Sainsbury's launches new home insurance offers
New research from Sainsbury's home insurance estimates that the average cost of running a home is now around £11,360.70, and to help people protect their properties and their purse strings, Sainsbury's Finance is launching a new home insurance offering that will enable Sainsbury's shoppers to not only save on their cover, but also their Sainsbury's shopping and petrol.
Sainsbury's Finance believes its new product launch has come at an opportune time for home owners because market premiums have been increasing as a result of harsh winters and recent storms and its research reveals that 72% of people plan to shop around for more competitive home insurance. However, over a quarter (27%) of people have been with their current home insurance provider for between three and six years and 12% - some 4.65 million people - have been with them for seven years or more.
In addition to this, 1.5 million people have their buildings home insurance with their mortgage provider because they wrongly believe that they had to take their cover, or they felt it was the only way to secure their mortgage. A further 2.83 million people have their home insured with their lender because they made it easy for them to do this.
Worryingly, the supermarket bank's research also indicates that because of the rising cost of living, 1.47 million people have cancelled their buildings cover or plan to do so. The corresponding figure for home contents insurance is 1.94 million people. The key expenditure on the estimated average annual cost of running a home, at around £11,360.7, includes around £6,500 on mortgages, £1,439 on council tax and £1,108 on home alterations and improvements.
Ben Tyte, Head of Sainsbury's home insurance said: "The rising cost of living means that many people are looking to cut back on their home insurance. We spend thousands of pounds each year running our homes and have often invested even more money furnishing them. Yet, so many people have been putting this investment at risk by cutting back on their home insurance."
There are two new levels of Sainsbury's home insurance to choose from and Sainsbury's shoppers with a Nectar card will receive a discount of up to 15% on their premiums. Those customers taking out Sainsbury's Premier Cover Home Insurance will earn double Nectar points on their Sainsbury's shopping for two years - the equivalent of up to 2% off their bills. For a customer regularly spending £100 a week, the value of the Nectar points would be £104 a year which is equivalent to 49% of the average combined building and contents home insurance premium.
In addition to this, between now and 4th June 2012, customers can receive 12 months cover for the price of nine on Sainsbury's buildings, contents and combined buildings and contents insurance. Also, new home insurance customers can obtain a 20% discount if they buy online.
Ben continued: "In these difficult times, we're delighted to be able to offer the Sainsbury's shopper a very attractive discount on their home insurance premiums and the ability to save money on their shopping in store and also on their fuel at Sainsbury's petrol stations.
"We believe our Premier Cover is one of the best home insurance offerings on the market, so Sainsbury's shoppers can be safe in the knowledge that their home and contents are protected. As well as being among the minority who offer home emergency and legal expenses cover as standard and one of only a few (8.3%) to offer unlimited buildings cover, many rival policies cannot match our level of contents cover at £100,000 and the majority carry a lower level of single item cover."
Both products, Sainsbury's Home Insurance and Sainsbury's Premier Cover Home Insurance, offer a wide range of benefits and cover.
The cost of running a home
Although there have been significant increases in the price of gas and electricity, over the past two years interest rates on mortgages have fallen. For example, research from Sainsbury's Home Insurance reveals that the average best-buy mortgages in November 2009 was 4.5% higher than November 2011.
Ben continued: "Many people wrongly assume they won't be able to beat their renewal quote, but home insurance is a very competitive market and with discounts and rewards like ours, all homeowners should shop around to ensure that they have competitive premiums.
"Good quality home insurance doesn't have to be expensive. You can have comprehensive cover at a fair and competitive price."