Home Insurance 101: How It Works And Tips On Saving

Here we explain the basic types and how to get a Home Insurance policy that will sufficiently compensate you in the event of an accident.

In the previous part of our Home Insurance 101 series, we covered the 5 key coverages of home insurance. In this part of the Home Insurance 101 series, we are diving straight into the details of home insurance and discuss about home insurance tiers, period of coverage, how to make a claim and ways to save when buying a home insurance plan.

What types of Home Insurance are there?

Home Insurance is a broad term for any type of insurance policy that insures your home. Here’s a quick summary of the main types of home insurance, and coverage each one provides:

·      HDB Fire Insurance

HDB’s Fire Insurance is meant to protect homeowners in the event of a fire. It covers the cost of reinstating damaged internal structures, fixtures and areas that are built and provided by HDB. (Note: The keyword here is ‘by HDB’ and this insurance is only applicable for those who live in a HDB unit).

·      Bank Mortgage Fire Insurance

The Bank Mortgage Fire Insurance is similar to HDB’s Fire Insurance. It covers the cost of reinstating damaged internal structures and fixtures that were built by HDB or developer.

·      Home Content Insurance

The content and renovations within your home are not covered by fire insurance. Thus, this Home Content Insurance is meant to cover the cost of repair or replacement of fixtures, furniture and other items within your home which have been damaged due to fire, burst pipes or burglary.

What tier and period of coverage can you get for Home Content Insurance?

3 Tiers of Home Content Insurance

When it comes to Home Content Insurance, there are 3 types to choose from as a consumer: Basic, Enhanced and Premium. The higher up the tier you go, the higher the premiums and coverage you get for your home and its contents.

Length of Home Content Insurance 

Besides having multiple tiers, home insurance also comes with multiple periods of coverage. Most home content insurance, as a default covers your home for 1 year. You can also choose to add on more years of coverage up to 3 years.

How to claim Home Insurance?

Depending on which insurer you bought your policy from, you have between 7 to 30 days to submit your home insurance claim. You will need to submit a home insurance claim form which can be downloaded from your insurer’s website.

Supplement claims with official documents

For fire or burglary claims, you will need to supplement your claim application with a police report or a fire report from SCDF. Do note that the police report for burglary claims need to be made within 24 hours of incident because your insurer may reject your claim if there is too wide of a delay in the official report being filed.

Make sure you keep photo and physical evidence of damages

You will also need to ensure that you have a photo evidence for every claim you intend to file with your insurer as proof of damage. Besides photo evidence, you may also be required to keep the damaged item for verification, it will be best to refer to the terms of your policy before clearing the item away.

To judge the extent of compensation, your insurer will request that you seek one (or two) quotation for repair or replacement of your damaged item. In some circumstances, the insurer may send a loss adjuster to assess the loss.

How can you save on Home Insurance?

Since home insurance is essential to every homeowner, the natural question to ask is whether there are ways you can get more bang for your buck. Luckily, the answer is yes.

One way to get more bang for your buck when buying home insurance is to take advantage of discounts. Some insurers like NTUC Income and Singlife offers discount when you buy longer term plans (e.g. 3-year plan). Other insurers like FWD lets you enjoy 10% off (or more) with promo codes during festive periods (e.g. Christmas, Good Friday, etc.).

Find the most value-for-money policy using SingSaver's Home Insurance Comparison Tool

Another way you can save when buying home insurance is to use SingSaver’s comparison tool to find the most value-for-money deal. SingSaver’s home insurance comparison tool allows you to search and filter home insurance plans by price and rating so that you can get your money’s worth.

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