Do Security Systems Lower Your Homeowners Insurance? The Real Discount Math
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Contents
Quick Answer
There is no single, citable percentage. What every source we checked agrees on is the shape of the answer: most insurers discount a homeowners premium somewhere in the low-to-mid single digits up to around 15-20 percent for a security system, with the biggest numbers reserved for systems that carry professional, 24/7 monitoring rather than a self-monitored setup that only alerts your phone. The exact figure depends on your insurer and your state, not on the device you buy. The only way to know your real number is to call your insurer and ask before you install anything.
Why This Doesn’t Have One Universal Answer
Search for this question and you will find a different percentage on nearly every page that answers it. That is not because most of those pages are wrong. It is because the underlying thing they are describing genuinely does not have one number. The Insurance Information Institute — the industry’s own research and communications organization, not a security company with a discount to sell — puts it plainly: most insurers provide discounts for security devices such as smoke detectors, burglar and fire alarm systems or deadbolt locks, but the discount types and levels vary from company to company and state to state. That single sentence is the most important fact in this article, because it means every specific percentage below is a description of what someone found, not a promise about what you will get.
Progressive, an actual insurer rather than a comparison site, says the same thing from the other side of the counter: the amount of your discount, if any, varies by insurer. “If any” is doing real work in that sentence. A homeowner in one state with one carrier might see a meaningful line-item reduction; a homeowner two states over with a different carrier, running the identical hardware, might see nothing at all. Neither homeowner is being cheated — they are just insured by two companies that priced the risk differently, which is normal for how property insurance works.
The Real Discount Math: What Six Sources Actually Publish
Rather than repeat one figure as though it were universal, here is what each source we independently fetched and read actually states, side by side. Read the third column before the second — it explains why the second column disagrees with itself.
| Source | What They Publish | The Catch |
|---|
| Insurance Information Institute | No specific percentage stated | Explicitly says levels vary by company and by state — the industry’s own research arm declines to give a number |
| NerdWallet, on professional monitoring | 5% to 20% off the annual premium | Tied specifically to systems with professional monitoring plus burglary, fire and carbon monoxide alarms — not to owning hardware alone |
| Policygenius | 2% to 5% typical; a few insurers go up to 15% | States that professional monitoring tends to land on “the higher side” of that range |
| Security.org | 2% to 15%, describing this as a range “on average” | A tax-and-savings explainer, not an insurer-by-insurer breakdown |
| Progressive (an actual insurer) | No percentage given at all | States plainly that the amount, if any, varies by insurer |
| NerdWallet, discount categories | Security systems grouped with smart-home and fire-safety devices as one “home-related” discount family | No number attached to the security-specific line item in this piece |
Notice what is consistent across all six: nobody who actually publishes a number ties it to a specific device. Every real figure is tied to professional monitoring, and every source that talks to insurers directly — rather than aggregating other people’s guides — declines to give a fixed number at all. That pattern is the finding. If you remember one thing from this table, it should be the range itself: a low single-digit percentage at the cautious end, climbing toward the high teens or low twenties at the generous end, with your actual number sitting somewhere inside that spread depending on your insurer, your state and how your system is monitored.
Monitored vs. Self-Monitored: the Gap Nobody States a Number For
Every meaningfully large discount figure in the table above is attached to professional monitoring — a company watching your alarm and calling police or fire on your behalf — rather than to a self-monitored system that simply pushes an alert to your phone. NerdWallet’s own discount language is explicit about this: the discount applies to “a professionally monitored home security system,” full stop, and the qualifying system typically needs burglary, fire and carbon monoxide alarms behind it. That phrasing was not accidental. It is describing what an insurer is actually pricing: the probability that someone will notice a fire, a break-in or a carbon monoxide leak while it is still small enough to matter, and call for help. A phone notification you might not see for twenty minutes does not reduce that probability the same way a monitoring center that dials 911 immediately does. Our guide to whether a monitored alarm actually gets police to show up goes deeper into what that monitoring call is actually worth once dispatched, which is a related but separate question from the insurance math here.
Here is the part we want to be honest about rather than smooth over: no source we fetched states a specific percentage for self-monitored systems. Not one. Policygenius comes closest, saying professional monitoring tends to land you “on the higher side” of its published 2-to-5-percent-typical, up-to-15-percent range — which logically implies self-monitored setups sit somewhere lower inside that same range, but Policygenius does not print the actual lower number, and neither does anyone else we checked. We are not going to invent one to fill the gap. If a self-monitored system is what you have or plan to install, the honest answer is: it may qualify for something smaller, or nothing, and the only way to find out is to ask your specific insurer, not to trust a chart. Our explainer on what third-party monitoring actually means covers the mechanics of what “professional monitoring” is buying you, separate from the insurance question.
