A Beginner's Guide to Home Security Systems by Dan Miller - HTML preview

Local versus national security companies

When choosing a security company, one of the biggest debates is whether to go with a local or national company. Some people prefer the feeling of doing business with its headquarters in their town, while others want the experience and national spotlight from a prestigious national company. There’s no definite answer on which type of company is better for protecting your home.

Local company

A local company is one that operates in the local area or region. This type of company has excellent knowledge of the local area and customs, and they can easily specialize in certain types of security. Generally, a local company can offer cheaper installation and monitoring prices. Installations are usually able to be scheduled within a few working days.

One of the downsides is that the technology may not be up to par as with a national company. The smaller companies have smaller budgets and may not be able to access all of the fancy modern day equipment like their national competitors. The other downside is for the actual monitoring itself. A few of the local companies do their own in-house monitoring, but most of them let another company handle their monitoring. It may be where one monitoring center monitors security systems from several different local companies.

National company

A national company is one that operates throughout the entire country. These are companies constantly in the news media and need to be extra careful to keep their images clean. Customer service is readily available through one of their 24x7x365 call centers, and if needed, service representatives can make house calls that day. Most of the companies offer high-tech and brand new security technology guaranteed to detect the sneakiest of intruders.

Most of the national companies own their own monitoring center, and a few of them own multiple centers. Having multiple monitoring centers means that a company has unrestricted 24x7x365 monitoring abilities. Should one center go down for technical reasons, the customers usually monitored in that center are

Being with a national company also offers you the chance to stay with them should you have to move to a new area. There’s no need to break a contract and pay any early termination fees. Depending on the company, you may receive a free or heavily discounted security system in your new location.

One of the biggest disadvantages of being with a national company is the overall higher pricing. The prestige of being with a top-notch company with the latest technology comes at a higher price.