Does Home Security Lower Insurance? Discounts by Insurer

What insurers actually say

Each row is what the insurer's own website says, checked October 2026. Devices are listed only where the insurer names them.

The pattern is consistent: every insurer confirms the discount exists, the page text commits to no number, and availability varies by state or policy. State Farm adds that ADT home monitoring discounts it previously offered to homeowners customers are no longer available.

When you call, use the insurer's own name for the discount from the second column. Agents look discounts up by name, and asking for the "protective device" or "Safe, Secure, Smart Home" discount gets a firmer answer than asking whether an alarm helps.

Allstate and Progressive both single out monitored systems. A professionally monitored alarm, where a monitoring center can confirm and escalate an alarm, is generally treated as a stronger risk reduction than a siren-only or self-monitored setup. If you are weighing whether monitoring is worth the monthly fee, the insurance discount is one input in that math; see is professional monitoring worth it for the full picture.

How big the discount typically is

Apart from American Family's 5% page description, no insurer in the table publishes a figure, so the most authoritative public numbers come from state insurance departments, which regulate these carriers and publish consumer guidance.

The Delaware Department of Insurance tells consumers: "You can usually get discounts of at least 5% for a smoke detector, burglar alarm or dead-bolt locks. Some companies may cut your premiums by as much as 15% or 20% if you install a sophisticated sprinkler system and a fire and burglar alarm that rings at the police, fire or other monitoring stations." It also warns that these central-station systems are not cheap and that not every system qualifies, so you should ask your insurer what qualifies before buying. That page is long-standing consumer guidance rather than a current-year rate survey, which is another reason to treat the range as an order of magnitude rather than a quote.

The Texas Department of Insurance lists a "safe home discount" among the most common homeowners discounts and advises: if you install a monitored security alarm or a smart home system, tell your insurance company and ask about a discount. It does not publish a percentage either.

So the honest range, per state regulators rather than marketing pages: at least 5 percent for basic protective devices, and 15 to 20 percent only at Delaware's stated high end, which pairs a sophisticated sprinkler system with a fire and burglar alarm reporting to a monitoring station. Your actual figure depends on carrier, state, and system type. On a hypothetical $2,000 annual premium, a 5 percent discount is $100 a year, about $8.33 a month (our arithmetic), which matters for the total cost math but will not pay for professional monitoring by itself. For where the discount fits in the full monthly picture, see home security cost per month.

If your insurer asks about your monitoring center, UL-listed central station monitoring explains what that listing certifies and how to check it. Allstate lists water leak detectors and Travelers names connected devices that alert you to fire, so mention monitored leak sensors too; on a security system, monitoring a leak sensor adds an automated call rather than a dispatch, and water leak sensors on a security system covers what each brand does.

Do renters get a security discount?

Sometimes. Two renters insurers describe a security device discount for renters on their own sites, as of October 2026:

The other insurers in the first table publish protective device discounts on their homeowners pages without saying whether the same applies to renters policies, so ask. Delaware's 5 percent figure is homeowners guidance; it gives no separate renters figure, and any percentage applies to your own renters premium.

Smart locks and cameras alone are not named by either renters page. Lemonade names deadbolts, so a smart lock that is also a deadbolt may count, but that is the insurer's call. Progressive says many insurers credit cameras, but it speaks of insurers generally and of homeowners coverage. A monitored burglar or fire alarm is the device named most often.

A renters discount is tied to the address. Lemonade notes that a renters policy covers a specific property at a specific address, so a move means updating the policy, and if your discount relies on a monitoring certificate, send a new one for the new place. Check that the certificate fits a renters policy too: SimpliSafe's support page frames its monitoring certificate for homeowners insurance, so confirm your renters insurer accepts it. If you rent, many of these devices are also the practical ones to use without drilling; see home security for renters and smart locks for renters.

How to claim the discount

The discount is not automatic. The usual process:

1. Call your insurer or agent and ask specifically about the protective device discount (carriers name it differently: safe home discount, protective device credit, home security discount).
2. Ask what qualifies before you buy anything. Delaware's insurance department explicitly recommends finding out "what kind your insurer recommends, how much the device would cost and how much you'd save on premiums" before purchasing.
3. Provide proof. The insurer pages above rarely spell out the paperwork, so for monitored systems the proof usually runs through your monitoring provider, which can issue a certificate of alarm monitoring (sometimes called an insurance certificate) that you forward to your carrier. Ring issues one to the account owner of a Ring Alarm on 24/7 Professional Monitoring or a Smoke and CO monitoring plan, and says it becomes void if monitoring is canceled. SimpliSafe issues one to US customers on its professional monitoring plans. How to get an alarm certificate shows where each major provider lets you download one. Self-monitored and unmonitored setups may qualify for a smaller credit or none, depending on the carrier.
4. Re-check at renewal. Discounts vary by state and can change; State Farm's own disclosure notes its home security discount offers are not available in all states.

If you are already planning a monitored system, it is worth getting real monitoring quotes and your insurer's discount quote in the same week, so you can do the net-cost math with actual numbers. Our short questionnaire at /quote fetches quotes from professional monitoring providers, which gives you the other half of that equation.

Does the discount justify buying a system?

On its own, no. Take the regulator numbers at face value: a 5 percent discount on a premium of, say, $2,000 a year is $100 a year. Professional monitoring typically costs several times that annually, and equipment is on top. Even the 15 to 20 percent high end usually offsets only part of a monitored system's ongoing cost.

The honest framing: buy a security system for security, and treat the insurance discount as a rebate that improves the math. The exception is homes where the carrier requires or strongly prices for protective devices (high-crime areas, some coastal or FAIR-plan situations), where the premium effect can be larger; your agent can tell you if that applies to you.

Also note what the discount does not do: it does not reduce your deductible, and having an alarm does not change what perils your policy covers. It is purely a premium credit. For what a standard policy does and does not cover and how claims work, see this homeowners insurance guide on coverage and claims.