Compare home and contents insurance

Most policies have a maximum amount they'll pay for a specific item, such as jewellery. If your valuable items exceed this amount, you can specify them in your policy, so they’re covered for the right amount. This will generally cost you more. You may also need to take out specified portable contents cover if you would like to protect these items away from home.

If you’re a homeowner, consider the cost to rebuild if the home was damaged and needed to be built again from the start. Home insurance can help. Here's why:

• If you have a mortgage, check whether your home loan arrangement requires you to take out an insurance policy on your property.
• Your home is most likely your most significant financial asset—so it can make sense to protect it.
• If you lost your home in a natural disaster, consider if you couldn’t afford to replace it, this could potentially leave you and your family without a home.
• If you're renting, you can protect your belongings with a standalone contents-only policy.

The premium you pay for home and contents insurance depends on the type of cover you choose. Often insurance companies will offer discounts if you take out home and contents insurance together, reducing the premiums for both policies.

If you pay your fees annually rather than monthly, it may work out cheaper in the long run. You can also sign up for a larger excess to offset your premiums—but this means you’ll have a higher threshold before you're able to claim. And finally, you can make sure your home is secure with locks and alarms—usually, the tighter the security, the less you pay.

Lastly, it helps to shop around! Always review your home and contents insurance policy just before you renew it to make sure you’re still getting the cover you need, and comparing with Choosi makes it easy!

Your contents insurance policy may cover sports equipment that’s stored inside the home or garage—but it may not be covered when in transit. Some policies exclude sports equipment while it's in use, but this can vary between individual policies.

For most policies, it’s up to you to estimate how much it would cost to rebuild your home—so take care to get it right. There are two ways of finding out this amount:

• Hire a surveyor to carry out a professional assessment of your property.
• Get a rough estimate using a rebuild calculator that’s available on most insurer websites.

Note: 'Total replacement' policies will rebuild or repair your home. The insurer (not you) is responsible for estimating the value of the property correctly, so you don’t actually have a sum insured figure on the policy.