How To Buy Home Insurance by Finance News Bulletin

Published: 30/11/07

It was a break off pan fire, three days before Christmas, and it put the entire kitchen alight As the entire family waited outside for the fire engine to arrive, surveillance the flames defeat up the walls, my mother suddenly almost involuntarily made a move to run back into the burning building "My house My house is on fire down

" she wept as we detained her backImagine all your worldly possessions all of them being destroyed before your eyes and you might be able to get a sense of how my mother felt at that instantLuckily, the fire engine arrived quickly and no one was harm The entire kitchen had been destroyed, however, and burn had blacked out every single wall

Until this point, I had never seen the need for or the value of -- house insurance, in action, so to speak And since then, I have naturally been a big fanIt seems to me that, if you care about your home and your belongings (and who doesn't), house insurance will provide you with peace of mind, if nothing else

And that is well worth a few hundred pounds a yearBut how do you distinguish a good house insurance policy from a bad one And how do you keep the costs of your premiums down Here are my eight top tips:1

Unlimited cover Some insurers will ask you to approximation the value of all your belongings and the cost of rebuilding your property If you undervalue this figure (which, after all, is very difficult to work out, the insurer will then refuse to disburse out the full cost of replacing any items/rebuilding the property if you make a maintain So look for a good policy that offers unlimited wrap, given as standard by insurers such as Abbey or Halifax

This ensures the price of replacing your house or possessions is guaranteed to be paid out in full (although, on the contents insurance rule, there is probable to be a £1,500 limit on individual items)2 Emergency repairs cover Some insurers provide house emergency repairs cover

This will disburse for the cost of fixing your tank in an emergency, for example (however, it is possible to buy this cover unconnectedly from companies such as Homecall+)3 Christmas wrap increase You won't feel much like celebrating this Christmas if all your aid were stolen and your insurer refused to replace them

So if you put on't choose a policy with unlimited cover, make certain you go with an insurer that will automatically increase your height of cover over the cyclic holidays4 No claims discount If you have a no claims history, look for an insurer that will present you a no claims discount

1 Make your possessions safer According to Tesco Personal Finance, fitting a thief alarm will reduce your premium by around 75%, connecting the alarm up to the law enforcement network will shave off a further 5% and appropriate your windows and doors with high quality locks will also slash your premiums by approximately 5%

2 Purchase both buildings and contents cover from the same provider Insurers such as Halifax and Esurecom will discount your premium if you take out both cover types from them

Also, look out for discounts for holding several policies with the same insurer intended for example, Halifax will give you a discount if you take out travel insurance as well as house insurance)3 Opt for a higher voluntary excess This will decrease your yearly premiums, but do bear in mind however that you will have to pay out more should you have to make a claim

4 Purchase your policy on the internet Providers often reduction their internet quotations as there are less managerial costs through this channelAs for me, in case you were wondering, my story does have a happy ending

My priest -- a great believer in insuring everything -- had in use out both buildings and contents cover, and the insurer covered the costs of putting everything back the way it wasSo it all worked out fine for them in the finish, although, thank goodness, Mum didn't bother to replace the chip pot She bought a fire coverlet and a fire extinguisher instead

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