Compare contents insurance quotes 2024 (2024)

Contents insurance is a type of home insurance that covers the cost of replacing your possessions if they are damaged, destroyed or stolen.

This cover isn’t compulsory – but it’s a good idea to have it. For a relatively small outlay you can protect tens of thousands of pounds worth of possessions.

If you didn’t have insurance and all your belongings were destroyed in a fire or flood, you’d have to pay to replace them yourself.

In this guide, we explain what you need to know about contents insurance and how to make a claim.

Contents insurance covers your belongings and personal possessions. Whether you are an owner-occupier, renter or living in student accommodation, it’s a good idea to have this type of insurance.

This guide explains how it works, what it covers and what it doesn’t. You might need extra cover for expensive items, or for those that you take out of your home.

There are some events that contents insurance covers as standard and also extra cover you can add for peace of mind. Events or incidents an insurance policy doesn’t cover are known as “exclusions”.

This guide explains how to work out how much insurance cover you need, and whether working from home impacts your policy requirements. It also looks at how to reduce the cost of your home insurance premium and how best to pay for a policy.

It also includes a step-by-step guide to making a claim.

To help you compare contents insurance quotes, we’ve included the contact details for the UK’s best home insurance companies and price comparison websites.

Our researchers and writers are dedicated to providing accurate and up-to-date information so you can make an informed decision when comparing and buying home insurance.

We will only endorse home insurance products after hundreds of hours of research, policy comparisons and mystery shopping, and after taking into account verified customer feedback and reviews, and the opinions of industry experts.

To write our articles, we’ve compared (and continue to compare) hundreds of insurance policies from dozens of the UK’s insurers – big and small. We focus our research on:

• Cost and value for money
• The level of coverage offered (and what’s not covered as standard)
• Customer service and ease of making a claim

All of our articles are verified by industry experts, including regulatory compliance specialists, and the policy data verified by the insurance providers themselves, so you can be assured that our content is as accurate and up to date as possible.

Even after all that, we would still recommend that you don’t just take our word for it – you should compare quotes to get the best deal for you and your home. To find out more about our process, read our article on how we cover home insurance companies.

Contents insurance is a type of home insurance. “Contents” means almost everything you would take with you if you moved house, such as furniture, kitchen appliances, clothes, gadgets, computers, sports equipment, and personal possessions.

However, it doesn’t cover the structure of your home, such as your roof, walls and windows, or any permanent fixtures and fittings such as a fitted kitchen. These will be covered by buildings insurance.

This cover insures your belongings against burglary, or damage from events such as storms, floods, leaks, subsidence, or if your home is hit by a vehicle. Theft is covered too and you can choose to add cover for your possessions outside your home – if your mobile phone is stolen, for example.

How much you can claim after a burglary, fire, flood or other insured event depends on the policy limit and any limit on single items.

There’s no law that says you need to buy contents insurance (unlike car insurance, for example), but it’s a useful policy to have in place. Owner-occupiers, renters and students should all consider covering their possessions.

With a policy in place, your insurer will pay towards replacing any of your possessions that are covered in the event of a fire, flood, or theft.

Fortunately, the complete destruction of everything you own is unlikely. But smaller incidents such a burst pipe flooding your home, or being burgled are a lot more common.

If you’re renting, your possessions won’t be covered by any insurance your landlord holds – you’ll need to arrange your own policy. If you live in a student house or house of multiple occupation (HMO), you’ll need contents insurance for your room.

Likewise, if you own a leasehold flat, your freeholder is responsible for insuring the building, but you’ll need to buy your own cover for your possessions.

Contents insurance covers you against loss, theft and damage to your personal possessions and items in your home. It can also cover items you take out of your home, such as your mobile phone.

If you live as a couple or family unit, one policy will cover everyone. If you live in a HMO, student house or university halls, your policy will just cover your room.

Contents insurance provides cover against ‘insured events’, such as fires, leaks, and burglary.

Contents insurance won’t cover normal wear and tear of your possessions or if items break down. For this, you’ll need home emergency cover or a warranty for appliance or gadget breakdowns.

Some policies have an upper limit for single items, so if you own something really expensive, you might need to insure it separately. This is sometimes called a “specified item”.

“Accidental damage” is often available as an add-on, but deliberate damage of your possessions won’t be covered. Opting for this type of cover will usually cost extra on your premiums.

Contents insurance only covers movable objects. You’ll need buildings insurance to cover the structure of your home (such as the walls and roof) and permanent fixtures and fittings such as your kitchen and bathroom.

Which home insurance add-ons should you go for? – Ed Bowsher, Money Expert

Insurers offer lots of potential add-ons, and some of them might make sense for some people – but you almost certainly don’t need all of them.

