We know there are many myths & truths of insurance floating around out there & we are here to try and help bring some clarity to the issue!

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Having Great Credit Can Benefit Your Home Insurance Rates

The insurance companies (currently SGI Canada & Wawanesa Mutual) have designed this new method to try to give consumers another opportunity for discounting their home insurance rates.

We need two requirements to apply the discount:

1.      Express consent- For our client’s convenience, we are capable of accepting consent or withdrawal of credit score discounts verbally.

2.      The second type of information required is your legal full name and full date of birth, this information in most cases has already been obtained in the past for other insurance purposes.

Start saving more!

Lots of our customers have utilized this discount by taking those savings and purchasing additional coverage's such as, the newly introduced Flood Coverage. New this year to the personal homeowner’s line of insurance.

A little run down of how it works; once we have obtained your consent, the score is electronically requested from our credit score provider, depending on which insurance company you are with could either be TransUnion or Equifax. Credit score is then sent from the credit bureau through a secure data transmission channel and is automatically applied to the calculation of your premium. Your consent is kept and collected until or if you withdrawal that consent, and therefore annually the insurance company will access your credit score just before the renewal of your policy. We have been reassured by the insurance companies that this will not impact your credit rating.

To top off all this great news, Wawanesa Mutual has recently increased the credit score maximum possible discount, now allowing for an even greater discount.

*Your rates will not go up if you have an unfavorable credit score.

Privacy

At Al Hattie Insurance, we take your privacy very seriously. Our clients privacy is an office practice we have taken very seriously before credit scoring even came into play. We cannot see and do not have access to your credit score information. That information is restricted to only limited employees of the insurance companies who only access it in order to do their job.

Some Tips to Improve your Credit Score:

v  Always pay your bills on time.

v  Try to pay your bills in full by the due date. If you aren’t able to, pay at least the minimum amount shown on your monthly statement

v  Try to pay down your debts as quickly as possible

v  Don’t go over the credit limit on your credit card. Try to keep the balance well below the limit, as the higher the balance the more impact it has on your credit score.

v  Reduce the number of credit applications you make.

v  Make sure you have a credit history. Your credit score may be low because you don’t have a record of owing money and paying it back. You can build a credit history by using a credit card as long as you use it

LOCATION:
Town home

CAUSE OF LOSS:
Fire caused by an electric hair straightener

COST OF LOSS:
$263,000

DETAILS OF LOSS:
The insureds’ daughter was the last to leave the home in the afternoon to go to work. When the
insureds’ arrived home later they noticed smoke coming from the windows. They went to neighbour’s
house and called the Fire Department. The dwelling and contents in the basement sustained heavy
fire damage, while the remainder of the home sustained smoke and water damage. The Fire
Commissioner investigated and determined the cause of the fire to be the hair straightener left on in
a bedroom located in the basement.

LESSONS LEARNED:
When using electric curling irons, hair straighteners or other appliances that generate heat, be sure
to unplug it after each use and place them in a secure position away from any flammable materials.
Never leave your home without checking to make sure any irons, curling irons, etc. are unplugged
and in a safe location.

Our job at Al Hattie Insurance is to make sure our clients have the best and most comprehensive understanding of their insurance. Whether it be a home, condo, auto, travel, commercial, or agro policy, it is important to stay up to date on changes to your company's policies and their wording. This blog is going to focus on Wawanesa's recently updated wordings to their habitational policies.

Companies often revise their policy wordings to stay current ad competitive. They also change to adapt to our changing needs and to ensure clarity. Wawanesa's habitational coverages haven't changed, but wordings, definitions and limits have.

'Coverage D - Additional Living Expenses' has been renamed to 'Coverage D - Loss of Use'. This is simply a cosmetic update as the three original areas of this coverage - Additional Living Expenses, Fair Rental Value and Prohibited Access - remain unchanged.

One of the main changes can be found in the Special Limits of Insurance. Here are a list of the limits that have changed:

- Money, "cash cards", bullion - $1,000

- Personal Property of a Student away at school - $25,000

- Personal Property of a dependent in a care home - $25,000

- Fur garments and garments trimmed with fur - $6,000

- Numismatic, coin or banknote collections - $1,000

- *** Collectibles, including sports cards,m memorabilia and comic books - $250/item, $5,000 total

Water

Regarding water and water damage there are a few things to note. Flood is excluded from Water Damage coverage. However, flooding originating from a Domestic Water Container is covered. These are defined as "a device or apparatus for containing, heating, chilling or dispensing water for personal use." Examples include swimming pools, water coolers, hot water tanks and washing machines. Ice damming is not a part of the Sewer Backup/Water Damage Extension form and is covered as a Specified Peril on all policies. Coverage for freezing water pipes while policyholder was away from the premises for more than four consecutive days will be provided if any of the following precautions have been taken:

