With the cost of living increasing and recent news reports warning of a significant increase in burglaries in 2022, people are looking to reduce outgoings as much as possible. Although, with insurance premiums likely to increase along with everything else, is there any benefit in fitting a security system to your house?
Do insurance companies take alarm systems into account?
There are many alarm systems available on the market, and it would seem evident that the more you spend on one, and the more sophisticated it is, the more discount you should expect on your insurance premium.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be the case.
If you’ve taken out insurance on your home recently, you will have probably noticed that many of the application forms have a section asking if you have fitted a house alarm.
Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect that they consider this when giving you a quote, but it might not be so clear-cut.
Back in April 2012, the Association of British Insurers explained:
“Many insurers and price-comparison websites will ask you about security measures before
they offer you a quote for insurance. They will ask you questions, such as whether you have
a good-quality burglar alarm, and will use your answers when they work out the premium
they quote you. Homes with good security will generally be offered lower insurance quotes
than the equivalent homes with poor security. In fact, some insurers may not offer quotes at
all for homes with poor security.”
However, most quotation forms’ questions don’t go into much detail. For example, you’d expect that if you have an alarm, you’d be asked what type, what functionality, and what technology is used, but most have a simple yes/no question.
What appears to be more important is whether you have effective locks on doors and windows.
What do the advice websites say?
When searching for anything on Google, some of the top results are from aggregator companies, comparison sites and others that offer advice to consumers.
Moneysupermarket says:
“Some insurers offer discounts to policyholders who install burglar alarms, while others don’t. While there’s no guarantee having a burglar alarm will cut the cost of your home insurance, installing an insurer-approved model can still improve the security of your home.”
This suggests that in some cases a burglar alarm is necessary in order to get insurance, but you probably won’t get a discount.
Compare the market says this:
“Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that installing an alarm will reduce your premium – this will vary between insurance providers. You’ll be asked what kind of security is in place when you buy insurance as this could impact the cost of your premium. But other factors are also taken into consideration, so there’s no evidence that having an alarm can directly cut your costs. “
What affects the cost of my house insurance?
Unsurprisingly, your postcode has the most significant effect on your insurance premiums.
If the area you live in has a history of break-ins, vandalism and other anti-social crimes, then you’re going to see this reflected in your premium, and it’s unlikely that security measures will have much effect on it.
The next factor is the size and value of your home.
For buildings insurance in particular, if it would cost more to rebuild, then it will cost more to insure, but the size of the home will also affect your contents insurance.
The bigger the home, the more likely you’ll have higher value contents, adding to the premium.
Insurance companies use data extracted from many years of claims. So although they will take individual cases into account, their algorithms aren’t likely to be tweaked that much if you protest about the cost.
These two factors alone probably account for the bulk of your insurance premium, so it might make you wonder whether it’s worth fitting an alarm at all.
Is it worth investing in a house alarm?
All insurance companies, aggregate companies and advice sites agree that all houses should have an alarm.
And indeed, saying you have an alarm in an attempt to receive a reduced premium without installing one could result in any claims being refused.
The problem is that burglar alarms can be expensive and require engineers to install, which can be off-putting for many, especially if you’ve already decorated and don’t relish the thought of having to fit PIRs and window sensors with all the cables that go along with them.
So an alarm that is easy to install, doesn’t require cables and disruption and will alert you instantly when someone tries to enter the house would be ideal, wouldn’t it?
Fitting an alarm doesn’t have to be a chore, and it doesn’t need to be expensive.
Protecting your property and your loved ones can be easy, and NoEntry from Sonis is the easiest alarm to set up in the world.
Simply unpack, plug in and arm. With no PIRs, no complex setup and no door and window sensors, it protects your home quickly, is pet friendly and will alert you to a break-in within milliseconds.
