Continuing our discussion of home insurance that started in the part one, we’re moving on to people who like to do their own research.

People who don’t mind doing their own homework will need to check the Product Disclosure Statements of all the “candidate” insurance companies. The majority of the companies list a Summary of Insured Events on their websites, which is good – but it doesn’t replace the Product Disclosure Statement.

The difference between the two is that reading the Product Disclosure Statement you can realize that although something is listed in the Summary of Insured Events, your house still won’t be insured for it because of the conditions that apply.

For example, if your house is by the sea and you wanted to insure it for flood in case the sea levels would rise, even though the Summary will have flood listed, the Product Disclosure Statement will say “flood, not from rising sea levels”. That means that if the flood was caused by rain water, then you are insured, but this is not what you were looking for.

Another reason to read the Product Disclosure Statement is to learn about insurance limitations, you responsibilities or extra costs involved (i.e. higher excess) in certain cases.

Keep in mind that not every insurance company provides insurance in all the states, and before reading the whole Product Disclosure Statement it makes sense to check whether or not that particular company covers your state.

The next thing to figure out is the sum of insurance, and to get an idea how much will it cost to replace your house in case it’s destroyed for whatever reason is to use a Home Insurance Calculator (here’s an example) that insurance companies usually provide at their websites.

Once you have several insurance companies to choose from, the next thing to consider is the price and the quality of their customer service. Finding out about the price is easy – almost always you can find an online quote on insurance company’s website. Finding out about the quality of customer service is not so easy, try asking friends and colleagues about their insurers and whether or not they are happy with the way claims are processed.

Apart from getting the cheapest policy, there are more ways for you to save on a home insurance. Many companies offer discounts on combined home and contents, home and business, home and car insurance policies – you get the idea, bundle and save. Do it only where it makes sense, because in many cases 2 policies with two different companies will cost you less than 2 bundled policies with one company.

I hope that these tips will help you get a real peace of mind instead of an illusion of such. Do you have any tips of your own? Please share with the rest of us.

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Tagged as: first home buyers, home insurance, insurance policy