t going to cover it.

That is the average amount of standard coverage for the items that are used as part of your home office if there is a loss. Talk to your agent, take an inventory of the items you utilize for your office and don’t forget the furniture and supplies. These small items can add up quickly if you keep large quantities of items like printer cartridges and reams of paper.

Now sit down and figure out how much it would cost to replace those items. Do a quick scan of your home. If you don’t think the inventory of your personal property falls within the monetary guidelines, maybe it’s time to do something about that.

For this initial estimate, right down just the higher ticket items and things you don’t have to think about. How many TV’s do you have? Now figure out what it would cost you to replace them today, not what you originally paid for them. Most standard policies will state an amount that is your maximum for possession replacement. This is the figure that will be used if you have a fire, for instance, and lose everything.

This amount would have to cover furniture and clothes and appliances and pots and pans. Anything that isn’t part of the structure is personal property. You get the idea. Think you have enough coverage? If your family is techno-savvy, or you have art, jewelry, antiques or oriental rugs…you need to assess the individual worth of these items and see if your policy has special limits.

As you are reading your policy, pay close attention and figure out if your personal possessions are covered with replacement, or actual cash value. It makes a big difference. Actual cash value might be less than a $100 on that three year old TV, but it will take you $500 plus to replace it.

Your personal property coverage might cover their laptop, stereo, dorm fridge and other items if they live on campus. All policies are a little different based on the carrier and what your agent included, so check with your agent. If they live off-campus, they’ll need renter’s insurance, but they should be covered in the dorms.

A few years ago, someone tried to steal my car. They didn’t get the car, but they broke a couple windows and stole everything inside. Auto insurance paid for the damage to the car. But the boom box, list of CDs, my luggage with the coat, clothes, designer perfume and all the money to replace my best makeup, added up to about $300 – after my deductible. That was paid for by my homeowner’s policy.