Every year, my house insurance premiums were increasing significantly.  I finally phoned them to see what I could do to reduce costs.  Here are some ways to cut down your costs.

Install a monitored alarm system – there should be enough savings to justify paying a monthly $20-$25 fee for monitoring.  For my policy, savings were approx $600/yr.  Alarm monitoring is a cash cow so most companies will install a system for free or heavily discounted.  I installed my own wireless alarm system, the Honeywell Lynx L5000.  See my post here.  I am also using a discount alarm monitoring service, The Monitoring Center, for only $10/month.

Update your house information – if you have a new furnace, water heater or roof, this should decrease your premiums.  Let your insurance company know if these items have been replaced

Earthquake Insurance – Though I live in an earthquake zone, I decided not to renew my earthquake insurance.  With a super high deductible ($40K), insurance would not even cover repairs less than that amount.  For fires or floods caused by earthquakes, this is covered already.

Increase your deductible – Higher deductibles will have lower premiums.  Choose a deductible you are comfortable with.

Other discounts – Discounts may be available for having auto insurance with the same company.  Shop around and compare.

My insurer since I’ve owned my house is Canadian Direct Insurance.  I was able to get a quote online with BCAA but the premiums were more than I was currently paying.  Here are my quotes for my detached house.

2015 – $784 (no earthquake, monitored alarm) $1218 (earthquake, monitored alarm)

2014 – $1845 (earthquake, no alarm) $1184 (earthquake, monitored alarm, updated furnace and hot water heater)

2013 – $1739, 2012 – $1638, 2011 – $1523, 2010 – $1383, 2009 – $1261, 2008 – $1195  ….  2003-$814  (earthquake, no alarm)