Welcome,

Insurance has been around in one form or another for thousands of years, from protecting goods on the babylonian trade routes to more formally in the coffee houses of seventeenth century London...

Today the market is more mature but still as innovative – with fierce competition forcing insurers to think up new types of policies or added benefits.

This is all good news for us customers as we are getting better policies for often better prices. But while price is a factor, as with so many things in life, it is better to pay a bit extra and get the right product.

Back in the 1990s the concept of ‘pick and mix’ insurance started to take root with a number of firms offering policies that let you choose what cover you bought from a menu of benefits. While the concept didn’t take off in the way you might expect, I always thought the idea was a good one. Why should you have to pay for cover that you know you are never going to use? Provided you understand what you are buying, and as importantly not buying, then tailoring a plan to your needs is the perfect solution. It is especially well suited to home insurance as people’s houses and how they use them differ enormously. 

Attitudes to insurance change over the years as well, with younger people happier to claim than older ones. This was backed up by recent research, which revealed that almost 8 in 10 people over 50 believe that we do not properly value our possessions. When asked what would trigger them to claim, 82% said vandalism and 77% a burst pipe, while only half would claim for a lost engagement ring and one in ten if an ornament was stolen.

Whatever your insurance needs and attitude to claiming, it is vital to make sure that you have adequate cover. Check building cover is high enough by using the ABI’s rebuild calculator at abi.bcis.co.uk every few years. Then take a notepad into every room in the house and tot up the value of its contents – you’ll be surprised to see how much your belongings are actually worth.

Then sit back and enjoy your home.

Rose Spero

Rose Spero is a freelance journalist and financial services expert