Household Insurance Policy

Until recently, the South African economy was flying. Although slightly more indebted than the average consumer elsewhere in the world, we still had the luxury of spare cash in our pockets. The retail boom at the time bears evidence to the fact that South Africans were industrious at employing this cash, in addition to their readily available lines of credit, to add appliances, furniture, kitchenware, jewellery, leisure equipment and the like to their growing lists of earthly possessions.

Most of us will be surprised if we had to do a comparison of our pre-boom and post-boom household inventories, by just how much our home contents have increased in size.

Now, with our wallets becoming rapidly thinner, many consumers are sorely tempted to cancel their existing household insurance policies. Quite frankly, this would be pure folly. Replacing even just a half of our possessions, if anything untoward should happen, is likely to be well outside the financial means of most of us.

Instead of taking drastic measures that could leave you financially vulnerable, rather become insurance savvy. Not all insurers are equal, and not all their rates are the same. If you get smart about your household insurance, and if you shop around for a bit, you may be able to trim back on the premium you have to pay every month, without having to run the risk of being un- or under insured.

Sharpen your own pencils first

If you had to set out right now to find a cheaper household insurance premium, chances are that you will find some insurer somewhere along the line who is quite prepared to shave off a few meagre bucks in order to get your business. The amount you stand to save in this way is perhaps not really worth the rigmarole of moving your policy elsewhere.

Should making significant household insurance savings be your aim, view it as a give and take scenario: you have to give, before you can start taking.

Here is a four point plan to help you get your house in order:

1. Check your inventory. Take the previous inventory you submitted to your insurer, compare it to what you now have in your house and revisit the replacement values you initially documented. Be sure to take a realistic tack on the matter so as to avoid the traps of under- and over insurance. Also reconsider the specified items on your insurance policy to ensure that you still have everything you have specified and to re-evaluate the necessity of keeping some of these items on your specified list from a cost perspective.

2. Revisit your excesses. Check the excess sum you need to pay should you file a claim at your insurer. If you can afford to pay more in excesses, calculate exactly how much more. Increasing the excess amount affords you the opportunity to reduce your monthly household insurance premiums.

3. Revisit your claims history. If you have filed no or very few claims in the past, this should translate into an improved risk profile. Check whether you have been given any credit in the shape of reduced household insurance premiums by your insurer. If not, make a note of this too.

4. Crank up your security. Most people have some form of security in place to protect their properties, but does your set of security measures make the grade? To find out, speak to your current insurer. Ask them what you can improve from a security perspective that could reduce the risk and improve your household insurance premiums. If the difference between your current premium and your potential premium makes the expense worth your while, do it.

To conclude

 Liso Consulting is A South African Insurance Broker offering short term insurance cover.  Whether you require Corporate insurance, business insurance or domestic insurance, we represent most insurance companies.

We offer the best insurance qoutes to suit your individual needs.

Contact Chantal today on 082 802 5330 or email her on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for a quote today.