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| How to Find the Best Household Insurance Cover |
If you are looking for house insurance, there are so many ways to go about it - direct to insurers, brokers or going online to view price comparison websites. So how do you whittle the choices down and decide which is the best household insurance cover for you?
We've put together a brief guide to help you through the minefield and give you the information needed to make an informed decision to get the best household insurance cover.
You need to work out exactly what your needs and requirements are so you can get the policy that is best for you, within your budget.
First of all you need to work out what amount of contents you need to insure. This should represent the full cost of replacing all of your home and outbuildings contents with brand new items. Go through your house, step by step and make a note of any high value items or rare items such as art work, antiques, jewellery and watches as these may need to be listed specifically on your insurance.
If you are looking to insure your buildings, then you need to work out the full cost to rebuild your home - this is not the same as the current market value of your property. If you are unsure of the amount, speak to your mortgage provide as they usually have this figure specified. If you don't have a mortgage in place, contact a surveyor who will be able to provide an accurate rebuild cost.
Home Insurance Options
Once you have calculated the contents and buildings sum insured, you need to decide what level of cover you want. There are a number of options to consider:
Accidental Damage - This provides additional cover for such accidental events that may occur in your property such as spilling red wine on a carpet. Accidental damage cover is usually an optional extension to a standard home insurance and may result in an additional charge on your insurance.
Personal Belongings Cover - If you take items away from your home, such as jewellery and watches or gadgets, you can extend your insurance cover to include these items outside your home. This can either be on a general basis, usually if they are under A1500 in value or specifically listed on the policy if they are over that amount. Its important to check with the insurance provider as each policy varies. Again will incur an additional cost as this is an optional extension.Legal Expenses Cover - If you need legal assistance for circumstances such as an employment dispute or a contractual dispute with a retailer, this will cover you for legal costs. In today's ever increasing litigious society, this has become a useful cover with a relatively small cost attached.
Excess - You have to pay the excess amount in the event of a claim. For example if you have a 250 excess and you make a claim for A750, the amount you will receive from the insurer is A500.
Insurers can often quote two types of excess - compulsory and voluntary - which are added together to provide a total excess make sure you are aware of the total excess payable. In addition check for individual excess against specific causes. For example escape of water excess has been recently increased by some insurers to A250.
Obtaining Quotes and Comparing the cover
Having done your homework and decided on the type and amount of cover you want, you now want to source the best policy to suit you. This is where you can go direct to an insurer, use a broker or go online to a price comparison site. Our recommendation is to speak to a specialist Independent Insurance Broker. Brokers are experts in the insurance market and will be able to advise you on the level of cover you require and talk you through any exclusions and warranties. A good broker will typically compare over 25 insurers and policies very much like a comparison website but with an expert eye.
If you decide to go direct to an insurer or use a comparison website, we recommend that you refer to the defaqto website. This site has a simple rating system and allows you to compare specific policies. We suggest you always to look for a 5 star rated policy.
So if you are looking for the best home insurance policy and want to speak to someone who can make sense of it all, please give us a call now on 01489 579808.