Martin Lewis on How to Choose Home Insurance

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your home insurance bill comes up every

year and it's easy to leave it and let

it roll over with an auto renew so the

company can sit there with an even

knowing it can take you for granted and

charge you far more than if you were to

search the market as a new customer so

if your home insurance has just come

through the door and the renewal is

there what do you need to do

first of all let's establish exactly

what cover you should be getting well

there's buildings insurance and contents

insurance buildings is generally only

needed by those who own the freehold to

a property the easiest way to think

about it well here is a glass full of

polos but the general rule of thumb is

if you were able to turn your house

upside down everything that falls its

contents

everything that stays is buildings now

two quick tips about how much you should

cover when it comes to buildings

insurance many people over cover because

they look at how much their property is

worth it's worth three hundred thousand

pounds and they ensure the market value

but that includes your location or you

actually need to insure the buildings is

the rebuild value literally how much it

would cost to rebuild the property if it

were knocked down that can be a lot

lower which means your costs are lower

when it comes to contents thus in many

people make there is to under ensure

I'll give you an example you've got

twenty twenty-five thousand pounds worth

of contents in your house sounds a lot

it isn't when you add everything up

you've got a television that costs a

thousand pounds that has a problem with

it that you're claiming on the house

insurance

you've only insured ten thousand pounds

or you're thinking I'm never gonna claim

over ten grand that's not a problem I'll

keep it low you go you make the claim

they send round someone to examine it he

says hold on you've ensured less than

half of your contents value I'm gonna

pay you out less than half of the

televisions value they pay you pro rata

compared to the actual amount you've

insured so under insuring can mean you

get paid less on plate

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first of all go to a comparison site but

not just one comparison site combine

them different sites search different

insurers to give you the wider spread in

the shortest amount of time you want to

use two or three what I would do is I've

open all the windows at once and then

cut and paste your answers across from

them to see who's going to come out

cheapest but always check for

assumptions at the end once you've done

that what you need to do is check the

big insurers that comparison sites don't

include specifically Aviva and direct

line once you've done that double check

the policies truly suitable for you

don't just go on price make sure the

quality adds up a final note on this

comparison sites are great for people

with normal circumstances but if you

have counter normal circumstances you

have a flood issue or something

different about you or your house you're

probably better than going to a broker

for a one-on-one bespoke consultation

if you're happy with your existing

insurer once you know the cheapest price

from elsewhere why not take it to them

and see if they'll price match it they

can and will do you'll tend to find many

insurance companies when you call them

up their staff are allowed to drop by a

certain amount if you ask them so ask

them then there's also the option of

going to get your insurance at very cash

back site now many people do this the

wrong way around I'm talking the likes

of top cashback or quit Co they go there

first to see who'll give the biggest

cashback that doesn't work find who your

cheapest insurer is or perhaps your

cheapest three insurers and then see how

much cash back you can get see the

cashback as an additional bonus if you

get it not as the core but when you

bring this all together and it works

well the cheapest result I've ever had

on a home insurance from someone

following my full system which you can

get at money-saving expert comm forward

slash home insurance is to be paid to

get their home insurance it was roughly

that their insurance was 60 pounds and

they got a hundred pound cash back in

other words they were up forty quid for

getting home insurance not everyone's

going to be able to do that but if you

really nail this down home insurance can

actually make you look perfect on

occasion

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