Before you file a home-insurance claim on an appliance, do the math

Filing a home-insurance claim feels free — you have been paying premiums for years. Insurance.com shows why a small claim can quietly cost more than it returns.

Claims follow you. A single claim can raise your premium by roughly 24% to 28%, and a second claim within three years by 45% to 55%, depending on the type. Every claim is logged on your CLUE report — the shared loss-history file insurers pull — for about five to seven years. Crucially, even a denied claim gets recorded, so filing for something that was never covered leaves a mark with no payout.

The practical rule: file when the repair clearly exceeds your deductible and you have not filed in the past three years. If the cost only just tops the deductible, paying out of pocket usually wins. Before you decide, OwnWise helps you pin down the fault and a fair repair price — the number you need to weigh against your deductible and the premium hit.