If you’re looking to save money on your home insurance this year, it makes sense to shop around. Home insurance is important to keep your property safe, but it can be hard to find the best value policy. Check out our useful tips for getting the best deals.
Shop Around
Often, people simply renew their existing policy or, if they are buying a new home, they take out insurance via their mortgage provider. This may be easy and convenient, but it isn’t necessarily the best value. Make sure you shop around for other policies before committing.
Increase Your Excess
The excess is the amount that you commit to paying on any future claims that you make and the higher your excess, the lower your insurance premium. You will need to find the balance between how much you could afford to pay and how much a larger voluntary excess will save you.
Combine Your Cover
Homeowners need home and contents insurance. You may need to renew other insurance policies, too, such as high-value items or vehicles. The more policies you can combine, the better deal you are likely to get from your insurance provider.
Be Honest
It may seem like a good idea to undervalue your property and contents, but if you are not realistic about the values, you won’t be covered. If you need policy extras, make sure you add them to your policy; failure to do so may save a little money now, but could cost you a lot in the future.
Don’t Overestimate
Home insurers will ask you to provide the cost of rebuilding your home. Don’t just enter the current value of your property as that value includes the land that your house stands on, too. If you need to rebuild your home, you won’t have to buy the land again, so the rebuild cost will be considerably less than the value of your home. A surprisingly high number of homeowners pay too much insurance because they are over-insured on rebuild costs.
Choose Annual Payments
Paying by monthly direct debit is easy and convenient, but it costs more in the long run. If you can afford to, pay annually and save money.
Think Before You Claim
Making small claims can have a dramatic effect on your insurance premium. So try not to claim for smaller items; having a larger excess will help you to avoid this. As you build your no claims bonus, you will be able to get cheaper home insurance.
If you have done all of the above, there are minor home improvements you can make to further reduce your home insurance. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for more advice on reducing your insurance premium.