Britons could save £26m on home insurance

12 June 2008

Failure to compare home insurance costs British £26m

According to research from tescocompare.com, 64 per cent of homeowners stayed with their existing home insurer when they renewed their home insurance.

However, 44 per cent of these homeowners saw their premiums go up in price; four million saw price increases that were greater than inflation.

Of the four million seeing an increase above inflation, only 16 per cent had made a claim on their home insurance over the course of the last 12 months and five per cent increased the level of cover.

This implies that more than three million home owners sat back and ignored the price increases. This could have cost a total of £26m if applied to all UK consumers.

Paul Baxter, of Tesco Compare, said: “The message behind this research is clear – many millions sleepwalk through their insurance renewal allowing their insurer to increase premiums unchallenged.”

“Regardless of how loyal you are to your current home and contents insurer, you should shop around at each renewal to make sure you get the cheapest and most appropriate insurance for you,” he added.

Around one in five of those surveyed (22 per cent) admitted that they had thought about changing home insurance providers, even though they had all seen an increase in price above the level of inflation.

Just eight per cent of those that did compare home insurance found that their existing policy could not be found cheaper elsewhere.

Click the link to compare cheap home insurance and see how much you could save