Comparing house insurance. What to look for?

[HarrietJ0nes]

I'm looking at contents and buildings. Currently £25/£45 and I've found some at £38 for both. I can't see obvious differences but any suggestions?

The best ones were Endsleigh and Axa if anyone has any info on them!

The main things to check are the amount covered (building and contents), what categories are excluded, whether legal fees are included and how much of an excess is required.

I'm with axa as they were cheapest for me - has £100 excess and cover for accidental damage for both buildings/contents - I pay for the full year as it works out cheaper than paying monthly (this year we paid £290 for the year which is around £24 per month). I used the price comparison websites to get quotes.

Ours is coming up at £400+ currently paying£700+

Not only did I look at price of insurance I looked at the quality of the product on this website www.defaqto.com/star-ratings/home-insurance

Also look at whether things like accidental damage, flooding etc are covered. Some insurers are excluding a lot of things these days.

FYI it's well worth checking to see if you can click through insure. I use one of the comparison sites to find the cheapest then go to Topcashback and click through from there - got £75 back on my AA insurance in February and it's free to join so you may as well if you are going to buy it anyway. (Other cashback sites are available, don't buy on the basis of cashback or other incentives, get the right cover for your needs and other responsible caveats go here).

If you can afford a high excess you can really drive the cost down. Have to say though, we have NFU Mutual insurance which is really excellent coverage and it's not more expensive than the competition but that may be because we have some high value things insured.

10 things you need to know about home insurance may be useful. :)

Check what is covered and when and where said things are covered.

E.g. We checked ours when renewing to ensure that bikes were covered (we have six) as the man on the phone said, then rechecked the smaller print to discover they were only covered in the house.

We changed provider. Better cover and cheaper!

Thanks.