Reduced home insurance from $56/month to $33 (Ontario)

[Heather in Ottawa]

I never realized how over-insured I was with the "gold" level from Meloche-Monnex. It basically insured a bunch of possessions I don't even own, and included some fancy frills I'd never use. Plus, I had sewer back-up insurance on a house that sits on a slope at least 6 feet above street level, hasn't flooded yet in its 40 year history, and which has a basement and contents that are hardly worth replacing.

I finally smartened up today. I called in to reduce my coverage down to "bronze", and upped my deductible from $2000 to $10,000. I'll be covered if the house burns down (explodes, has smoke damage, gets taken out by a tree, etc...), but I don't need hand-holding or financial assistance for those unlikely minor catastrophes like a hail-damaged roof or replacing some flooring after a dishwasher flood. And now I avoid the certain loss of almost $300 a year, not to mention the premium increases that I'd see if I ever actually made a claim. I've cut out the middle man for handling the small problems, and I feel like this is a level of coverage that is a MUCH better reflection of my DIY skills, bare-bones possessions, and (relatively) deep pockets. This is for a house valued at about $400,000. 

What do you pay for home insurance?

[daverobev]

Christ.. I think ours is $800, for a house worth less than half yours.

Definitely need to shop around this year.

[Heather in Ottawa]

Definitely shop around! I felt a bit weird to be asking for less insurance (when most of the world seems to want full coverage for any minor loss, and no deductible), but it makes a lot of sense to me in the context of not buying something I won't use.

I also have a pretty standard car insurance policy with Desjardins for $42 a month. It's 'Ajusto' with telematic monitoring of our driving style. I haven't found a rate to beat it yet. However, it includes a million in liability. I'm going to see about reducing the liability to the Ontario minimum of $200,000 when it's renewal time next month. Again, maybe not suitable for everyone and their peace of mind, but that's just what I feel comfortable with, given what I know about how carefully we drive, and in what kinds of conditions.

[daverobev]

Belair just came back with $280.. a MONTH.

TD was more like $50 if I take sewer backup off. I'll see what they come back with at renewal time.. could be that it goes down due to number of years. But yeah, definitely going to talk to our current provider. Even getting down to $600 would be good. I think I have it budgeted at $800.

Car ins: We have a Civic and a Crown Vic, costing about $80 a month IIRC.

We use Cooperators. My wife likes them. Damn site cheaper than the other company we had car insurance with (well, a broker). But again - because I'm a newbie import, I get seriously shafted with car insurance.

In terms of liability I reckon you'd be crazy to go to $200k. An accident is an accident; anyone can look the wrong way at the wrong time and bang. And Ontario is terrible because the medical costs of the injured are your problem.

We paid $90 travel medical insurance in Feb for a ~2 week trip down to the US.. and realised shortly after that some credit cards come with emergency medical, *even if you don't use them* to book anything (ie, we drove down). So now we have one of those.. first year free, $100 a year after. Even if we travel once and don't take medical... pretty good. Not great (spending money!), but pretty good.

[Vorpal]

Here in hurricane country, it costs $2850 ($237/mo) per year to insure my $160k home + contents. That's the cheapest rate I could find after kicking Farmers Insurance to the curb after they wanted to raise my rate to $4500 per year!

[Kenoryn]

Hunh... I'm in Ontario and with Meloche Monnex under the Bronze plan and I pay $800/year and only worth $200K. Maybe it's because my house is old (120 yrs). I only found 2 places that would insure me at all and they gave me similar quotes.

[Milkman666]

I also live in Ottawa, and reduced my premiums significantly (can't remember the exact amount) simply by upping my deductible to $5000.

The funny thing is that the insurance company (and our friends) seemed incredulous that we'd want our deductible so "high". I'd like to see what premiums would be if I bump the deductible to $10K.

[Heather in Ottawa]

Raising the deductible had a big impact. It's a way of taking on the risk yourself, and the insurer knows you won't be making any of those very common small claims (who would, anyways, when your rates will  probably go up at least enough for the insurer to recoup a lot of it in the coming years, and as a good Mustachian you no doubt you have the financial or DIY resources to handle it yourself, anyways). $10,000 is the maximum deductible the insurer was set up for. Yes, my friends would probably think it's weird or risky, too... I usually take that as a sign I'm doing things right. :D

[Suzaloo]

As an insurance agent (not Ontario, but Alberta).I can see the logic of an increased deductible, but I would really caution you to think very carefully about a lower liability limit. First, I cannot say I even know of a company personally, that offers anything lower than $1,000,000. on a home. Second, changing your liability limit has a very limited effect on premium. Where I work, increasing from 1 to 2 million liability on property insurance (which is what I recommend)only costs about $15 to $20 more per year.. It is well worth it. Liability claims can settle for much,much higher than $1,000,000. And should you only have a million, then any award that is higher than that you will then become personally responsible for.