Loyalty appears to be costing UK residents, as research conducted by moneysupermarket.com suggests that we are wasting a combined total of £937 million simply by refusing to shop around for our home insurance renewal.

Comparing home insurance quotes, instead of allowing the auto-renewal, could save each household £132 per year; the independent research has also concluded that 29% of UK homeowners automatically renew with their existing provider.

The survey revealed that 15% of those loyal customers do not believe that a better deal can be found, whilst 14% simply cannot be bothered to try.

A UK resident will, on average, stick with a home insurance provider for 3 years, whilst ultra-loyal over 55s stay for an average of 3.6 years.

Shockingly, around 10% of Brits have been with the same provider for at least ten years.

Julie Owens, head of home insurance at moneysupermarket.com, said: “Shopping around for the best deal is quick and easy; by not doing so Brits are effectively watching their hard earned cash go down the drain.”

“While home contents insurance is not a legal requirement, I would urge every household to have combined buildings and contents insurance in place. Comprehensive policies will cover your home against problems such as subsidence, burst pipes, personal liability and even boiler breakdown in some cases, all of which could land you with a bill for thousands of pounds.”

“This is in addition to more common incidents such as theft, burglary or loss of possessions away from the home. Without having cover in place you could end up having to foot a very expensive bill.”

If you don’t investigate your options, you could genuinely be throwing money away. Consumers can normally find plenty of online discounts and offers for most types of insurance, as the providers are constantly competing for each other’s customers.

Using a comparison website is a fast, easy and effective way to find the best deal; you can check out our home insurance comparison table here.

Image: Principle First

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 10:10 am and is filed under Home Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.