This month we are bringing you our top tips on how to protect your garden goodies from thieves and vandals because recent news has been full of stories about the increase in summer thefts from UK gardens.

Several publications have reported that Halifax Home Insurance found that garden theft goes up by 52% in the summer months, compared with the winter months.

Plus, recent research by NFU Mutual, the rural insurer, found that 33% of the people it surveyed had been victims of garden theft.

The thieves are set to come away with substantial hauls because, according to Lloyds TSB, the average garden contains goodies worth £1,237, with the typical cost of the most expensive garden item at £426.

Possibly more worrying is the fact that Lloyds TSB found that 55% of those surveyed have never even checked to see if their garden contents are covered by their home insurance policies.

Of course, the temptation is to avoid buying nice things for our gardens in case they get stolen. However, seeing as though summer sun in Britain is a rarity these days, we should be making the most of our gardens when we can and not let the thieves ruin it for us. So, how can we fight back against the garden criminals?

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Norwich Union is currently offering a 50% discount on its buildings and contents home insurance to people who have a 5 years’ no claim discount on their existing buildings and contents policies.

If you don’t have a 5 years’ no claims discount you will instead qualify for a 15% online discount off the price of its policies.

With Norwich Union home insurance you can choose to get additional extras such as Legal Services cover which will help you to pay legal fees resulting from a number of situations including, consumer disputes, personal injury claims and residential disputes.

If you ever have to make a claim, Norwich Union will replace items on a new for old basis, pay for replacement locks if you lose your keys and make sure your repairs are carried out by registered professional tradesmen.

Click the link for more information about the Norwich Union Home Insurance offer
 

Yesterday we published a news story about the extra cost faced by those consumers who choose to pay for their annual car insurance premiums in monthly instalments (‘£624m bill for pay monthly car insurance customers’).

Many people choose to spread the cost of the insurance premiums over 12 months because they cannot afford to pay the lump sum in one go.

However, because the insurance company is effectively giving the customer a credit facility when they allow them to spread payments, it will charge the customer interest for the privilege. Unfortunately, the interest rates are quite high (above 20%) so the consumer ends up paying a substantial amount more for their insurance policy by paying monthly.

So, how can you avoid these interest charges? 

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Direct Line is now offering free accidental damage cover on its home contents insurance.

What’s more, if you buy Direct Line Home Insurance online, you can now enjoy an online discount of up to 25%, up from 10%.

On top of this, if you don’t make a claim you will now receive an additional 10% discount off your renewal price next year.

Plus, if you are over 50, you can now enjoy a further discount off your premium.

Direct Line Home Insurance will replace your personal belongings on a ‘new for old’ basis including your carpets, curtains and garages and sheds.

Their home insurance policy also covers up to £500 cash kept in your home and provides an additional £5000 worth of cover for a number of weeks before and after Christmas and family weddings.

Click the link to find out more about Direct Line Home Insurance.
 

From 27th May customers who buy Sainsbury’s Home Insurance online can now benefit from up to 20% off.

Additionally, Sainsbury’s Home Insurance policies now come with cover of up to £500 for any items you leave out in the open.

What’s more, with a Sainsbury’s Home Insurance policy you get unlimited buildings cover so your home will never be under insured.

Plus, you can earn up to 40% No Claims Discount with Sainsbury’s Home Insurance if you choose to buy ‘no claims discount protection.

To be eligible for the 20% online discount you need to be a new customer buying combined buildings and contents insurance cover online.

For more information about Sainsbury’s Home Insurance click on the link.
 

This offer is current as of 27th MAY 2008. Terms and Conditions apply. For more offers please refer to the Offers section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.

According to the Abbey, 3.4 million households don’t know whether or not their home contents insurance policy provides cover for the full value of their possessions.

If you are one of these and ever need to claim on your home insurance you run the risk of having your claim reduced or even rejected by your insurance provider.

This also applies to other types of insurance too, so it is well worth taking some time to check how covered you really are.

To check your level of cover you will need to dig out your policy documents and note down the sum insured.

After you have done this, work out how much it would cost you if you have to replace all of your possessions and rebuild your home (if applicable).

Make an inventory of your possessions

The typical family home contains contents worth as much as £40,000.

Go room to room and make a list of everything in your home that you choose to take with you if you were to pack up and move. Don’t forget clothes, jewellery and items in the loft, garage and shed.

This is especially important at the moment when it comes to jewellery because the price of gold is on the up and, for many, personal jewellery is now worth substantially more than it was a year ago.

When you make your list, note down how much it would cost you to replace each item if you had to buy it new.

You will need to get valuable antiques and pieces of jewellery valued by an expert.

Don’t underestimate the value of your contents

Be realistic about how much it would cost you to buy your possessions and remember to individually list particularly expensive items, for instance expensive items of clothing like suits and coats and rare DVDs, records and books.

Don’t forget to update the list

At key times of the year the value of contents in your home will increase. This mainly occurs around Christmas and birthdays when households typically spend hundreds of pounds on gifts which are then stored in the house until the big day. Taking photos will also help you if you ever need to claim.

