It is always nice when you can pay less for homeowner insurance and get the same cover or more. Listed below are ten handy tips that you can do to get cheaper homeowner insurance premiums.

1. Increase your voluntary excess

Your insurance excess is the amount of money you agree to pay towards a claim before the insurance company pays the rest. For example, if you had a £200 excess and a £500 claim you would pay 200 pounds and the insurer would pay £300. If you choose to pay a higher excess, you will pay a lower premium. You can make massive savings by doing this. When you are comparing policies, play around with changing the excess amount to see how much you can save.

2. Fit smoke alarms

Fire alarms are quite cheap, especially when compared to the cost of a home or the loss of a life. Most home fires are caused by cooking or smoking. Never leave your cooking unattended, don't leave matches or lighters laying around and don't smoke cigarettes in bed. Be aware if you have young children that they love to play with all things new and exciting. They may turn on the cooker, light paper or cover lamps. All of these things can cause a fire in your home.

3. Install new locks

If you have just moved into a new home, you do not know who might still have a key. The cost of changing your locks is far less than having all of your worldly possessions stolen from from your home. Ensure you install quality locks - preferably five-lever mortise locks.

4. Have security lighting installed

Burglars like to work under the cover of darkness and don’t like to be in the spotlight. Use movement sensors with your lighting to surprise uninvited visitors and keep them at bay. A blast of light will also raise attention with neighbours or yourself in the middle of the night.

5. Install time switches on internal lights

Your home is most at risk to burgulary when you are not present. Lights that are switched on at a particular time will give outsiders the impression that you are in the house when you are not. You can stagger the times lights are switched on and off in various rooms make it look like you are moving about the house.

6. Have an alarm system installed

Check with your insurance company if they have a preferred provider of home alarm systems. By having a professionally installed alarm system can often cut premiums by over five percent. That is a big saving, and it will give you peace of mind that your home is safe.

7. Don't leave your keys under the mat

This will be the 1st place a thief will look. If you want to hide your house keys, put a little thought into somewhere a burglar would never look. Also don't keep your keys on a hook near the front door where a thief could hook the keys with a wire through the front letter box.

8. Insulate your external pipes
Outside pipes can freeze easily in the great British winter. By lagging (wrapping insulation around the pipe) your external pipes will reduce the chance of them freezing. If pipes do freeze you can often get leaks in cracked pipes or burn out pump motors as the water will not pass through the frozen pipe.

9. Regularly check you house and property for subsidence.

Subsidence is usually covered by your buildings insurance. It is important to identify movement as soon as possible to limit damage to you home. Look for cracks in walls and unevenness in walls and floors.

10. Only claim if you have to

The lower the number of claims you make, the higher your no claims discount will be. If a minor issue happens, think carefully prior to claiming the item on your insurance. If you do submit a claim and loose your no claims discount, is this going to cost you more in the long term?

If you want to save money on your insurance you need to compare insurance providers. Ideally you should do this once a year to make sure you are always getting the best price.