When you look at each optional extra, consider whether you’re likely to need it, and whether you could afford to pay to sort things out if you were uninsured for this event. Let’s look at accidental damage cover as an example. It may make sense for families, as it covers some damage caused by kids, but I’ve not gone for it myself. I don’t have kids and I also don’t do any DIY, so I don’t need to protect myself from hammering through the electric wiring. Yes, I might spill something on the carpet, but I’m prepared to take the hit myself if that happens. Don’t forget most accidental damage policies come with an excess, and a claim can affect future premiums. That said, I have bought home emergency cover. This pays the repair costs if your pipes burst or drains are blocked. The emergency cover won’t pay for wider damage caused by the drains or pipes, but the main policy should do that, so the two work well hand-in-hand.

Contents insurance is primarily sold as an annual policy. You can choose to pay for it monthly, but this will work out more expensive over the duration of the policy.

A policy will insure your possessions, up to a stated limit, against certain risks and events. The policy documents will explain what is covered and what’s not.

Insurers typically offer two types of contents insurance:

• New for old
• Indemnity

New-for-old cover is more expensive but it’s better. If your items are lost, stolen or beyond repair, the insurer will replace them with an equivalent new item.

Indemnity cover is cheaper but, in the event of a claim, the insurance company will deduct an amount for wear and tear and depreciation. This could leave you out of pocket.

When buying a policy, you need to calculate the ‘sum insured’ – this is the total value of your contents. We explain how to work this out further down in this guide.

Each policy will come with an ‘excess’ – this is the amount you must contribute to any claim. For example, if your TV worth £1,000 is stolen and the excess is £100 (which you will pay out of pocket), the insurer will pay £900.

You can buy contents insurance directly from an insurance company, bank or building society. But it’s much better to use a price comparison site to compare quotes from lots of companies.

Where you live, how many people live in your home, your previous claims history and the security measures installed at your home will all affect the price you pay for a policy.

Here’s how you can cut the cost of contents insurance:

Shop around: Don’t accept your current insurer’s renewal quote – use a price comparison site to compare policies and premiums to find the best deal.

Combine contents and buildings insurance: If you need to insure your building too (ie, because you own a house), a combined policy can work out cheaper than separate policies.

Make your home secure: Some insurers offer discounts if you fit high-quality door/window locks, burglar alarms, or smart devices that monitor your home.

Choose a higher excess: The higher your excess, the lower your premium. But be sure you’d be happy and able to pay the excess amount in the event of a claim.

Pay up front: You can pay for insurance either annually or monthly – annually in one go is typically cheaper, as insurers often charge interest on monthly instalments. Some providers only offer annual premiums, so this is something to keep in mind when comparing quotes.

Build up a no-claims discount: If you don’t claim on your policy, you can build a no-claims discount (NCD), which can make your premiums cheaper in the future, even if you switch insurers. However, insurers such as LV and More Than do not offer such a discount.

Don’t over- or under-insure: Make sure you buy the amount of cover you need by accurately calculating the value of all your contents. Too much cover could see you paying more than you need to on your premiums, while too little could mean you’ll be out of pocket if the worst happens.

Tips to get cheaper contents insurance – Ed Bowsher, Money Expert

You’re probably sick of hearing people talk about shopping around and comparing quotes when it comes to contents insurance. But it really is crucial and you can save big money if you do it properly.

That means you should visit more than one comparison site. I’d say go to at least two, because not all the comparison sites work with all insurers. Visit Direct Line as well, because it doesn’t appear on any of the comparison sites, and it often offers competitive deals. It’s also worth checking for deals on cashback sites such as Topcashback and Quidco.

From personal experience, fitting better locks in your house is also a good move. As well as cutting my premiums, they’ve made me feel more secure. Extra security is a great stress reducer if, like me, you live in an area with quite a lot of crime.

If you’ve got some really valuable items such as jewellery, think about getting a safe. If you tell your insurer you’ve got one, they’ll probably reduce your premiums. It’s also worth thinking about any larger valuable items you may have – perhaps a painting. Do you really need it? If you sell it, not only would you get some cash, but your insurer will cut your premium.

“Exclusions“ in insurance policies are things that aren’t covered as standard. To avoid having a claim rejected, read the policy documents before buying your policy so you know what kind of events you’re covered for.

Common exclusions include:

• Wear and tear
• Damage caused by pets fouling, chewing or scratching
• Any event where you were deemed to be ‘negligent’
• Damage or theft by Airbnb guests (you would need to take out a holiday home policy and inform your insurer at the quote stage that you are renting the property)
• Homes unoccupied for more than a set number of days (normally 30, 45 or 60)
• Storm damage to gates and fences
• Pest infestations (sometimes offered as an optional extra)
• Damage to your computer caused by a virus
• Digital downloads

You need sufficient contents insurance to cover the value of everything you own. To work this out, go from room to room in your home and write down how much every item is worth. The total value of your contents is called the ‘sum insured’.