What Actually Qualifies for a Discount
Across the sources we checked, the list of devices insurers ask about is shorter and more specific than the marketing around “smart home discounts” usually implies.
What Insurers Actually Ask About, Per the Sources We Checked
Central-station monitoring
The single most consistently required item for the larger discounts across every source that ties a number to a device
Smoke, fire & CO alarms
Named specifically by the Insurance Information Institute as a qualifying device category, alongside burglar alarms and deadbolts
Deadbolts & smart locks
Listed by Policygenius among qualifying home-security devices, distinct from the alarm system itself
Water and leak sensors
A newer addition some insurers now credit, per Policygenius — water damage claims are common enough to matter to underwriters
Video cameras and general “smart home” gadgets appear in some insurers’ lists too, but none of the sources here treat them as reliably as monitored alarm coverage.
Discount size tracks monitoring type more than any single device, based on NerdWallet, Policygenius and Progressive’s own published language.The pattern worth internalizing: it is rarely one gadget that unlocks a discount. It is the combination of a monitored alarm plus the specific detection types — fire, carbon monoxide, burglary — that an insurer already underwrites against as a category of risk. A single battery-powered door sensor with no monitoring behind it is unlikely to move your premium at all, regardless of how it is marketed. If you are weighing a full monitored system against a DIY kit for reasons beyond insurance, our DIY home alarm system guide covers that decision on its own terms.
How to Actually Get the Discount Applied
A discount that exists on an insurer’s rate sheet does not apply itself. Based on what III and Progressive both describe about how these discounts actually get attached to a policy, the practical sequence looks like this.
Five Steps, in the Order the Sources Actually Support
1
Call before you buy anything
Ask your specific insurer what security discount, if any, applies to your policy and address — III’s own guidance is to check before installing, since some systems are expensive enough that the discount needs to be worth it.
2
Ask for the requirement in writing
Get the specific bar: professional monitoring, specific alarm types, or a signed monitoring contract. NerdWallet ties its larger figures to burglary, fire and carbon monoxide coverage specifically, not a generic “alarm”.
3
Install to that specification
Match the system to what your insurer actually asks for rather than what a security company recommends — the two lists overlap but are not identical.
4
Get proof once it’s installed
Most insurers want documentation the system is real and monitored, not just a receipt for hardware.
5
Confirm it actually posted, and re-ask at renewal
Check your next bill or renewal statement for the line item. Discount schedules change over time, so what applied last year is not guaranteed to apply unchanged going forward.
Skipping step one is the single most common mistake — installing a system on the assumption that “security systems get a discount” and then finding out your specific insurer’s version of that discount is smaller than expected, or requires monitoring you did not buy.
If you already own a monitored system through ADT, SimpliSafe or Vivint, this is a five-minute phone call, not a research project — you already have whatever documentation the monitoring company can provide. Our ADT review, SimpliSafe monitoring plans guide and Vivint review each cover what “monitored” actually includes with that specific provider, which is useful context to have on hand before you call your insurer.
Does the Discount Offset a Monitoring Plan?
This is the question underneath the question, and it deserves an honest answer rather than a rosy one: sometimes yes, often it is a wash, and the only way to know for your own situation is to run your own numbers rather than trust a generic comparison. We are deliberately not printing a dollar figure here, because monitoring costs and insurance premiums both vary too much by provider and by region for a single example to mean anything real — see our home security system cost breakdown for what actually drives the total cost, and SimpliSafe’s current monitoring tiers for one real provider’s current pricing structure.
When the Discount Math Tends to Work in Your Favor
📈 Makes sense
- Your insurer’s discount lands toward the higher end of its published range because you already have 24/7 professional monitoring
- You were already planning to pay for monitoring for the protection itself, so the discount is a bonus layered on a decision you had already made
- Multiple carriers in your state publish a security discount, so you can shop it into an actual quote rather than assume any single number applies
📉 Worth checking before you assume it
- Your insurer offers little to no meaningful security discount — Progressive states plainly that whether you get one at all is insurer-dependent
- You would only qualify for the self-monitored tier, which several sources imply is smaller than the professionally monitored figures they publish
- A monitoring plan’s ongoing cost is close to, or larger than, what the discount actually saves once you compare real numbers rather than percentages
Why State and Insurer Variation Is the Real Story
It would be a more satisfying article if there were one number to give you. There is not, and pretending otherwise would mean printing a figure that is wrong for most readers most of the time. Two of the six sources here that talk to how insurance actually gets priced — III and Progressive — both independently land on the same structural point: the discount, and whether it exists at all, is a function of your specific insurer and your specific state, not a fixed feature of the security industry. Insurance is a regulated, state-by-state business; a carrier’s approved rate filings, discount schedules and underwriting rules can differ meaningfully across a state line even for the same company.
