Choose Wisely When Comparing Home Insurance Policies
The advent of several new insurance comparison websites means that comparing
the entire UK insurance market is now possible in under an hour. Surely that
means you're guaranteed to find the best deal, doesn't it? If price is your only
concern then it certainly does. However, the Association of British Insurers has
some grim predictions for the future which should make your consider much more
than just the price of your cover the next time you switch insurers.
The ABI has warned that the effects of climate change will have a huge impact
on the number of claims for wind and flood damage over the coming years. Are you
sure your home insurance covers flood damage? Many policies do not, and this why
consumers must choose wisely when selecting their policy. If you're the type to
take the risk and make decisions based on price alone, perhaps some of the ABI's
statistics will be the wake-up call you need.
Within the next 50 years, the ABI expects:
- Storms to cause 66% more damage than they do already - causing around £14
billion of damage worldwide
- Floods to cause over £75 billion of damage in Europe each year
- Floods to cause £22 billion of damage in the UK - an increase of 1500% on
today's figures
If any recent flooding affected you, imagine it 15 times worse!
We've looked at a number of leading home insurance websites to see what flood
cover information is available, and we were shocked to find that many sites do
not provide any information about flood cover whatsoever!
There are a number of exceptions, however. When using Gocompare.com's home
insurance comparison you are asked whether the property is in a flood risk
area before any quotes are provided, and we found that quotes were only returned
from insurers offering flood cover when we tried a property in a high-risk area.
The same goes for the MoneySupermarket. For the over 50's amongst you, Castle
Cover's house
insurance is also a popular option, and there's clear information about
their flood cover available in their policy documentation. Another of our
favourites is Only Finance - we managed to compare
home insurance prices in just a few minutes on this site.
Whichever site you use, make sure you're fully aware of what your policy
covers, and more importantly what is doesn't, before you sign anything. The
average cost of repairs to a property damaged by severe flooding is between £40,000
and £60,000. Unless these figures are petty cash to you, choose wisely the next
time you switch insurers.
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