Anyone receiving their home insurance bills recently should notice that most insurance bills are increasing quite considerably. We have seen increases of 30% to over 60% in some cases over the last few months. Increases are mainly due to the very bad weather conditions around the country over the past year such as the coldest winter in over 60 years and flooding prior to that. Following bad weather, with the high volume of insurance claims, insurance companies increase their premiums to cover the costs.
Is there anything you can do? It can be difficult to stop these increases as all insurance companies in the market are affected and all tend to increase their premiums at the same time. But you can try to minimise any increase as much as possible by shopping around with various companies, which is so easy to do on price comparison websites.
If you use a broker, make sure your broker does their job and compares your insurance with all the insurers in the market so you obtain the best deal. Ask your broker do they deal with all insurance companies and ask them to tell you what companies they do not deal with, as these companies might be the cheapest. Remember that your insurance company is legally obliged to give you 15 working days notice prior to your renewal date to allow you ample time to shop around.
The insurance industry don’t value loyalty by offering better discounts to long term customers so don’t be afraid to move company from year to year. Some companies do offer additional discounts if you have several insurance policies with them such as your home and car insurance with them. These discounts are worth checking out as they are usually a percentage of the overall cost.
Check that your buildings insurance is covered at the relevant value as this figure can be higher than required. Insurance companies tend to increase this value each year to allow for inflation but as the cost of building has decreased over the past 2 years, most people discover that they are paying for too much insurance cover. Ask your broker or check online for the rebuild cost per square foot for where you live and the type of house you live in and multiply this by the estimated square footage of your house. You should check your contents insurance also as your contents cover may have been increased by the insurance company to allow for inflation.
But to be on safe side, you should budget this year for an increase in your home insurance and any savings will be a bonus.
Article provided by Eamonn O'Connor from Home Payments Ltd

