How to Bundle Your Home and Car Insurance for Savings
With insurance, one of the ways to save money – and to simplify your life – is to bundle your policies, meaning purchasing two or more different insurance policies from the same insurance company. For example, many companies will give you a discount if you bundle your homeowners insurance and car insurance.
Continue reading to learn how bundling works, how to bundle auto and home insurance coverage, and how much you can expect to save if you get a single insurance quote for both.
What does it mean to bundle your insurance?
Instead of purchasing individual insurance products from separate companies, policyholders who bundle insurance get more than one type of insurance from one provider. When you buy multiple insurance products – for example, homeowners insurance and auto coverage – from a single company, that insurer may give you a discount.
These discounts, usually referred to as multipolicy discounts, typically apply when you purchase two or more types of insurance. While a select few companies will bundle life insurance with other types, bundles more commonly involve combining two or more of the following products:
- Auto insurance
- Boat insurance
- Condo insurance
- Homeowners insurance
- Motorcycle insurance
- Renters insurance
- Umbrella insurance
Benefits to bundling home and auto insurance
There are several advantages to bundling your insurance policies with a single company:
You can earn multipolicy discounts
Companies often offer substantial multipolicy discounts on insurance bundles to encourage customers to purchase more than one form of insurance from them.
How much does bundling insurance save if you combine homeowners and auto coverage? The exact discount varies by insurance company and the types of insurance products you bundle, but you can expect to save anywhere from 10% to 30% on your premiums.
Your overall insurance is simpler to manage
When you bundle your insurance, managing your policies is simpler and more convenient than juggling several policies with different insurers. By bundling your coverage, you’ll have a single login to view your online information and one agent or representative to contact to answer questions about – or make changes to – either of your policies.
You could pay less in deductibles
If a disaster strikes, having separate policies can be a costly headache.
Let’s say you have stand-alone homeowners and auto insurance policies with deductibles of $1,000. A hurricane impacts your area, causing falling trees to damage your roof and your car. Because you have separate auto and homeowners insurance policies, you have to pay deductibles for both forms of coverage, so you’d have to pay $2,000 in deductibles before your insurance companies start covering the cost of repairs.
By contrast, some insurers offer coverage options with combined deductibles for bundled insurance policies. If you have multiple assets damaged in the same event, such a combination can help you to save money in a crisis. In the scenario we described above, because the hurricane damaged both your home and your vehicle, you could pay just one deductible of $1,000 rather than two.
Why bundling insurance isn’t always the best option
Although bundling insurance is frequently a smart move, some potential drawbacks are worth keeping in mind:
One company may not be right for all insurance types
Usually, a company with high customer satisfaction ratings in one area will also be a solid insurer for other categories. However, not all insurance companies offer all forms of insurance you might wish to bundle, or with the same advantages.
For example, a company that offers auto and homeowners insurance may not offer life insurance or umbrella liability coverage. If you need those forms of coverage, you may need to work with another insurer or purchase separate policies.
Also, even if the single company offers the insurance types you need, their prices and other incentives may not be equally competitive for the two or more insurance types you’d want to bundle – which might prompt you to stay with separate companies for each coverage.
You could pay less by using several insurers
Although bundling discounts can be substantial, you might be able to save more money by shopping around and buying separate policies from different insurers.
Shopping tips to bundle auto and home insurance
Bundling insurance products can be a good deal, but you have to do some homework first. When shopping for insurance, follow these tips:
Understand what you need
Review your insurance needs, considering what types of coverage you want, what coverage limits you need, and any add-ons or endorsements that would be useful for you. Based on this information, you can shop around for insurance companies that offer those options.
Do an annual insurance checkup
Review your insurance policies at least once a year to ensure you have the right protection for you, your family and your property. It’s also a good idea to request quotes for your policies to make sure you’re bundling with the companies that are best suited to your budget and other priorities.
FAQs
Bundled insurance means you have more than one type of insurance with a single insurance company, such as auto and homeowners insurance.
Yes, multipolicy discounts can be significant. At Amica, policyholders who bundle their policies can save up to 30% on their premiums.
Consolidating your policies with a single company is likely to demand changing at least one of your coverage types from one company to another. The task should not be onerous; companies are accustomed to – and cooperative with – assisting customers who are making a switch, whether from them to another carrier or in the other direction.
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