You don’t think about it every day, but the things in your house are probably more valuable than you think. Over the years you collect things around you that you have saved for sometimes months. If there is suddenly a burglar or a fire, you lose all those things in one go. Unless you have home insurance of course. But what do you actually need to know before you can take out the best and cheapest home insurance policy? In this article, we provide all the useful information with which you know exactly how you can take out the best home insurance policy cheaply.
1. Own risk
Just like with your health insurance, it is possible to increase your deductible with home contents insurance. This is because with every report of damage you first have to pay a deductible. The amount of the deductible depends on the insurer. The reason that they have a deductible is so that people do not submit a claim for every euro of damage.
Suppose you have very expensive items at home, which are worth thousands of euros, then you can also increase the deductible. The monthly premium will then decrease, but if you have damage you first have to make a contribution yourself. You can calculate yourself whether you are better off by increasing the deductible than if you have a lower deductible.
In some cases, it can be advantageous if you take out multiple insurance policies with the same insurer. When you do that, you get a discount on the entire package.
Although these discounts never add up, it can happen that you are cheaper with such a package than if you take out the insurance policies with separate insurers. Always check it, because a package discount of 20% does not always mean that the insurer is really cheaper than an insurer that uses competitive prices as standard.
You can also take out home contents insurance with your own bank. Although you do have to pay attention to the conditions here, you can also negotiate a high discount through your own bank. So take a good look at where you have all your insurance policies and whether it might be cheaper if you take out home contents insurance together with other insurance policies with a specific provider.
4. Take out a target group-specific home contents insurance
In certain cases, it is possible to get a discount on the costs of home content insurance. That has to do with the fact that you fall within a certain target group. For example, think of students. Because when you’re still a student, you probably live in rooms and you don’t use such expensive furniture. Most likely, your phone and laptop together are worth more than all the furniture together. This means that an insurer does not have to pay out much in the event of damage.
But there are also other discounts available. For example, there are:
- Discount for the elderly (for example, collective household insurance through a care home)
- Claim-free discount (if you haven’t claimed anything for years)
- VVE household insurance
It is therefore worth checking whether you also belong to one of the above target groups so that you can benefit from a cheaper monthly amount for your home contents insurance.
5. Compare prices
When you delve into the prices of home content insurance, you will soon discover that there are dozens of providers. And the annoying thing is that all those providers have different conditions that match their insurance policies. If you only look at the price of insurance, then you know for sure that you are comparing apples with oranges. You do not know at all whether the cheaper or more expensive insurer really has more or less to offer.
Comparison websites
It is therefore wise to compare prices on the internet via a comparison website such as pricewise.nl. Here you can enter where you live, which family composition that is, and which additional options you want to insure. Then you fill in some information about yourself, including your age, your salary, and the address of your home where you want to take out the insurance. With that information, the comparison website provides a list of all providers that you can choose from. You will then see a policy score and the corresponding monthly amount with the insurance.
That way you can quickly see whether a certain insurance policy suits you or not. For example, there is a distinction between all-risk insurance and extra extensive insurance. You can also save on insurance by choosing wisely here.
What is the value of things in your house?
Before you compare the prices of home insurance policies, it is also useful to first look at the value of the items you have in your home. In the price comparison, you can see the maximum amount up to which the home contents insurance reimburses your contents in the event of damage.
It is of course a shame to over-insure or under-insure yourself. When you know exactly what the value of your household effects is, you can really make a comparison in terms of price. As we also discuss with the household contents meter later in the article, it is wise to check annually whether your household effects are still worth as much. This prevents you from paying too much or too little for your insurance.
6. View the policy conditions
As with many other things in life, it is also important to compare prices with household insurance. Because anyone who studies the providers of household insurance will automatically see that there is a world of possibilities. But all those options are also limited by policy conditions.
For example, one insurer will offer the replacement value back if something breaks, while another insurer will only reimburse the current market value. It is therefore smart to look at the prices for home content insurance, but it is just as important to see what exactly you get in return from the insurer. It is of course nice to spend $5 per month less on insurance, but if after 2 years you eventually have to pay a few hundred euros because something is not covered, then you would have ended up cheaper with more expensive insurance.
Does the policy suit your home situation?
