New home insurance offers smart sensors to help keep bills down

Launched just last week, new insurance provider Honey is giving qualifying customers up to $250 worth of smart home sensors! The insurtech company which provides home and contents cover aims to use its tech offerings to not only keep Aussies safe, but also help reduce costs for its customers.

Honey’s smart home sensors

As part of its insurance offerings, Honey provides smart home sensors. These smart monitoring systems can alert users to water leakages, fire, changes in temperature and unusual activity (such as burglars). 

If any of the above is detected, the sensors will send an alert to the user’s smartphone via a connected app. Live in a big house? No worries, Honey says its clever sensors have long range connectivity and can work in the biggest of homes.

Keeping insurance bills down

There are two ways Honey’s smart home sensors could help customers save money: the first (which is the biggest) is that these smart devices could help prevent water damage, fires and theft. This would mean that customers wouldn’t have to claim in the first place and in turn could avoid potential excess payments. Research that Honey cites from Finity shows that 50% of insurance claims are avoidable. The second way these smart sensors could be a moneysaver is with a straight up discount. Honey offers homeowners up to 8% off their home and contents insurance, simply for using these devices. To receive the discount, the smart home sensors must be switched on and active all the time.

Smarter home insurance all round

Honey says its policies are smart in a number of other ways too. These include being designed to meet customers’ 2021 needs, tackling underinsurance and making the sign-up process quick and hassle free.

How is Honey helping customers in 2021 you ask? Well its combined home and contents insurance offers up to $20,000 worth of home office cover! According to Honey that’s up to four times the industry norm. So if on and off again lockdowns have you working in your PJs, this could be a policy to consider.

As well as this, Honey aims to use advanced tech to tackle underinsurance. Underinsurance is a big problem in Australia. In 2019 research found that a large number of homes in Australia could be underinsured by as much as 66%. To avoid this problem, Honey says it uses satellite data to identify home improvements, such as home extensions, a new swimming pool and so forth. The data is then used to adjust a customer’s policy, so that coverage is always accurate.

Finally the cherry on top is that according to Honey, the sign up process only takes three minutes! 

Honey chief executive, Richard Joffe says Australians deserve smart home and contents insurance designed for how they live today. “Whether they’ve turned their home into a new work-from-home office, or simply have friends and family stay over for a few days as travel restrictions ease, Honey Insurance will have Australians covered for this and everything in between.”

Honey’s policies are underwritten by RACQ. Want to read about more home insurance policies available in Australia? Head to Mozo’s compare home insurance page, or take a look at the cover options below.