We are all concerned about our bills at the moment, so today I thought I would look at how to get cheaper home insurance.
If you own your own home, either with a mortgage or outright then you’ll need home insurance. While it isn’t a legal requirement, it is a condition of most mortgage lenders and is generally a sensible thing to have.
Like car insurance, most people renew their home insurance each year. This enables them to take advantage of an additional year of no-claims bonuses and often find a better deal.
Are you looking to reduce the cost of home insurance? Here are my tips for getting a better deal.
Never Auto Renew Your Home Insurance
Although companies are no longer allowed to offer a better deal to new customers, that doesn’t mean the price of your existing policy wont go up.
Never let your policy auto-renew and make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to ring up and cancel.
Start Looking For A New Deal Four Weeks Before Yours Runs Out
The best time to start looking for a new policy is around four weeks before your current one is due to end. This should be when you’re able to find the cheapest deals.
Always Use A Comparison Website
When it comes to finding a cheap home insurance deal, comparison websites are the best place to start, with the most popular being Compare the Market, Go Compare and Money Supermarket.
One of the good things about these websites is they save all of your details so it’s really easy to go back each year and find another good deal.
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Check Direct
If you want to make sure you really are getting the absolute cheapest deal possible on your home insurance, you’ll need to check in with insurance providers that aren’t on comparison sites such as Churchill and Direct Line.
In my experience, these have never been cheaper when I’ve checked, but It’s always worth a try as everyone’s circumstances are different.
Weigh Up The Cost Of Any Benefits
Some comparison sites offer rewards for taking out a policy through their site. While it can be tempting to look for the absolute cheapest deal possible, you’ll need to weigh up whether these rewards might be worth paying a few extra pounds for.
A prime example of this is ComapreTheMarket.com which offers both Meerkat Meals (2-for-1 meals) and Meerkat Movies (2-for-1 cinema tickets) for a whole year when you take out a policy with them.
Personally, I’d be happy to pay a little bit extra as the free food and cinema tickets savings would far outweigh spending a few extra quid on my home insurance.
Double Check Your Details
Doing life admin can be pretty boring and if you have your details saved on the big comparison sites it can be easy to breeze through and not really think about whether or not they need updating.
But there are things in here that could affect the cost of your home insurance. Always update how many years no claims you have and factor in other things too, like whether you’ve had any large trees close to the property removed.
Make Sure You Can Afford The Excess
Increasing the excess on your policy can make it cheaper, but make sure this is an amount that you are certain you would be able to afford should anything happen.
The whole point of insurance is to avoid being out of pocket when something goes wrong, so a few extra a month might be worth it to avoid a higher excess.
How To Get Cheaper Home Insurance – Final Thoughts
I hope these tips help you find cheaper home insurance when it comes to renewal time. It’s worth mentioning that you should always read the Ts&Cs of any policy that you choose to take out and ensure that you have adequate cover for your home.
