Steps to Making a Home Insurance Claim and Ways to Build Your Credit Score

Home insurance shields you from the unpredictable injury done to your home. Most homeowners buy home insurance to preserve their most valuable investments safely. If your home is impaired, you can file a home insurance claim with your insurance organization. They will help shield the expense of the impairment done to your home. Counting on your current policy, you may also be shielded from things like robbery, vandalism, and liability. If you want to file a home insurance claim, it can be a challenging venture. Here is the step-by-step guide on how to make a home insurance claim.

How To Make A Home Insurance Claim

1. Make a home inventory checklist

If you haven’t made one already, now is the perfect time to make a home inventory checklist. It’s just a record of all the high-value assets contained in your home. Taking the time and effort to make a home inventory checklist can conserve you a lot of time and help you if any unwanted incidents like theft, vandalism or any other kind of damage happen.

Making a home inventory checklist lets your claims procedure move quickly, as it eradicates the hours otherwise consumed hunting down things that have been misplaced or damaged in the event of an accident.

2. Gauge the circumstances and whether it is worth filing a claim

As soon as the impairment happens, it is necessary to first evaluate if it is worth filing a claim. If it is for a slighter item, such as a part of furniture that is cheap and easy to substitute, a home insurance claim may likely be unnecessary. 

If you have not filed any claims for the past year, you may have also made up a no-claims reward with your home insurance organization that delivers you a great deal on premiums. Once you file a claim, you relinquish this discount and you end up spending more each month on premiums. If the raised price of premiums overshadows the range you would obtain from your claim, it may not be essential to file a home insurance claim. Your insurance broker can support you to decide if it’s worth it to file a claim.

3. Gather as much proof as possible

Before you start filling your home insurance claim, gather proof of the impairment that happened to your possessions to send to your insurance organization. 

Proof can be collected by taking pictures of the damage, possessing receipts of goods bought and gathering witness statements from people who were attending at the time of the damage. If you are filing a claim on impaired items, you will need to keep those things somewhere safe until the time arrives to claim them.

4. Contact your insurance provider

Make a call to your insurance provider and inform them of everything about what occurred. For example, if your property was damaged in a fire, explain the details of how the fire started, who was present at the time of the fire, and which area of the property or goods became damaged. Your insurance company will collect this information so they can provide you with a service that matches your specific needs.

This is also the step in which you will want to discuss the details that you need to know on your end. This includes the amount of coverage you will receive, where you will be staying in there is a need to vacate the premises during repairs, and anything else they might need to tell you about how the claims process will go.

5. Complete a remediation form and activate your claim

The last step to making a home insurance claim is completing a remediation form that your insurance provider will give to you. Your insurance adjuster should also give you a report that includes details about your claim, such as the type of damage and how much it will cost to repair it.

After you have signed all the forms and settled everything with your insurance provider, you can activate your claim and begin receiving financial compensation in the form of a check to repair your home with the help of contractors and your insurance adjuster. As long as you follow the previous steps, this part should go smoothly.

Read More: 10 Tips for First Time Home Buyers in 2023

Ways to Build Your Credit Score

Your credit score is one of the most significant parts of your financial health. It shows lenders how responsibly you use credit. The greater your score, the more comfortable you will find it to be accepted for new loans or lines of credit. A higher credit score can also unlock the door to the cheapest available interest charges when you borrow. If you’d like to increase your credit score, there are some simple things you can do.

1. Pay bills on time

All your plans to improve your credit won’t be effective if you pay late. Payment history is the single largest factor that influences credit scores, and late payments can be on your credit reports for 7 years.

2. Make frequent payments

If you can make small payments throughout the month, that can help keep your credit card balanced and increase your credit. Making recurring payments throughout the month improves the factor called credit utilization which helps to improve your credit score. After payment history, this is another factor that highly impacts your score.

3. Become an authorized user

If you have a relative or friend with a long record of responsible credit card use and a high credit limit, consider asking if you can be added to one of those accounts as an authorized user. The account holder doesn’t have to let you use the card or even tell you the account number for your credit to improve.

4. Keep credit cards open

If you want to improve your credit profile, be conscious that closing credit cards can make the job more difficult. Closing a credit card indicates you lose that card’s credit limit when your overall credit utilization is estimated, which can point to a lower score. Keep the card open and use it occasionally so the issuer won’t close it.

Read More: How Much Home Insurance Do I Really Need?

Robert Kittrell