TIPS to save money on insurance | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Top It Up said

Every house insurance policy I've had INSISTS you have someone check your home every 48 hours to be sure nothing is wrong . failure to comply can void your policy and your claim. Check the fine print, always.  

The policies I've seen stipulate once every 4 days in winter (I guess to make sure heating system is ok). In any case, a leaking toilet on the second floor could do more than $10K of damages in less than 24 hours!

Which reminds me: When going away on vacation in winter, I STRONGLY suggest in addition to shutting off the main valve in the basement, DRAIN ALL YOUR PIPES!!!

If you have a tub in the basement (that will make it very easy on you), drain all the pipes so that if ever the furnace shuts down in winter while you are away and the temp inside your house drops below zero, the pipes won't burst because the water inside the pipes froze and expanded. If you don't have a tub, you could A) install a valve with a drain, or B) drain your hot water tank. If you decide on B) I suggest you attach a garden hose to the drain valve of your tank otherwise you will be carrying many buckets of water.

P.S. BEFORE DRAINING YOUR WATER TANK, make sure to unplug the power to your tank!!!!! If it is natural gas, you are supposed to shut off the gas valve to the tank and then unplug it from the electric outlet, but I have never bothered shutting off the gas on the few occasions I drained the tank (I have a tub in my basement to drain the pipes). I go to the electric panel of the house and switch off the breaker for the water tank (the water tank has its own 15 amps breaker).

Cranston said

Since you mentioned garage door opener.......while not an insurance savings.....but a ounce of break in prevention. A lot of us consider the garage door to be enough security to feel comfortable to "not lock" the garage entry door to your home. So take a look at a real easy security option that could prevent theft in the garage or home https://youtu.be/MnadsRjWb-0  

Good reminder to people. I did that a few years ago (garage doors). My house also has Abloy locks requiring a key on both sides. When dealing with criminals, the goal is to always make their lives as difficult and unpleasant as possible.

If you want to add a level of security to your life, consider getting ALL your mail sent to a mail box, like in a post office. So if some criminals get your mails redirected to another address instead of your home address, they won't be getting any mail at all until, of course, your driver's license or license plate renewal is due. But that's so far apart that they will have moved on to another target.

If you look two posts above this one you will see that 10 days ago I wrote;

"If you want to add a level of security to your life, consider getting ALL your mail sent to a mail box, like in a post office. So if some criminals get your mails redirected to another address instead of your home address, they won't be getting any mail at all until, of course, your driver's license or license plate renewal is due. But that's so far apart that they will have moved on to another target."

And here is why.

"There was also $39,000 cash, 37 credit cards and hundreds of pieces of allegedly stolen mail among the items seized "

"Police allege the group stole pieces of mail, including bank statements, and that they were were in possession of the personal information of approximately 5,000 GTA residents."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-1.4106710