Understanding home insurance renewal prices
If you’re a homeowner, you may notice an increase in your home insurance premium at renewal time – and you may wonder why.
Understanding how your home insurance policy works, and what factors can affect your renewal price, can help ensure you only pay for the cover that’s right for you.
What is causing home insurance costs to go up?
Home insurance premiums can be affected by a range of factors. Some are outlined below.
Extreme weather conditions
The cumulative impact of weather events like fires, floods, and storms can affect insurance premiums. Insurers must balance their ability to support Australians against what premiums they offer. This can sometimes mean increasing renewal prices to help cover increasing costs.
Market forces
External market forces can affect home insurance premiums, including:
- inflation
- government fees and charges
- reinsurance costs (which is insurance for insurance companies), and
- regional and global market changes in the insurance industry
Even if your circumstances remain the same, these factors can shift every year, impacting premiums.
Repair and rebuilding costs
If you’ve tried to organise renovations or repairs lately, you might have come across empty shelves at hardware stores, booked-out tradies and higher prices for materials and services.
The repair and rebuild process can represents a big chunk of insurers’ costs, which hasand have a knock-on effect on renewal premiums.
What to look out for when renewing your insurance
Keeping your policy details up to date may help you save some money on your premium.
Consider your budget and situation when looking at your home insurance renewal. Remember that everyone’s circumstances are different and that this article contains general information.
Review the amount of your cover
At Apia, you can adjust your sum insured within a set range, and your premium will be adjusted accordingly. Your sum insured is the most we’ll pay to repair damage to your homein the event of a claim.
Set a sum you’re comfortable with when you insure your home for the first time and remember to review it at renewal time. We’ll let you know when your insurance policy is due for renewal, so you have time to review your policy details.
You can use our Home Building Calculator to help you choose your sum insured with more confidence.
Review your optional covers
You may have added optional covers like Apia Home Assist or Excess-Free Glass when you took out or last renewed your policy, and this would be reflected in your current premium. Consider whether these still fit your current circumstances.
Adjust your excess
You can opt for a higher excess in the event of a claim to potentially save onreduce your monthly or annual premium#.
Review listed valuables
Do you have valuable items listed on your policy? Revisit your valuables list to double-check if you still need them covered for the same amount – or listed at all.
Why your renewal might be more expensive than a new quote
It may be time to update your details
Your renewal premium may be based on the information you provided when you first took out your policy. If your circumstances have changed since then, your renewal may be calculated on outdated information.
This can happen if, for example, you:
- completed renovations that may have increased your amount of cover needed,
- set a different excess,
- moved to a retirement village or village-style residence.
If your quote has more up-to-date information than our records, you may observe discrepancies between your renewal premium and a new quote.
At Apia, you can save on a premium with our Work Less Pay Less® discount if you or another policyholder work less than 37 hours a week*. So let us know if you dropped your workload when it’s time for your renewal.
Ensure your details are correct and get a renewal premium that matches your current situation. Easily review and update your policy online.
Changes to sum insured
Your home insurance policy may specify a sum insured. That’s the most we will pay to repair or rebuild your home in the event of a successful claim. Apia may suggest a sum when you take out or renew your policy, but you can select your sum insured from within a range. It will be reflected in your renewal documents.
With Apia, you can choose between Home & Contents Insurance or Home & Contents Extra.
Apia Home and Contents Extra offers accidental loss and damage cover along with higher limits on a great range of features such as Financial Transaction Card cover, and fixed and flexible limits.
If you’d like to know how much the premium may differ between the two options, get a quote online. It’s quick and easy – and you can easily compare the price of the different levels of cover.
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Australian Pensioners Insurance Agency Pty Limited ABN 14 099 650 996 is an authorised representative of AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807, the product issuer.
Read the Product Disclosure Statement before buying this insurance. The Target Market Determination is also available.
This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.
#You can ask us to increase your excess (up to the maximum we offer) during the quote process or when renewing your policy, to lower your premium. Depending on the circumstances, you might have to pay more than one type of excess when you claim.
*Work Less Pay Less® discount does not apply to Apia Home Assist or Excess-free Glass optional covers.
The information is intended to be of general nature only. Subject to any rights you may have under any law, we do not accept any legal responsibility for any loss or damage, including loss of business or profits or any other indirect loss, incurred as a result of reliance upon the information. Please make your own enquiries.
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