Home Insurance Q's

[UpTheIron]

Got my home insurance renewal through recently...typical Direct Line, trying to charge me 50% more (as an existing customer) than they would a new customer.

The reality is that as I insure my cars with Direct Line, they are likely to be my best bet due to the discounts for multiple policies.

However, whilst 'playing' with their online quote engine it got me thinking about how much contents insurance I should get...

Their default quote offers something like £25k, however last year I was insured for £60k contents and probably still under-insured.

What do others do? How do you value your home contents? When I worked for Barclays they offered a staff-only 'unlimited contents' cover option - does anyone know of anything similar.

Has anyone worked out how much it would cost them if their house literally burned to the ground?

[alfaman]

YOu can get either "sum assured" or "unlimited" from all Insurance Co's - sum assured is cheaper but only for a set amount - and you MUSTNT underinsure.

Unlimited is a little more costly -but no need to change your policy when the rebuild cost of your house or value of contents increases.

Most DIY build-a-home type mags give tables of rebuild costs - (usually less than £100 per sq. foot. for most homes)

[Tango2]

We went through this a couple of weeks ago. We changed and got both contents and buildings insurance together. Have unlimited amounts on both, with the vaulables being specified separately, for less than the renewal quote of just the contents! Defiantely shop around - ours is through Halifax - by far the best quote that I got. Esure refused to insure us - said we were at risk of being flooded - I remarked that I found it highly bizarre - the North Circular would have to be under 100ft of water before any was lapping at our front door!

[vee]

Try Asda.
The Mrs was complaining the other day that Direct Line wanted £800, she got it for just under £600 from Asda.