It pays to shop around.
For years I had my homeowners insurance with one company and my automobile insurance with another. Each was the least expensive when I first signed-up. I’d always heard that there would be a discount if I got both my homeowners insurance and automobile insurance from the same company, and this would make it less expensive than using two separate companies — but every time I checked, it was cheaper to have homeowners insurance with company “N” and auto insurance with company “G”.
Recently, however, I checked the rates online and I found that company “G” would sell me homeowners insurance that cost over $200 less than what the same coverage cost from company “N”. Of course, I switched. Doing so will save me about $17 per month.
$17 a month? So … ?
If I take that $17 and send it in with my mortgage payment each month, applying it as an additional payment toward the principal, I will be mortgage-free more than 2 years sooner than if I had didn’t send in that additional payment. 2 years. It took me a few hours to change my insurance from one company to another, and that’s including the time I spent occasionally getting quotes over the years. A few hours spent, to save $200 per year for the next several years! That’s worth my time.
Note: Despite the fact that the bank that holds my mortgage was informed of the new homeowners policy and I saw the new policy information displayed along with the other details of my mortgage when I logged onto my account on their website, and despite the fact that they sent a payment from the escrow account to pay the first bill for the new insurance, … they still sent the usual payment to the old insurance company. Apparently, I should have contacted the old insurance company to actually cancel the old policy.
