Every month, quarter, six months or year you receive the notice that your homeowners insurance requires a payment. You place it on the stack of bills for payment and eventually make the check. Sometimes, your bank pays the bill for you. Often, you don’t find out how much they pay until it’s too late and you find your house payment rising again. If this happens to you, it’s time to look for new homeowner’s insurance coverage.

Some people save hundreds of dollars by taking a few minutes every year to do rate comparisons on their homeowner’s insurance coverage. The money they save is then available for other household necessities or to pay on the principal of their mortgage or line of credit, saving them even more. If you haven’t looked at your coverage for a while, it may be time. It’s not only important to do as a savings tool, but also to make certain you have adequate coverage.

Look for the page in your policy that identifies the specifics. It has the deductible, limits of liability and replacement cost of your home. This page also tells the type of policy you’ve purchased. For instance, most policies will be an HO3 special. If you have an older home it’s normally an HO8. The difference between the two is the amount of coverage necessary.

Most companies require that you insure at least 80 percent of the replacement cost for your home. If you don’t, they penalize you if you have a smaller claim. If for instance, you insure only 50 percent of the replacement cost on an HO3 form and have a $5000 claim. After you pay your deductible, the company only pays 50 percent of the claim. If you had insured to 80 percent, they’d pay 100 percent of the claim.

Older homes normally cost more to replace than anywhere near their actual value. A large older home in a nice but not luxurious neighborhood might only cost $80,000. If you calculated the replacement cost, it might be $300,000. Insurance companies understand that it wasn’t fair to the good customer to require they insure for that amount so they created the HO8 policy where you insure only to market value.

Check how much you pay out of pocket if you have a claim, the deductible. If you need to save money, this might be the place to begin. If you have a low deductible, like $250, consider raising it to $500 for a large savings. When you shop for homeowner’s insurance coverage, make certain that you use the same deductible as your policy to get a true comparison.

The liability section is one place it doesn’t pay to cut corners. If there’s an injury on your property and the person sues you, the liability coverage pays for the damages to the other party. If they have extensive injuries and you carry the minimum, it may not cover all their expenses. In that case, you have to pay the difference out of your pocket. When you do comparisons on your homeowner’s insurance coverage, use the same limits but before you buy, consider raising them.

Find out if your policy has any additional riders for coverage of expensive items like special electronic equipment, furs or jewelry. These cost extra and need to be in the quote.

Finally, look for discounts. If you have special safety equipment like burglar alarms or even smoke detectors, you’ll often get a big discount. Multiple policies with the same company also frequently trigger a discount. Be a smart shopper and compare your homeowner’s insurance coverage often. Why pay more than you have to pay?