Why Oklahoma Home Insurance Quotes Are High (and How to Lower Your Rates)
When compared to those in the rest of the country, Oklahoma home insurance quotes are surprisingly high. In a state where the cost of living is relatively low, it might seem a bit peculiar to find home insurance rates that are more comparable to those in California than to those in Kentucky. Fortunately, for Oklahoma homeowners, insurance is not as static as it sometimes appears. There are several ways to lower insurance rates, and understanding how providers come up with quotes is a big part of finding the most affordable coverage for the lowest price available.
How Much Does Oklahoma Home Insurance Cost?
There are several different varieties of homeowners insurance, but the most common policy nationwide is the HO-3 policy. For HO-3 home insurance, Oklahoma residents pay an average of $1,018; when compared to the national average cost of this policy ($804), The Sooner State’s rates certainly seem a bit inflated.
Understanding Oklahoma Home Insurance Quotes
When you compare the average cost of buying a home in Oklahoma to that of buying a home in many other areas of the country, OK prices are relatively modest. As one of the main factors in determining home insurance rates, Oklahoma’s generally affordable real estate prices just don’t seem to fit with the high cost of insuring these properties.
The true reason for the high cost of Oklahoma homeowners insurance is, in fact, the high amount of risk posed by Oklahoma’s weather conditions. With the high frequency of tornadoes, hail, high winds, and other risk factors OK homes are subjected to, insurance providers have to give quotes and rates that are higher than average to hedge their bets.
Lowering Oklahoma Home Insurance Rates
While we can’t stop hail from falling or tornadoes from spinning, we can lower the cost of insuring against the damage that hail and tornadoes may cause. Of course, increasing your deductible (the amount you pay out-of-pocket when damage occurs) or reducing your coverage will lower your rates, but as both of these techniques can spell trouble when your home does get damaged, it is often a good idea to examine other methods of lowering your rates.
In Oklahoma, home insurance discounts are given for many reasons. Installing an approved burglar alarm, upgrading home components like plumbing and electrical wiring, using weather and dent resistant materials on your home’s exterior, installing smoke detectors, sprinklers, and other fire-safety equipment, and even raising your credit score can all lower your homeowners insurance premiums. The only way to know which of these improvements will bring you the deepest discounts is to check with your insurance provider.
Comparing Oklahoma Home Insurance Quotes
It is important to remember that different insurance providers may offer different rates for the same situation; in some cases, you can save hundreds of dollars a year simply by switching companies. This is why one of the best things you can do as a homeowner is to periodically check out the competition.
Oklahoma home insurance quotes are not always going to vary dramatically from one provider to the next, but the only way to see if you’re missing out on hundreds of dollars in savings is to compare the rates of your current provider to the quotes of other companies. By filing out a brief form, NetQuote will give you multiple Oklahoma home insurance quotes from the comfort and convenience of your home computer. Once you’ve got the numbers in front of you, it will be easy to tell if your current policy compares favorably with those of other local companies. If you’re already getting great rates, you can rest assured that your current provider is worth sticking with; if your current rates are much higher than the quotes of other companies, however, you’ll have a good idea of who to contact for your next policy.
