How Can I Buy Home Insurance?

While the internet is becoming more and more common for searching for insurance, it isn’t the only option available to you.

How can I buy home insurance?

Get a quote

Price Comparison Website

Price comparison sites are a way of getting quotes from a number of companies by filling in a single form. This can give you a range of options for around 10 minutes of work, while inputting it multiple times or speaking to individual companies can be much more time-consuming. The kind of information you need to obtain home insurance quotes will be very similar to what you are asked direct with insurers, or over the phone, so it is worth making sure you can answer all of the questions accurately.

One of the features of a price-comparison site is they’re made to be quick and easy to use, and one way this can be done is pre-filling answers, or making certain assumptions. This may mean that a vital piece of information that makes your insurance needs a little more specialist can be missed, and leave you with quotations that won’t cover you properly if you need to make a claim. Therefore if you know that there is a piece of information you would normally disclose, it is worth checking the assumptions carefully, and contact the cheapest companies directly to ensure they can still cover you.

Online – Direct with insurer

Price comparison websites are a great way to get a number of quotes all at once, but you will still miss out on a big percentage of the market if this is the only place that you check. Generally it is very expensive to appear on a price comparison website, and because they get so much traffic, a company has to have enough staff in their office to handle the number of enquiries. This may mean that a smaller, local company, who will give you the personal touch and local client discounts are unlikely to appear.

Some even go as far as to advertise that their rates aren’t available on price comparison websites, meaning that you have to seek them out individually.

While it is something that will improve in the future, price comparison websites generally don’t accommodate specialist insurance very well. That may mean that if you’ve suffered subsidence, flood, have renovations planned, or the construction of your house is a little out-of-the-ordinary for example, you may not be able to get cover arranged on a price comparison website.

Over the phone

While buying online is easier than ever and most importantly, can be arranged even when the company’s offices are closed, sometimes you may want the personal touch, whether that be to discuss requirements and ensure that the policy is suitable for your needs, or to ask any questions that the policy documentation can’t answer for you.

If your requirements are unique and specialist insurance is what you need, then the policy is likely to be bespoke and put together for your specific requirements. Generally in this case, the company would want to talk everything through with you to make sure it’s sufficient for you, and won’t offer the option to buy online without speaking to them first.

Face-to-face

While the age-old practice of arranging insurance with your local high-street broker has significantly reduced, with branches closing around the UK and around 90% of consumers now preferring to deal with their insurance online or over the phone, it is still possible to speak to local companies face-to-face. It is worth getting in contact with brokers in your area to see if they would be able to accommodate you either as a “walk-in” or by appointment.

While we at GSI Insurance Services (Southern) Ltd have customers all over the United Kingdom, we are based in Whitstable in Kent, and will always do our best to assist local clients, including assisting customers that come to our office. In addition, wherever you are in the country, we will offer additional discounts for any extra policies you purchase with us in the future. Give us a call on 0800 612 9376 or click Get a Quote to complete our online form.

Need some more information?

Why not read one of our other buildings and contents insurance guides?