Most of us have spent more time at home than ever in this last year, and it’s made many people realise the value of home insurance. But that doesn’t mean anyone wants to pay more for it than they need to. Good value for money and peace of mind are high priorities.

So what can you do to keep the cost of your home insurance as low as possible? How can you get the best value on your premium? Here are a few idea –

Value your property

It’s very common for homeowners to overvalue their house as they use the market value to estimate its current price. However, you should essentially be looking at how much it would cost to rebuild your house, minus the land cost.

A chartered surveyor can help with this. Or you can use the calculator available at scsi.ie to work out the value of your home more accurately.

Check before you renew

When it comes to renewing your annual home insurance, check all of the details – don’t just automatically assume everything is the same. Contents, needs and circumstances may have changed and it could be that your insurance premium will be lower because of that.

Give accurate contents values

When you are either getting a new home insurance policy or renewing an existing policy, you should be as accurate as possible with contents valuations. If you over value contents your premium will be driven up, but you won’t benefit from higher payouts if items are damaged or stolen. Your insurer will only pay out for what they deem them to be worth.

Equally, don’t undervalue contents in the hope of a cheaper premium, because you will also lose out if you need to make a claim.

Consider increasing your excess

If you can, think about increasing your voluntary excess on your home insurance. This can make a big difference to your yearly or monthly payments. The excess is the amount you pay when making a claim, whilst your insurer covers the rest of the cost.

You need to consider your circumstances and work out if, in the event of making a claim, you will be able to make up the extra payment at the time. It may be that you can afford to save less than the difference when you change your excess, leaving you a little extra in your pocket each month!

Pay for the year

If you can afford to pay your annual home insurance upfront, this will also save you money in the long run. This is because you are also paying interest on top of your insurance payments when you choose to pay monthly.

You may even get a discount from your home insurer when you pay up front, so it’s worth asking for the best quote on paying upfront.

Check for additional discounts

As well as a potential discount on paying upfront, you may also be entitled to discounts on fees if you have more than one insurance policy with an insurer. For example, if you already have car insurance with an insurer, it may be worth checking out their quotes compared to others and to factor in any loyalty discounts.

Keep your home safe

Any additional measures you have taken to keep your home safe, especially from burglary, can drive down your home insurance premiums. Fitting house alarms and additional locks are good examples of extra safety and can lower your payments.

Of course, you can always talk to Britton Insurance about your home insurance and your premiums. We are happy to shop for the best price for your circumstances and we aim to bring you the most competitive quotes.

Have a chat with us to discuss your needs and disclose as much information to us as possible, then we can find you the most accurate home insurance quote.