Household One:
Small family from two childless individuals in the early middle age, owners of the two-roomed early twentieth terraced house located in one of the main streets of Swansea. It is a home, which is occupied throughout the day and night Moreover the total of items within the home is £30,000. In none of the categories does any single item cost more than $1000.
1.Swinton Essentials
Swinton features an appealing policy at reasonable price and enjoys high clients’ satisfaction. For a further £29.99 legal assistance can be included and for £49.99 there is cover for home emergencies. However, an accidental damage cover is not on the menu.
Pros: Lower premium, the option of extending the package cover
Cons: More excess, no choice of accidental damage insurance
2.So-Sure
In light of all this, So-Sure offers good value of a very high level of cover. Additional legal aid services can be included in the service for £21.72 additional annually. The policy also comes with a low standard excess of £250 for claims but does not extend a cover to accidental damage and emergencies in the home.
Pros: No compulsory excess and the option to add legal protection.
Cons: The loss adjuster then pointed out to me that there is no accidental damage cover, no cash cover
Household Two:
For this investigation, a target family consists of a couple with two children living in a suburban area of Leicester in a typical 1960s three-bedroom semi-detached house. The policyholders are the mid 40s and leave the home unoccupied during the day. Total value of the content is £ 50000 and none of the contents has a value of more than £1000 for a single item.
1.Adrian Flux
When it comes to contents insurance, the cheapest quote comes from Adrian Flux with a measly £100 excess. Legal aid is available at an additional charge of £13 Counseling and home emergency policy can be taken at £29.99. The customer satisfaction of the insurer is also good it has received 4.3 stars out of 5 on the Trustpilot.
Pros: Lowest price, low excess, affordable add-on legal cover for £13
Cons: The key cover is that extra price, getting rid of the accidental damage cover
2.So-Sure
A good all-round, comprehensive provider with a low premium and no compulsory excess. The base level of excess is £250, and including legal help coverage with the policy costs £21.72 per annum. However, optional features such as accidental damage or home emergency are among the policy features missing.
Pros: Excess for each claim $2500, legal assistance covers optional
Cons: No pounds sterling and no policy’s elements, no accidental damage, and home emergency cover
3.Swinton Essentials
Swinton offers adequate protection to its clients with its policy, the Essentials. However total excess for claims is £350 out of which £250 is voluntary excess expenses. It is awarded a Fairer Finance rating of 64 % which is a good customer rating.
Pros: Configurations that are available with the product include the ability to add legal and home emergency cover at a competitive price.
Cons: Increased excess of £350 on claims
Household Three:
This is a family house which is now occupied by a couple of elderly people, their ages are about the same as sixty-seven, they live in the North Berwick, Scotland, in the house which was built in 1920 and has six bedrooms. The total value to be covered is one hundred and five thousand United States Dollars and all contents are of ‘limited value’, limited to one thousand United States Dollars per content.
1.Tesco Bank
Tesco Bank has a cheap policy with a good customer approval rating by Fairer Finance where however the excess is £350. Additional services available for policyholders are legal expenses for £24.90 and home emergency for £44.50.
Pros: £500 cash back, good reputation of the customer
Cons: £350 excess on claims
2.M&S Bank
The M&S Bank offers a superior-premium rate and has optimized the aspect of customer satisfaction. Legal assistance cover costs £28 and home emergency cover costs £40 but accidental damage cover is excluded. M&S standard home policies provide automatic contents insurance up to £100,000 so there is no requirement to state the value. Also, this policy protects empty homes for up to 90 days while the regular policy guarantees only 30 days.
Pros: New for old cover up to £100 000, unused residence protection up to 90 days, highly satisfied customers.
Cons: Compared to some rivals,. the excess is higher.
3.Swinton Essentials
Swinton presents a decent, fairly priced policy and has good customer relations ratings. Legal assistance can be taken as an extra for £29.99 and home emergency for £49.99. But it is customizable and unfortunately, accidental damage cover can’t be added.
Pros: Low cost, ability to add extra coverage, smiles from customers.
Cons: Higher excess on claims
Methodology
A general quote check was performed for home insurance comparisons based on three different household profiles in June 2023 using our tool. Quotes were for contents only with no accidental damage and personal possessions included in the contents insurance quote.
We provided quotations with the £250 voluntary excess preference, although some firms reverted to a lower excess when supplying their costs. The excess is what is taken from a claims payout. Compulsory and voluntary excess are evident in definitions of the overall excess amounts in our examples. Usually, it is possible to effect a lower premium cost by attaching a higher voluntary excess.
