Deals

Although this is a question which we are often asked; as with any financial service, there is no one provider who has all the best deals, all of the time.

The company which offers you the best deal may not necessarily be the one which offers the best deal to your friend, neighbour, work colleague, or your relative. This is because each insurance company uses a process called risk assessment to work out the likelihood of you making a claim, based on a large number of different factors. 

As each insurance company calculates this in a different way, the range of quotes will vary greatly from one provider to another. However, there are certain general rules which should be taken into account:

1. When comparing policies, always make sure that you are comparing like with like – a certain provider’s quote may appear to be cheaper, but this may be because it is offering less cover, which may work out as a poorer deal when you have to make a claim.

2. Applying online will often get you a discount, sometimes in the form of a cash reduction (e.g. save £10 by applying online), or sometimes as a percentage discount. For example, Sainsbury's offers a 5% discount for all online home insurance applications.

3. If a number of people recommend a particular insurance company to you, by all means get a quote from the company. However, just because someone you know got a good deal from that particular firm, doesn't mean it will necessarily be the cheapest option for you, even if it offers you a renewal quote which is cheaper than your existing provider.

4. As with any other insurance product, we always recommend obtaining at least three quotes before accepting any home insurance policy.

5. Remember the law of diminishing returns when shopping around for home insurance deals. Your first quote may be 10% cheaper than your existing provider. Your second and third quotes may be slightly more or slightly less than this. If you were to get another ten quotes, you may only end up saving another £5 or £10 for the year's policy. As each quotation requires a number of questions to be answered, this process may end up taking you several hours.

6. Always ask yourself if this is really worth your time - as a general rule, our experience has shown that it is far easier to save money on your car insurance by shopping around than it is on your home insurance.

7. Remember how different factors will affect your premium. Obviously, some situations cannot be changed from one policy to the next – for example, you cannot change the postcode area you live in, except by moving house.  However, you can decide what level of contents cover you would like, what additional items you wish to insure, whether you are to insure new for old, or whether you require any additional services such as 24 hour emergency response. How much excess you're prepared to pay will also affect your premium. The more you can afford to pay upfront if you need to make a claim, the lower the premium will be.

8. Some insurers will give you a discount if you have an alarm fitted. However, the level of discount is much lower now than it used to be, and it will be a requirement of any policy that the alarm must be properly working, and set each time you leave the house.

9. If you cannot be 100% certain that the alarm will be set every time you go out, even if you just leave home for five minutes to buy a newspaper, then you should be careful about installing such a device and asking for a discount on your home insurance policy.

10. Don’t forget that all people in your household will need to remember to set it, including any teenage kids!