Some insurers provide automatic cover up to a set limit, normally about £50,000 to £100,000. Others work out the amount of cover needed based on the number of bedrooms in your home.

A few insurers offer ‘unlimited sum insured’ policies, where all your contents are covered without a limit, but these are typically more expensive.

Your insurer might have a ‘single item limit’ – the maximum amount it will pay for any individual item regardless of its value. You might be asked to list items worth more than this figure in order for them to be covered, or you might need to pay extra.

A lot of people add ‘home emergency’ onto their contents insurance. Depending on the policy, this means your insurer will pay for the cost of calling tradespeople to your home to deal with heating, plumbing or electrical breakdowns.

It might be worth buying separate insurance to cover appliances, such as your washing machine or TV, in the event of a breakdown.

The benefits of choosing one insurer for a combined contents and buildings policy – Ed Bowsher, Money Expert

As always, the first step here is to visit one of the comparison sites. You can compare quotes for contents-only policies, buildings-only policies, and combined ones.

It’s worth checking all of the options on offer, but you’ll probably find that some combined policies are cheapest. Also try and check what each policy covers and get a feel for when the insurer will pay out. A great way to vet an insurer is reading some reviews on Trustpilot, as these will often indicate whether existing customers are satisfied with aspects such as the claims process and renewals.

If you have a mortgage, your provider will almost certainly require you to take out buildings insurance. Sometimes lenders offer an insurance policy as part of their mortgage package. If the overall package is attractive, this can be a good way to insure. My wife and I went down this route with our mortgage provider (Santander), and we’re happy, as the company paid out significant cash to repair subsidence problems. Be careful though, as sometimes the mortgage provider isn’t offering home insurance as part of the package, but rather as an extra charge on top of your mortgage. In that case, there’s a good chance you could get a cheaper quote from another insurance company.

If you’re an employee working from home or you’re self-employed and your work is computer based, you shouldn’t need any extra insurance.

However, you might need extra cover for working from home if:

• Clients visit your home (eg, for physiotherapy)
• You have an employee who works in your home
• You keep stock or other expensive items at your home

Students living away from home are sometimes covered by their parents’ contents policy – call your insurer to check.

Otherwise, those living in a shared house need to find a policy to cover just the possessions in their room, which will need to be locked when unoccupied for claims to be valid.

If you’re renting, any insurance your landlord holds will just cover the building and their possessions (eg, furniture) in your home. But it won’t cover your belongings, so you’ll need to arrange your own cover.

If you live in a shared house, you can buy renters’ insurance to just cover the contents of your room. If you live alone, or as part of a household, you can buy one policy to cover everyone’s possessions.

Why it’s important to read the small print when taking out a home insurance policy and how it could affect a claim later on – Ed Bowsher, Money Expert

If you don’t read the small print, you may end up with a home insurance policy that isn’t right for you. That could mean your insurer won’t pay out when you make a claim.

A classic example is if you have an expensive item in your home – for example a painting. Your contents might be insured for, say, £30,000, but there may also be a single item limit of £1,500. So even if your total loss is £25,000, you may not get all that money if your painting is valued at £5,000. Thanks to the single item limit, you’ll only receive £1,500 for the painting and £21,500 in total. In this case, you’ll want to take out extra cover for the painting from the beginning of your policy to ensure you won’t be out of pocket in the event of a claim.

The small print on your policy will probably be very long and could take half a day or longer to read, so you might be tempted to just read the ‘key facts’ section. But be careful, as this won’t tell you about any special exclusions that are applied to your policy. If you can’t read the whole thing, look for the ‘Schedule of Insurance’ document, which outlines the policy specific to you. You could also skim through the whole document, looking for anything on ‘excess fees’, ‘payment limits’ and disclosure requirements. If your circ*mstances change, you need to know what you must tell your insurer.

Here’s what you should do if you need to make a contents insurance claim:

Call the police if you’ve been burgled or been the victim of any other crime. You’ll need a crime reference number for the insurance claim.

• Call your insurer as soon as possible
• Collect any evidence your insurer asks for to support your claim. This might include receipts for stolen or destroyed items, or photos showing the damage caused
• For big claims, your insurer might send a loss adjuster to look at the damage and decide how best to progress your claim
• Your insurer will talk you through the claims process and let you know when your claim will be settled. Your insurer may buy replacement items for you or send you a sum of money, so you can purchase the items yourself

Making a claim will mean your insurance premiums could go up in the future – so weigh up whether small claims are worth it.