A Step by Step Guide to Buying the Best Household Insurance Cover

There are so many insurers, brokers and price comparison websites, not including the odd fluffy animal, offering household insurance cover, but how do you decide which is the best household insurance cover for you?

Our guide to the best household insurance cover will help you through the minefield and provide you with the information needed to make an informed decision.

Initially you must be specific as to your needs and requirements, from that point you can source the best policy (within your budget).

The first step is to calculate your contents sum insured – in terms of contents this should represent the full cost of replacing your entire home contents with brand new items. Our free valuation guide will help you calculate this figure:

Calculate Your Contents with our Valuation Guide

Make a note of any items of high value or rarity such as art work, jewellery and watches as these may need to be specifically insured.

If you require buildings insurance, the sum to be insured should be the full cost to rebuild your home, this figure is usually specified and calculated by your mortgage provider, or if the property is free from a mortgage, a surveyor will provide an accurate rebuilding cost.

Home Insurance Options

Once you have calculated these figures you need to decide what cover you want as there are a number of options to consider, these include:

Accidental Damage – providing additional cover for such events as spilling paint or red wine on a carpet. Accidental damage cover is an optional extension to a standard home insurance and results in an additional charge.

Personal Belongings Cover – cover can be extended for items taken away from your home either on a general basis or specific named items such as jewellery and watches. Typically items only need to be named over £1500 in value, however each policy varies so check with the insurance provider. Again this is an optional extension which will incur an additional cost.

Legal Expenses Cover – this will provide you with legal assistance for various situations including an employment dispute or a contractual dispute with a retailer. In today’s society this is becoming a useful cover which has a very small cost attached.

Excess – this is the first amount that you agree to pay in the event of a claim. For example if you make a claim for £750 and you have a £250 excess, the amount you will receive from the insurer is £500.

Make sure you check the total excess payable as insurers often have two types of excess – compulsory and voluntary – these are added together to provide a total excess.

In addition specifically check if there is an increased escape of water excess as recently some insurers have increased this excess by £250.

Obtaining Quotes and Comparing the best household insurance cover

Once you have made a decision on the type of cover you want you need to source the best policy for your needs, our recommendation is to use a specialist Independent Insurance Broker. They have an in depth knowledge of the insurance market and will be able to talk you through any exclusions and warranties. They typically compare 25 insurers and policies much in the same way as a comparison website.

However if you decide to deal directly with an insurer or via a comparison website the best way to compare cover is via the defaqto website. This site allows you to compare specific policies and they have a simple rating system. Our recommendation is always to look for a 5 star rated policy.

You can compare cover with defaqto by clicking here: http://www.defaqto.com/home/