Why You Should Bundle Your Home and Auto Insurance
Posted on Mar 18, 2016
If you watch television, you’ve probably heard about the possibility of bundling insurance policies, but you may not fully understand what it involves or what it can mean for you and your insurance coverage. Bundling occurs when you purchase more than one policy from the same insurance company and it can provide some pretty significant benefits to you as a policyholder.
These are just a few reasons why it benefits you to bundle your home and auto insurance policies.
Save Money
For most people this is the leading factor. No one likes the idea of paying more than is necessary for anything – including insurance. Insurance companies understand that it costs them considerably less to keep good customers than it does to attract new customers.
They want to have all your insurance business once you’re a customer. Fortunate for you, insurance companies can pass along some fairly significant savings if you bring them more of your policies. In most cases, you can get apples to apples coverage for auto and home insurance cheaper from one company than you can from two different companies.
Bonus savings are involved in bundling policies as well, in the form of deductibles. The way deductibles work in separate policies is that each policy has a deductible. If a hail storm hits your home and does damage to your home and your car, you’d have to pay the deductible for your home and your car out of pocket. If your policies are bundled, though, you only have to pay one deductible for a single event – with most insurance companies. That deductible will be the larger of the two.
Save Time
How much time do you devote to writing checks for bills each month – or managing online payments? When you bundle policies, you get to reduce that time, a little bit, every time a payment must be made.
Saving time goes beyond that though. Even in the buying phase, if you go into the relationship expecting to bundle your home and auto policy you can get both at the same time and enjoy the savings of time and money from day one.
Convenience
It’s simply easier to manage one insurance account rather than multiple accounts. You don’t have to worry that you’re calling the right agent in a time of emergency. You don’t need to keep up with a ton of different insurance cards, and you only need to get to know one agency or provider. This means you don’t have to learn the ins and outs of several different payment or claims processes. You also develop a great rapport with your insurance provider.
Identify Coverage Gaps
It is much easier to identify coverage gaps and redundancies when the policies are bundled with the same provider. This means you’re not paying for the same coverage twice and that you have the basic needs covered. This is especially beneficial when merging two households and policies, or adding new vehicles for teen drivers, and in similar situations. It is also helpful for newlyweds merging who want to be under one insurance provider or a widow/widower who needs to reduce her/his coverage.
As you can see there are plenty of compelling reasons to consider bundling your home and auto policies. The most practical may be that when you find a company you’re confident is treating you right and that has many years of history, in-depth experience, and a satisfied customer base to boot, it’s a good idea to stick with them.
