A number of things affect our insurance premiums, none so more than our lifestyle.
How we live and how well we look after our health, property, and other belongings has a direct bearing on how much we pay for them in the form of insurance premiums each year.
Whether it’s your house, your car, or your health, you can bring down the premiums for each of them by taking good care of everything you own. Seriously, the good ole sense of responsibility is universally rewarded!
In this post we look at how a bit of carelessness here and there can set you back by a few thousand dollars each year. If you are not paying attention, these could further rise. If you are looking to bring down the cost of your premiums, you might want to usher in a few changes to your lifestyle. But first you will need to know what to fix. So let’s get the ball rolling!
A well-maintained house costs its owner less
It is perhaps common sense that a house in a proper condition in the middle of the city will be considered safer than the one perched precariously on a hilltop faraway. The world of insurance companies would agree, and reward the ‘safer’ house with lower premiums.
There’s a reason why houses and properties with CCTV cameras and proper alarm systems installed in them also attract lower insurance premiums. These are deemed safe by their insurance companies and hence less likely to be broken into. Even if they are broken into, the security alarms put in place will immediately inform authorities of a break-in, which will ensure action is taken against the intruders sooner than later.
All in all, the insurance companies think your house is well-protected and hence charge you lower premiums for it. Houses with no security systems in place, or in a bad shape due to whatever reasons, will attract higher premiums because the insurers would deem them risky.
What to do about it:
Regardless of if you live in a rough neighborhood, install burglar alarms and/or CCTV cameras in and around your property. Fix any broken/faulty bits around the house so that you don’t have any “accidents.” Finally, listen to what this former thief has to say about home security in the US and learn a thing or two from him. As the owner of your house, it is entirely in your hands to make it safe and secure and bring about a drop in your home insurance premiums.
Go back to an apple a day
Your life insurance is formulated taking into account a number of factors, of which your medical conditions and your lifestyle are the most prominent.
Insurance companies assess your health based on a long list of questions. They look at your weight, your age, whether you smoke, if you have a heart condition, if you carry any sexually transmitted diseases, do you have any disabilities, etc. Those bordering on obesity or battling other health problems will pay higher premiums than those with a normal weight and a healthy body, as the overweight are more susceptible to heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, etc.
Smokers will pay more in premiums as smoking is considered to lead to lung cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer, bronchitis, asthma, and constricting your arteries and causing strokes, among other things. (Insurance companies usually don’t distinguish between moderate and heavy smokers.)
Those fond of their drink will find that if they do not stop themselves at the right limit, they end up paying higher premiums. Alcohol is also held responsible for a number of ailments – cancer, anemia, cirrhosis (“a sometimes-lethal condition in which the liver is so heavily scarred that it is unable to function”), seizures, and heart attacks, to name a few – hence the more you drink the more you pay (in premiums, not just for the liquor).
To sum it up, the worse off the insurers think you are in terms of health, the more “at risk” they will consider you, and hence make you pay higher premiums.
What to do about it:
Work on improving your health. Bring down your drinking and kick the butt, literally. Take up exercise, join online communities dedicated to health and nutrition, and move toward an overall healthy lifestyle. Within a few months’ time undergo a medical check-up. If you have been conscientiously working toward improving your health, you should see good progress in all the important indicators. Approach your insurer with your vastly improved medical reports, and see the premiums revised for the better.
High-risk activities are no good
When was the last time you went sky diving? Or bungee jumping, river rafting, rock climbing, scuba diving, hang-gliding?
I bet you had a blast!
It is great fun to indulge in high-risk sports, and the adrenalin junkies among us can’t have enough of that, but that fun comes at a cost – higher insurance premiums. These activities put your life at a great risk and any bystander, especially a sedate insurer, will not find them all that amusing.
What to do about it:
There’s not much you can do about it if you love putting yourself out there so much. Just make sure you are otherwise in great health!
Conclusion
If there’s a takeaway from this article, let it be this: the insurance companies do not like the word risk much. In fact, they dislike it so much that they reward you for bringing them minimal risk scenarios. So help them, and yourselves, give you low premiums by getting your house and your car in order, restoring the pink of your health, and scaling back on activities that could, well, kill you sooner than later.
Author Bio:
Tracy Vides is associated with The Hartford, an insurance and financial services company, which specializes in the hartford aarp. You can catch her on Twitter @TracyVides.