Homeowners are being reminded of the importance of checking for alternative quotes for their home insurance when it’s time for their policy to renew.
The advice comes after a survey revealed over a quarter of customers leave their home insurance policies to auto renew without looking around for cheaper deals.
The study, by price comparison website, GoCompare, said 17% of the people it quizzed said they didn’t want the hassle of finding other renewal prices – even if it meant saving money.
However, loyalty was also a factor, with 22% of those who auto renew their home insurance claiming their insurer has always looked after them. Meanwhile, 18% assumed value for money on the basis the previous year’s quote was the cheapest.
Almost a third (29%) of those who did shop around for other deals did so because they found their renewal price had gone up, however, and 7% found their current provider no longer met their requirements.
Ryan Fulthorpe, of GoCompare home insurance, said: “Our home insurance is just one of many contracts and policies that the average householder today will have in place at any one time.
“It’s not difficult to see how allowing an existing policy to simply roll over and begin a new 12-monthly term is the preferred option for many trying to balance out the different demands on their time in the modern world.
“It can also be easy for people to assume their home insurance requirements are unlikely to have changed much within the space of a year, particularly if there has been little to no change regarding the place in which they live, or the people they live with, within that time,” Ryan added.
“The remit provided for by home insurance is often much wider than many people realise, however, and even if your overall domestic set up hasn’t changed it’s highly likely specific items within your possession that are eligible for cover will have within the space of a year, for example.”
Switching made easy
According to GoCompare, lots of work has been done in the industry to ensure the process of switching from one provider to another is as straight forward as possible.
However, the price comparison website said its research showed there may still be more work to do to support consumers when it comes to researching, maintaining and updating household policies.
Ryan added: “For most people, our home is our most prized possession in life and the idea that any serious harm could come to it, or any of the contents contained within it, simply doesn’t bear thinking about.
“This makes the insurance policy we put in place to protect these things an emotive purchase, much more so than other types of insurance, so it’s not just about getting the right price for homeowners, it’s also about ensuring a policy adequately meets our individual needs.”
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