Quotes were run with coverage to start in three weeks from the search date since this is believed to be the optimal time for getting the best deal for car and home insurance.
To get some idea of customer experience, we used data from either Fairer Finance June 2023 or Trustpilot June 2023, depending on where the insurer featured.
Here are further details and assumptions made for each household:
Household One: Employees are a non-smoker couple in their’30s in the marketing field working from home. On the cover, bikes, laptops, and anything not at home are not considered. No accidental damage cover was included. There is a five-lever mortice deadlock on the main door, no patio doors, and only one smoke detector. Currently, there is no burglar alarm or neighborhood watch scheme in operation. They have 5 years of no-claims Experience.
Household Two: Policyholders are a non-smoking couple in their fourth decade of age, both work at school, and during the day they are not at home. It may exclude bikes, laptops, and items not in the home, and has no accidental damage cover. The main door has a five-lever mortice deadlock, there’s no patio door at all and there are two smoke alarms. As for security, there is no burglar alarm or neighborhood watch scheme in place. They have five years of no claims.
Household Three: Policyholders are a non-smoking retired couple in their early sixties and the main policyholder works as a company director. People are found in the home at any one time of the day or night. Excluded from the cover are bikes, laptops, and items not at home and there is no cover for accidental damage. There is a five-lever mortice lock on the main door, no pivot or French doors as well as one cannot find the Patio doors and there are three smoke detectors installed. They also do not have a burglar alarm or neighborhood watch scheme. They claim to have five years of no claims.
Ways to Lower the Price of Home Content Insurance
- Compare Insurers: Do not allow your home contents policy to automatically renew. It is advisable to compare various home insurance policies before your renewal date, at the market. It could help you locate a cheaper one, and thus switching insurers would save you a few bucks. It only takes a few minutes to compare policies and most of the information regarding your existing coverage is accessible through your insurer’s website.
- Negotiate with Your Insurer: If you have been given a renewal quote but discovered other policies offering lower prices, don’t hesitate to contact your existing insurer and request them to address the issue, offering a quote that is at least in par with that of competitors. If implemented it can assist in lowering the current premium you are paying without having to change your insurance company.
- Consider Combined Buildings and Contents Cover: For someone who has to insure his/her residence, it is always cheaper to get a single buildings and contents insurance than go for two different policies. Not only will this save you money, but you will streamline things so you only have to renew this once a year. However, never get locked into a combined policy without comparing it with the price of buying the policies separately.
- Time It Right: Other sources on the internet indicate that it is always wise to shop for your home insurance policy 3 to 4 weeks before the expiry of your current policy. It also means that the price may go up towards the end of your search because insurance providers always expect you to rush into a purchase. Often, prices are lower when insurers are still fighting for your patronage because you shopped early.
- Avoid Over-Insuring: You don’t want to pay for insurance that you may not necessarily require, do you? Some insurers request for the total value of your home contents (“the sum insured”). Disbursement of fair value makes it possible to avoid overcharging by servicing the accurate market price evaluation proportion of your belongings.
- Increase Your Excess: A standard policy may have a compulsory excess between £50 and £250 but to cut off their premium you can opt for a voluntary excess of £500. Remember though that you will have to pay a larger chunk of your money in case of a claim.
- Skip the Add-On Extras: Accidental damage, home emergency, and personal possessions are other add-ons that bring the total price of your policy. On the other hand, if you do not require these or other additional features or you can afford to be a high-risk driver without them then stripping through these features may help to reduce your premium.
- New-for-Old vs. Indemnity Cover: Some policies offer the replacement of lost, stolen, or damaged articles on a new-for-old basis, therefore you will be provided with a new item. On the other hand, indemnity cover reimburses the current price of items with an allowance for their depreciated value. Even though one may be cheaper than the other, there is often far less protection with an indemnity policy. If you are willing to take this risk then indemnity cover is the best way to cut costs.
- Enhance Home Security: There may be ways of getting a discount on your insurance and one of them is to boost your home security. This may involve having an intruder alarm fitted or upgraded, having approved locks fitted, or becoming involved in the neighborhood watch scheme.
- Pay Annually: While comparing the two plans it has been observed that paying the amount annually is cheaper to the one paying monthly.
- Cheapest Isn’t Always Best: In comparing the insurance policies it is necessary to study such criteria as the level of insurance, the amount of the insurance excess, and possible restrictions or prohibitions. But although you may find it cheap to be insured with a certain company, it could definitely not cover what you need it to.
