10 home insurance tips

Making sure you end up with the right home insurance policy to fit your needs and that you feel is cost-effective can be a time consuming and stressful business. The following tips should give you a bit of a head start

1. It's worth making sure that your house is fully protected with a pretty comprehensive range of security measures. A basic requirement is a mortice deadlock or rimlock that conforms to British standard 3621 but you should also seriously think about installing a NACOSS approved burglar alarm and joining a neighborhood watch scheme. The more secure your house the better chance you'll have of getting a 5-10% discount.

2. Don't let your home become one of the vast majority of houses in the UK that are underinsured. It's a good idea to ensure that your contents insurance is kept up to date.

3. Make sure you know what isn't covered by your home insurance policy. Although building insurance should cover more than simply the main building and potentially include any outbuildings such as garages as well as gates, patios, sheds and fences any of the above might not be incorporated so you'd be well advised to study the exclusions in your policy.

4. Lengthy periods away from your home might not be covered. If you plan on being away from your property for an extended period find out the maximum number of days it's covered for in your absence.

5. Find out if your home is at risk of flooding and make sure your home insurance policy offers adequate cover if you are. Writing this in the summer of 07 we've recently witnessed the havoc flooding can wreak and recent flood maps show an additional 300,000 homes in England and Wales are at risk, so do a bit of your own research to find out if you're affected.

6. The ‘reasonable care' clause means just that so do take care to look after your possessions by locking doors and windows and trying not to advertising your valuables.

7. Take note of your maximum single-item cover. This is the largest amount your insurer will pay out for one item. You'll need to insure anything worth much more than this individually.

8. Look out for combined building and contents policies. This will both save you time but could mean a discount. Don't just plump for a combined deal for convenience sake though; a good policy for contents could be teamed up with a less impressive deal for the building or vice-versa.

9. If you're after a quick money saving tip, think twice about paying for your home insurance with a direct debit, it's entirely possible you'll be charged up to 30% interest. A good alternative is to pay using a 0% purchases credit card. 10. Don't over-insure yourself; the sum should be the cost to rebuild rather than what the property is worth. In certain cases the insurer will only pay out the cost to rebuild anyway. A rebuild cost estimate should be pretty cheap and easy to come by so make sure you get it right.

Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/

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