Regular CD and DVD purchases will also push the value of your contents up – four DVDs a month could easily add over £600 to your total.

Don’t forget to insure engagement rings

The average engagement ring costs around £1,200 so, if you are one of the 1.8 million planning to pop the question in 2008, don’t forget to arrange insurance cover.

According to the Abbey, 73% of engagement rings are not covered by existing home contents insurance policies. Therefore, it is well worth checking whether or not your policy will pay out if anything were to happen to your rings.

Keep your contents list and valuations safe

Once you have completed your inventory and valuations, keep the list somewhere outside of the house in a safe place. This list will be useless to you if it gets destroyed along with the contents of your house. You could swap your list with a family member or friend so that you look after theirs and they look after yours.

Check how much it would cost to rebuild your home

Check to see if the amount of cover you have on your home buildings insurance policy is enough to pay for a full rebuild of your property. This could be different to the market value of the property.

Your mortgage survey may show this cost, or you can pay a surveyor to value the build cost of your property, or use an ‘online ready reckoner to help you. The Association of British Insurers has one on its website - www.abi.org.uk.

Act on any shortfalls

If the total value of your contents is more than the sum insured as stated on your home insurance contents policy, it is time to arrange to buy more cover from your insurer. If you don’t feel you could stretch to pay out any more on your home insurance cover, it may well be worth comparing quotes from other providers to see if you can get more cover for less money.

To start your search for a cheaper quote, click on the link to compare home insurance.

If you live with your partner and you have home insurance that you hope will cover your possessions as well as your partner’s, it is likely that it will not extend to your partner’s things if it is in your name.

This means that in the event of damage occurring to your partner’s possessions, they will have to fork out to get them replaced which could cost them thousands of pounds.

However, you could prevent this by adding your partner to your home insurance policy as a ‘joint policy holder’.

Having another person named on your policy will entitle them to make a claim on the home insurance if something were to happen to their things.

If the reason for not adding your partner on the home insurance policy in the first place was because you were worried about the extra cost, then you will be interested to know that often insurance companies allow you to add a joint policy holder at no additional cost.

The only aspect of this that could be deemed as negative is that the cover you have bought will then be shared between the two of you.

Therefore, if you do add a joint policy holder to your home insurance policy, it is probably best to check how much cover you have by looking at your policy documents and work out if they cover you have will be enough to replace all of your, and your partner’s, possessions in the event of total loss in case of fire or theft.

If it turns out that the cover you have will not be enough, it will likely be a lot cheaper to increase the cover than for your partner to take out a policy of their own.

Click on the link to compare home insurance

Tesco have launched a new offer on their home insurance.

If you get a quote for Tesco Home Insurance between 1st May 2008 and 21st June 2008 you will receive 1/3 OFF. The quote you receive can then be saved and bought at anytime within 90 days.

This offer only applies to new Tesco Home Insurance customers in their first year only.

Buy online and receive a further 10% discount off your premium.

Tesco Home Insurance offers both buildings and contents insurance and allows the addition of optional extras including accidental damage, family legal protection and personal possessions cover.

Plus, you can use your Clubcard vouchers towards the cost and earn Clubcard points on the cost of your Tesco Home Insurance premium.

What’s more, Tesco Home Insurance will replace up to £1,000 worth of stored information, such as music on an iPod.

Further information on the May Tesco Home Insurance offer

This offer is current as of 1st MAY 2008. Please check the provider’s product page for more information and conditions. For more offers please refer to the Offers section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.
 

Sainsbury’s are currently running an offer on their home insurance.

If you buy combined buildings and contents home insurance cover from Sainsbury’s before May 26 2008, you will get 12 months cover for the price of 9.

What’s more you can pay in monthly instalments by direct debit at no extra cost and earn up to 30% no claims discount on a standard policy basis.

Additionally, you will have unlimited buildings cover so you will never be underinsured, even if your house needs rebuilding from scratch.

Click on the link for more information about the Sainsbury’s Home Insurance offer

This offer is correct at time of publishing on 23/04/2008. Please check the provider’s product page for more information and full terms and conditions. For more offers please refer to the ‘Offers’ section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.

Sainsbury’s has announced a change to their home insurance policies.

As of April 23 2008 the no claims discount you can earn on your Sainsbury’s Home Insurance policy has decreased by 10% from 40% to 30% on a standard policy basis.

However, if you buy both buildings and contents home insurance online from Sainsbury’s you will get an extra 10% discount off the price of your policy.

Sainsbury’s Home Insurance comes with these additional benefits:

• Option to pay in monthly direct debit installments at no extra cost
• Unlimited buildings cover
• 24hr home emergency advice line based in UK call centres

Click on the link for more information about Sainsbury’s Home Insurance

This blog is correct at time of publishing on 23/04/2008. Please check the provider’s product page for more information and full terms and conditions. For more offers please refer to the ‘Offers’ section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.