This is also why comparison shopping matters more here than for almost any other home security decision on this site. Two homeowners with identical hardware and identical monitoring can end up with genuinely different discounts simply because they are insured by different companies. If you are choosing a monitored provider partly for the insurance angle, our ADT vs. SimpliSafe vs. Vivint comparison is a reasonable starting point for the monitoring side of that decision, but the insurance discount itself is not something any of those three companies control — your insurer does.
One more honest caveat: none of the sources here distinguish homeowners policies from renters or condo policies in their discount language, and this article is written for homeowners specifically, matching the question in the title. If you rent, the mechanics differ enough that it is worth reading separately — our renter’s guide to choosing between a full alarm system and standalone cameras covers that decision on its own terms rather than assuming the homeowner math transfers directly.
What to Actually Do
Call your insurer before you buy anything, and ask one specific question: “What security-system discount do you offer, and what exactly does it require?” Not “do you offer a discount” — insurers will usually say yes to that in the abstract and then attach conditions that matter enormously, chiefly whether the system needs to be professionally monitored. Get the answer in writing or in an email if you can, since discount schedules change and you want a record of what applied when you installed.
If your insurer’s answer ties the meaningful discount to professional monitoring — which is the pattern across every source with a real number attached — and you were already leaning toward a monitored system for the protection itself, treat the discount as a genuine bonus and factor it into your decision. If your insurer’s discount is small, vague, or nonexistent, do not install a monitored system on the theory that insurance savings alone will justify the cost — make that call based on the actual security trade-offs instead, which our DIY alarm system guide and installation walkthrough both cover. And if false alarms are part of what is holding you back from professional monitoring, our guide to stopping repeat false alarms is worth reading before you rule it out.
What would change this recommendation: a specific quote from your own insurer showing a real number for your address, which is the only figure that actually matters and which no article, including this one, can give you in advance.
SafeBode does not yet run an in-house product testing program. This guide is built from manufacturer specifications, official support documentation, current retail listings and verified buyer feedback rather than hands-on testing, and we say so plainly rather than implying testing we have not done.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does every homeowners insurer offer a security system discount?
No. Progressive, an actual insurer, states plainly that whether you get a discount at all depends on the company. Some carriers offer a meaningful reduction, some offer something small, and some do not price it as a distinct line item. Ask your specific insurer rather than assuming.
How much will my premium actually drop?
There is no single answer. Published ranges we found run from roughly 2 percent at the cautious end to as high as 20 percent at the generous end, with the biggest numbers tied to professionally monitored systems. Your real number depends on your insurer, your state, and exactly what your system includes.
Do I need professional monitoring to get any discount at all?
Not necessarily, but the largest published discounts are consistently tied to professional monitoring rather than to owning hardware alone. Self-monitored systems may qualify for something smaller, or nothing, depending on the insurer — no source we checked gives a specific number for that tier.
What proof does my insurer actually need?
It varies, but commonly includes documentation that the system is installed and actively monitored, sometimes called a certificate of installation or monitoring. Ask your insurer directly what they require before you assume a receipt for hardware is enough.
Does a standalone doorbell camera qualify for a discount?
It is unlikely to on its own. The devices insurers most consistently mention are monitored burglar and fire alarms, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and deadbolts — not general smart-home gadgets. A camera can be part of a qualifying system, but rarely qualifies by itself.
Will switching from self-monitored to professional monitoring change my rate right away?
Not automatically. You typically need to notify your insurer and provide proof of the new monitoring before any discount adjustment applies — it will not happen just because your provider upgraded your plan.
Does a wired system get a bigger discount than a wireless one?
None of the sources we checked distinguish wired from wireless as a factor in the discount itself. What they consistently distinguish is monitored versus self-monitored, and which specific alarm types the system covers.
Is it worth paying for monthly monitoring just to get the insurance discount?
Usually not as the sole reason. Run the actual numbers for your situation — your insurer’s real discount amount against your monitoring provider’s real monthly cost — rather than assuming the discount alone justifies an ongoing subscription. Decide on monitoring for the security benefit first, and treat any insurance discount as a bonus.
Do renters get the same kind of discount on renters insurance?
The sources here are written around homeowners policies specifically, and none of them extend the same discount language to renters or condo policies. If you rent, ask your insurer directly rather than assuming the homeowner figures apply.
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