Did you know that smoking cigarettes is the number one cause of preventable fires? Yet people still smoke inside of their homes every day. Fortunately, many homeowners have made the prudent financial choice to protect their houses—often one’s largest investment—with home insurance. But how does smoking affect your insurance rates?

When purchasing home insurance, your rate is determined by a variety of factors based on the risk they present. Higher risk levels lead to higher rates. Here are a few examples:

• Living in an area with a high crime rate is risky, whereas living near a fire station is safer.
• Choosing an older home that hasn’t been updated may be risky if the wiring has begun to corrode or other systems are beginning to fail. Updated or newer homes are safer.
• Swimming pools present a risk that is not present in homes without pools.

You get the basic idea. The safer your home, the less you’re likely to pay for home insurance. However, another risk that insurance providers take into consideration—regardless of the location or condition of the house—is the smoking habits of the people within. A lit cigarette significantly increases the risk of your home catching on fire. After all, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Home fires result in billions of dollars’ worth of claims every year, so it’s in the best interests of insurance providers to crack down on anyone or anything that elevates the chance of a fire—including smokers. In fact, smokers may pay as much as 20 percent more than nonsmokers for the same home insurance coverage.

Some smokers think the cost of their habit runs only as deep as the cost of the cigarettes themselves. But this assumption is often wrong. Smokers may pay more for not only home insurance, but also for health insurance and life insurance. Simply put, it’s a habit that is bad for both your health and your bank account.

Have you quit smoking recently? Ask your agent to reevaluate your home insurance premium today.

We’re here to help you save on great coverage. Call us for more information on home insurance.