- Arrangements were made for a competent person to enter the dwelling and/or private structures each day to ensure heating was maintained

- The water supply to the dwelling and/or private structures had been shut off and all pipes and domestic water containers were drained

- The heating system was connected to an alarm that is observed 24 hours a day by a central monitoring service

Condo

Condominium owners will find a new section titled "Additional Coverages - Condominium Unit Owners". This section was created to make it easier for condo owners to find coverage specific to their situation. Coverages include:

- Condominium Loss Assessment

- Condominium Additional Coverage

- Condominium Unit Owner Improvements

- Condominium Deductible Assessment

Separating these coverages allows condo owners to purchase specific additional limits of insurance to fit their needs. All Condominium Unit Owners policies will be automatically renewed with $25,000 Condominium Deductible Assessment Coverage. Policyholders will now have the option to raise their limit to $50,000, which may be beneficial for those whose Condominium Corporation's carry high deductibles.

Other

Other coverages have had changes as well. Pollution incidents are now restricted to the escape of a pollutant arising from an insured peril under Section I - Property Coverage. Pollutant has been defined as "any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or containment, including but not limited to fuel oil, vapour, soot, chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, waste and smoke from agricultural smudging or industrial operations."

Wawanesa has also adopted the Insurance Bureau of Canada's (IBC) Liability wording to ensure it is comparable to others in the industry. Wordings of a commercial nature referenced previously have been removed. They have also excluded liability for claims arising from the use or misuse of social media or the internet (cyber liability).

Finally there has been a significant reduction in the paper included with the renewal policy, as the additional printed forms - such as Statutory Conditions, Limited Sewer Backup Endorsement and Innocent Co-Insured - are now included in the new wording booklet. Electronic booklets can be found at wawanesa.com.

Got some new gadgets in your home, maybe a radiant floor or some valuable mobile medical equipment? Wawanesa offers Saskatchewan residents a Special Limits Enhancement that can be extremely useful on your home or condo that not only increases some of your existing coverage limits but adds coverage to key systems you rely on in your everyday life. This Home Equipment Breakdown coverage is extremely handy in covering costly gaps to basic policies, protecting you from expensive repair or replacement to key pieces of equipment and systems.

The Special Limits Enhancement raises limits to these existing coverages:

- $20,000 Jewellery and Furs

- Personal property of a student away at school

- Watercrafts

- $20,000 Building Bylaws Coverages

- $20,000 Fire Department Charges Coverage

- Home Freezer Contents

The Special Limits Enhancement also adds $50,000 Home Equipment Breakdown coverage for equipment, systems, and personal property that includes:

- Central air conditioning

- Boilers, furnaces and heat pumps

- Radiant floor heating

- Pool and spa pumps, heating and filtration

- Electrical service panels

- Home security monitoring and control devices

- Kitchen and laundry appliances

- Home entertainment equipment

- Computers, peripherals and wireless devices

- Mobile medical equipment

- Portable generators and sump pumps

If you would like more information regarding Wawanesa's Special Limits Coverage, please give us a call at 1-800-450-2700 or 306-955-2700.

We strive at Al Hattie Insurance is to ensure that as a policy holder at our office you are properly covered under your insurance to cover modern claims scenarios in Saskatchewan. In years past, $1 million in liability coverage to a home, tenant, condo, or auto policy may have seemed more than enough. Unfortunately, this year has seen several claims rising not only above the $1 million but $2 million mark. Due to this trend, we are making sure that our customers are aware of the rising cost of fire and other claims to make sure they are fully covered in case of an accident.

A major fire claim in May this year was one of several incidents that show that rising cost of living and growing density in the city and province inevitably are leading to higher and higher claims. As people's busy lives don't always leave them enough time to or to study the claims market, we strive to make sure that you as the insured are provided with coverage that will do what it is supposed to in case of an emergency; make sure you are going to be covered in case of incident.

As of Jan. 1st 2014 all home, condo, tenant, and auto policies are going to be automatically renewed with $2 million liability coverage. We have unfortunately seen claims in the province that are well exceeding the previous standard of $1 million liability coverage and we don't want you to be paying for insurance and still end up with an enormous bill at the end of the day when an accident occurs. On most policies, to raise liability coverage from $1 million to $2 million will only see an increase of $1-$2 per month per unit on your current policy. $2 million liability coverage won't be mandatory, but will now be recommended for all policies as a minimum limit. If you feel like you are at risk of needing higher coverage, it is possible to also purchase up to $10 million liability coverage when you add an 'Umbrella' liability policy.

If you have questions regarding your policy, getting your coverage changed or increased, or don't know what coverage is best for your needs, please call us (306-955-2700 or toll free 1-888-450-2700) or stop by our office at 3020C Arlington Ave and talk to one of us.