Find a better deal on home insurance

In these economically difficult times, we’ve all got to do what we can to reduce our regular outgoings. One easy way to kick-start savings on household bills is by looking at how much you’re spending on home insurance. Unless you actually need to make a claim following a theft or some kind of damage occurring, home insurance is one of those things you don’t really give much thought, apart from when you get a renewal letter telling you your policy is going up a little bit next year (it never seems to go down!)

When that letter arrives, most people are too busy with the stuff of life to think about it and as the premium is usually taken directly from your bank account, you don’t tend to pay much attention to it. This apathy on the customers’ side is part of most insurers’ business models – if the bill only goes up a little extra per year, most of us won’t bother searching around for a better deal, so we just end up paying more year on year.

In fact, though, if you can be bothered to do just a little research on home insurance costs, you could end up making a significant annual saving. And with the existence of websites like http://homeownersinsurance.com that research has become a lot easier and quicker to do. All you need to do on a price comparison website is to put all your details in just one time, and the search will bring up a range of different home insurance options for you. No need to call around to get comparative quotes – the website does it all for you.

When you get the results of a home insurance quote search, it’s important to read the small print that comes with each quote. This way you get to make sure you would get the same amount of cover from each insurer, and therefore that the comparisons are accurate.

Some insurers will include optional extras as part of a quote, so you should check whether this is the case on any of the prices you’ve been given. Extras that you don’t have to have on a home contents insurance policy vary – the main ones are home emergency cover, accidental damage cover and personal possessions cover. Although these may increase the cost of your insurance, they do offer potential benefits.

Home emergency cover

An unexpected home emergency can end up costing you a small fortune. Say, for example, if the boiler stops working in the middle of winter, there’s no way around it – you have to get it repaired or replaced as quickly as possible. Home emergency cover means that the insurers will arrange for a qualified tradesman to come out and deal with your home emergency within a short time frame and will cover the costs of his labour and parts – up to a ceiling amount.

Accidental damage cover

Usually worth considering if you have young kids in the house! If items are damaged by the insured person or one of their family members, normal contents cover will not replace these items. But if you have accidental damage cover, you’re covered for those minor mishaps that could be costly – like a glass of red wine spilt on a cream carpet, or a family heirloom being knocked over during a kids’ game.

Personal possessions cover

Home contents cover doesn’t cover your possessions when you take them out of the home. So if something like your bike, camera or phone gets stolen away from the home it will only be insured if you’ve taken out personal possessions cover. It’s an easy way of protecting those portable items that you tend to leave the home with.

While each of these additional options on home insurance has benefits, each will add to the total premium cost. It’s up to each individual to weigh up whether leaving these off your policy in order to reduce the annual cost is a risk worth taking.