So take a good look at the policy conditions and compare them to the current situation in your household. For example, do you have a lot of expensive stuff, or did you buy all your furniture for free or second-hand? The value of your household effects can be an important consideration when choosing a household insurance policy. But the exclusions from reimbursements are also important. There is, for example, home contents insurance where no money is paid out when it comes to damage or theft to a product that was not used as it was intended.
Think of a nice flat-screen television that you have stored in the attic because you recently bought a new television. If you have damage to the television in the attic, the insurer can fall back on these policy conditions that damage to that television set will not be reimbursed.
7. Use the home contents meter
There is a good chance that you do not know exactly how much your household effects are worth. Of course, you can look up all receipts for the household effects that you have bought, but that does not mean that the insurer actually sees this as the value of your household effects. To create a little more clarity on this, the household value meter has been created. The household value meter is a document drawn up by the Dutch Association of Insurers, which uses the document as a tool to easily determine the value of household effects.
Specifications of your home and household effects
On the document, you enter personal information, including your age, family composition, and income. You will also be asked for information about the size of your home and the possible values of equipment, jewelry, or other special possessions. You will be awarded points for information about your personal situation. For example, for a house of about 100 square meters, you get 6 points, while a much larger house can get up to 23 points. At the bottom of the household value meter, you add up the points and a score is obtained. Subsequently, a sum of all your possessions is also made, whereby the insurer also looks at your personal data to determine what your household looks like. All information together determines the value of your household effects.
Antique or rare items
For example, home contents insurance does not cover the value of antique items or rare items. You can think of jewellery, paintings or other forms of art. This has to do with the fact that the value of this kind of stuff is often not fixed, but is determined by the appraisal by a professional. To insure these kinds of items, you should therefore first have such an appraisal carried out when you take out valuables insurance.
Valuables Insurance
A big difference with household contents insurance is that valuables insurance does not only cover the damage suffered internally. Suppose you go into town for a day with an expensive piece of jewelry and find out when you get home that you no longer have it on. A home insurance policy would not pay out this type of damage, but a valuables insurance does. As you read earlier in this article, with home contents insurance, you must always first take out outdoor coverage before damage is also covered outside the door.
What factors influence the amount of your home insurance policy?
With the above points you will come a long way with saving on your home insurance. But we’re not there yet. Because it is useful to know which factors influence the amount that you pay each month. Although some points are more difficult to adjust than others, after reading them you will know exactly where the costs come from and how it is calculated.
renting vs. inhabit
When only you live in a house, that is predictable for an insurer. You simply pay a normal amount for your home contents insurance. But there are also options to rent out the house, where the insurer runs a greater risk. In that case, the amount of the home contents insurance increases, because there is a greater chance that something will break.
Location of your home
Your belongings are in great danger from the people who can break into your home. That is why it goes without saying that the amount of the home contents insurance depends on the location where you live. In a quiet village in Friesland, for example, you pay a lower amount than if you live in a deprived neighborhood in Amsterdam.
Your claim behavior
It is always more interesting for insurers if you do not make claims. That’s how they keep their money. To encourage that, they increase the amount for home contents insurance when you claim a sum of money. If your premium has fallen significantly in recent years because you have never claimed anything, that amount will rise again after a claim. This will motivate you to only claim large amounts.
The figures about the house itself
The home itself also has a major influence on the amount you pay for home content insurance. For example, the year of construction is important for the insurer, as also the type of home (apartment, terraced house, detached) and the building materials of the house and the roof. The insurer then also wants to know how many people you live with and who exactly the family consists of. Together with your monthly income and the size of the house, an X number of points is given for this, which is entered in the household value meter that you could read about earlier in the article.
As you can see, there are a number of ways to save on your home insurance. One household only has furniture that they bought second-hand for a few tens, while other families always have the latest of the latest and pay thousands of euros for the furniture. But also the location, your claim history, and whether or not the property is rented out contribute to the total amount you pay.
In addition, you have also seen that it is important not only to look at the price of the home contents insurance but also to read the policy conditions. It would be a shame if you have damage to your household effects, but these items are just excluded from the insurer you have chosen. The most important advice is therefore to look at your personal situation and find a suitable insurance policy.
