JOHANNESBURG - Dipesh Radia, a spokesperson for Alexander Forbes Insurance, has the following tips on how to save on insurance:
1. Car. Policyholders can reduce monthly insurance premiums by driving a lower-powered, lower-value or lower-risk vehicle, limiting your mileage, adjusting the annual depreciation value of your car. Upgrading the security level of your vehicle such as installing a tracking device, increasing your excess voluntarily and insuring your vehicle for named drivers only. Review the cover extensions that are charged for and decide if you really need them.
2. Household. On your contents cover, you may decide that certain items would not be replaced, like that old grandfather clock or a sentimental piece of jewellery. These you could negotiate with your insurer to have removed from your sum insured. Every year, it’s important to re-evaluate insured items to decide if the possibility or severity of a risk makes the item worth insuring. Should you consider reducing your cover or self-insuring. If you improve your risk by making it less likely to suffer a loss, your premium may decrease. For example, if you move to a high security complex or, instead of parking on the street, build yourself a lock-up garage.
3. Business. Review your business insurance regularly to identify items less important to you and ensure that you haven’t duplicated cover or have unnecessary coverage. Risk improvements may help to reduce your premium immediately if discounts are offered for them; if immediate discount is not offered, the improvement may protect your loss history, which in the mid- to long-term will lessen the chance of premium increases.