Home Insurance: Help & Hints

Getting cheaper home insurance involves a mix of shopping smart, making your property safer, and understanding exactly what cover you need. Here are some tips to help you lower your home insurance costs:

• Pay annually, rather than monthly, for your home insurance policy. Direct Debits are classed as loans and include interest which increases the amount you pay for your insurance overall.
• Don’t auto-renew when it comes to the end of the insurance period. You more than likely have different requirements from your insurance than you did last year, so make sure you review your policy and make sure you’re not paying for more cover than you actually need. It’s always worth trying to find a cheaper deal with another provider.
• Restrict your optional extras, and make sure you know what your policy does and doesn’t cover. You won’t want to add something onto your policy you didn’t know you were already covered for, or make your premium more expensive by purchasing every add-on available.
• Build your no claims by increasing the amount of years you go between claims. Generally speaking, house insurance premiums go up after a claim because you’re proving the likelihood of needing funds from your insurer. Less claims means lower premiums and higher discounts.
• Bundling your policies together can often lead to discounts too. Whether this is just by bundling buildings with contents insurance, or by getting car, home, and pet insurance with the same provider.
• Value your contents accurately, no matter how tempting it is to overestimate them. This will only increase your insurance premium because your insurer will think that you’ll be claiming for higher amounts if it comes to it.
• Install security features to increase the safety of your home, and potentially reduce the premium. This would include safety instalments such as:
  • Smoke alarms
  • Burglar alarms
  • Security lighting
  • High-quality locks
• Getting a different policy for valuables like jewellery or gadgets can reduce the amount you spend on your contents insurance, as well as making sure your valuables are protected properly.
• Joining the Neighbourhood Watch and making sure it’s police-approved and active, can also be a reason for discounts for some insurers.
• Increase your excess when you purchase a home insurance policy. The more you pay towards a claim, the less your policy will cost - but make sure the excess is still an amount you can afford if you need to make a claim.
• Compare insurance quotes online, to sort through the huge range of home insurance policies quickly and effectively. Cheap.co.uk can wipe over 50 insurers from your list, to help you find the best deal at the best price for your home - click here to begin!