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Brits wasting millions every year by letting their home insurance renew automatically

November 7, 2011 By Paul Roberts Leave a Comment
home-insurance

Homeowners in the UK are wasting millions every year by letting their home insurance renew automatically rather than shopping around to get a cheaper deal. According to a recent poll, Brits are wasting £667 million annually by simply letting their home cover renew without trying to find a cheaper quote elsewhere.

If you are one of the millions of UK home owners who allows their current provider renew their cover automatically, you could be wasting as much as £125 as a recent study found this is how much on average homeowners are losing out on as a result of letting renewals happen automatically.

According to research carried out by moneysupermarket.com, almost a third of respondents who took part in the poll admitted that they simply let their home insurance renew every year without checking for a cheaper quote through a price comparison website or broker.

11% of those who took part in the study revealed they simply couldn’t be bothered to shop around for a home insurance quote, while a fifth of those who responded to the survey said they didn’t act to get another quote as they didn’t believe they’d be able to find a cheaper deal elsewhere.

While a high number of home owners revealed that the convenience of simply letting their home insurance renew without having to a lift a finger was the main reason they didn’t shop around for a better deal. However insurance experts argue that £125 a year is a hefty price to pay for convenience, and if consumers were more aware of the savings that could be made, they may be more likely to ditch the automatic renewal and go in search of a better deal on their home insurance.

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Home insurance for the wealthy launched by Debrett’s

September 1, 2011 By Dawn Bickford Leave a Comment
debretts-logo

The authority on all matters of etiquette, Debrett’s, has revealed plans to launch a high end home insurance policy designed specifically for customers with property and contents worth more than the average.

Debrett’s will offer both home and contents cover with a team of experts who will assist each of their clients in order to tailor their policies to suit their exact needs. Anyone with home contents worth more than £75,000 can take out a policy with Debrett’s, the provider aims to offer comprehensive cover for items which are both unique and expensive.

If the worst does happen and these valuables are lost or stolen, Debrett’s will provide a designated team member to assist the client in helping to track down replacement items. Upon taking out a home insurance policy of any kind with Debrett’s, the customer will be allocated their own personal account manager who will be their point of reference each time they contact the provider.

The new comprehensive buildings cover from Debrett’s is available for anyone with property worth more than £1 million, with statistics revealing that some 135,000 properties in the UK have an estimated worth in this region and will therefore be eligible to take out a policy with Debrett’s.

If you’re looking for premium home insurance, take a look at the latest property insurance product on the market, courtesy of Debrett’s.

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Home insurance provider warning over home security this half term

February 15, 2011 By Paul Roberts Leave a Comment
facebook-update

Home insurance provider Swinton has warned home owners to be extra careful ahead of their half term break this February, and not to advertise their trip on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

As many families across the UK gear up for the first holiday of the year during February half term, Swinton is recommending that home owners ensure their home is well secured before embarking on their trip, and also advises against announcing their upcoming break on social media sites in case the information gets into the wrong hands.

There has been a steady rise in the number of over 40’s using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter over the last few years, and the danger with this is that people often like to share their holiday plans online, but this has a knock-on effect of advertising that their home will be empty, which leaves an open invitation to burglars.

A survey conducted by Swinton found that 22% of the 1,200 customers it polled had announced their holiday plans on a social network.

However the survey also found that 17% of those questioned had returned home from work to find that they had forgotten to lock their home properly, or set their alarm. The home insurer warns that if this occurred while the occupants were on holiday, it’s likely it would invalidate their insurance policy.

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Brits undervalue their home contents on insurance policies

January 19, 2011 By Samantha Lewis Leave a Comment
home-contents

A recent study by insurance provider Direct Line has suggested that as many as half of British home owners are undervaluing the contents in their property which could leave them severely out of pocket should your property be burgled, or damaged by flooding or fire.

Out of the estimated 50% of home owners who are underinsured, 26% are reported to under estimate the cost of their contents such as furniture, electrical goods and clothes. The average worth of home contents is in the region of £20,000, however many policyholders fail to take out cover up to this value.

However a further 20% of Brits fail to take out any form of home contents insurance policy at all, despite the fact that the average cost of contents for people in this group is £14,000.

4 in 10 home owners also fail to update their home contents insurance policy when they inherit items such as jewellery, ceramics, paintings or furniture from relatives.

When calculating the worth of your contents, the advice being given is to estimate how much it would cost you to replace all of your items should they all be wiped out by fire or flooding, and not to estimate how much your items are actually worth. Looking room by room at how much it would cost to replace each item will give a more accurate idea of how much home contents insurance you need.

