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Wireless Home Alarms – Insurance Discounts for Protecting Your Home
Of the many claims made by various alarm companies, one is almost universal: that a monitored alarm system can provide a real discount on your homeowner’s insurance policy, and partially offset the monthly monitoring fee. I have known this to be the case for over twenty years, but thought I should check and reconfirm. Yup, it’s true: the discounts are still there, and they average roughly 15%, but can be higher. Here’s a recent blurb from the Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney site, regarding home insurance savings:
Your central alarm system could save you hundreds on your annual premiums. Insurers will routinely give you 15% to 20% off for a fire and burglar alarm system hooked up to a third-party monitoring company. At The Hartford, you can get a 2% discount for deadbolt locks and a 2% discount for smoke alarms.
These discounts reinforce the fact that alarm systems work - and there are ways to make sure you are getting the highest level of discount on your policy.
Wireless Home Alarms – Insurance Discounts for Protecting Your Home
By:
Peter M. Rogers
|November 10, 2010
Wireless Home Alarms – Insurance Discounts for Protecting Your Home
Of the many claims made by various alarm companies, one is almost universal: that a monitored alarm system can provide a real discount on your homeowner’s insurance policy, and partially offset the monthly monitoring fee. I have known this to be the case for over twenty years, but thought I should check and reconfirm. Yup, it’s true: the discounts are still there, and they average roughly 15%, but can be higher. Here’s a recent blurb from the Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney site, regarding home insurance savings:
Your central alarm system could save you hundreds on your annual premiums. Insurers will routinely give you 15% to 20% off for a fire and burglar alarm system hooked up to a third-party monitoring company. At The Hartford, you can get a 2% discount for deadbolt locks and a 2% discount for smoke alarms.
These discounts reinforce the fact that alarm systems work - and there are ways to make sure you are getting the highest level of discount on your policy.
- When shopping for insurance, compare prices only after you calculate all relevant discounts.
- Make sure your insurance company knows you have a monitored system. This is normally done with an alarm certificate provided by your alarm company (just ask: getting one should be an easy process).
- Most insurers provide additional discounts for monitored fire protection. If this is not part of your alarm system, add it now (read my blog on the benefits of fire monitoring).
- Some insurers want to know that you use UL (Underwriters Laboratories) listed equipment, and a UL listed monitoring center. It should be simple for your alarm provider to verify these facts. If either is not the case, you may have separate concerns!