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90% of home insurers increase content cover over Christmas

November 26, 2010 By Paul Roberts Leave a Comment
christmas-tree-with-presents

A recent report has shown that 90% of home insurance providers automatically increase the level of home contents insurance around the festive period so as to ensure policyholders have adequate cover for Christmas gifts stored at their property.

An independent research company carried out the study which found that 9 out of 10 home insurers temporarily increase the level of cover during the Christmas period. The cover is either increased by a specific amount between £1,000 and £25,000, or by a percentage increase of between 5% or 25%.

The aim of the automatic increase is to help protect against people being underinsured on their home contents policy. If expensive gifts such as TVs, game consoles, or laptops for example are being kept on the premises, this will push up the value of contents considerably.

Insurance companies are starting to react to special events such as Christmas and other religious celebrations and events by altering insurance cover around these times.

However insurance experts are advising policy holders to check their policy to ensure they receive the increase in contents cover during this time, as not all companies offer this automatically. Also the increase is temporary, and only lasts for a specific period both before and after Christmas, but again, this differs between insurance providers.

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Home insurance to protect your property as the cold weather bites

November 23, 2010 By Katrina Campbell Leave a Comment
broken-frozen-pipe

As the forecasts warn of increasingly cold weather and the risk of snow and ice, now is the time to check your home insurance is up to date as the winter weather can cause havoc for property owners.

During the cold weather which hit Britain in January 2010, insurance claims for burst water pipes increased by a massive 220% in just four weeks. Burst pipes as a result of plummeting temperatures were found to be the most common claim for home insurers during the winter months last year.

In some cases, the cost of repairing damage to a home following a burst water pipe can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, with damage being caused to ceilings, furniture, appliances and also personal belongings.

If you’re not planning to be at home for a few days during the winter, it’s a good idea to ask a friend or family member to take a look around your property to check everything is in order. It’s also advisable to check all exposed pipes outside are insulated to try and minimise the risk of it becoming damaged and bursting during freezing temperatures.

Home insurance experts advise policyholders to check their insurance covers them for long spells away from home if they are planning an extended trip over the Christmas or winter period.

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Buy-to-let landlords warned about the importance of insurance

July 15, 2010 By Dawn Bickford Leave a Comment
to-let-house-sign

Buy-to-let landlords have been warned about the importance of taking out adequate insurance on their home by one of the UK’s leading insurance comparison website moneysupermarket.com.

Whether you’re considering renting your home out as an investment, to make extra money, or because you’re unable to sell at the moment, you’ll need to take out specific insurance as your current home insurance policy won’t cover you once you start to make a profit from your property.

Figures quoted from last year by the insurance comparison website revealed that 1 in 3 landlords had a tenant in arrears, so it’s highly advisable that landlords take out cover in order to protect themselves against financial losses.

However the good news is landlords can protect themselves against loss of rent by taking out an annual insurance policy costing as little as £93 a year. More expensive policies, starting at approximately £134 a year, will also provide cover for legal expenses, including incidents which could arise as a result of a repossession, tenant default and also debt recovery.

The best way to search for affordable home insurance policies for landlords is to visit an insurance price comparison website where you can compare a range of different policies from leading insurers in one place.

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Survey reveals 1 in 5 households fail to take out contents insurance for their home

June 8, 2010 By Samantha Lewis Leave a Comment
home-contents

According to a recent survey conducted by one of the UK’s leading insurers, Swinton, 1 in 5 households are failing to take out contents insurance.

Insurers warn that these individuals could face a hefty bill to replace items within their home should they fall victim to a burglary, or if their home was damaged as a result of fire or flooding.

The poll questioned 2,573 online Swinton customers and found that 18% of those involved in the survey didn’t have home contents insurance. When asked why they hadn’t taken out cover on their home contents, a variety of reasons were uncovered, the most common being, it’s too expensive. 32% said they simply hadn’t got round to it, while 16% argued that it isn’t a legal requirement, with 7% saying they thought it was too complicated.

With the average household owning £28,000 worth of contents, insurers say not covering your possessions is a risk you really can’t afford to take.

Everything in your home should be taken into consideration when estimating the worth of household contents, from the vacuum cleaner, to musical instruments, clothes, shoes, and your TV. Insurance companies recommend that you estimate the worth of your contents as accurately as possible as if you over value your possessions, you could face unnecessarily high insurance premiums.

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