Home insurance offers you cover if anything significant like fire, flood, burglary or extensive damage occurs in your home. It gives you somewhere else to stay if you should need it, and funds to cover the cost of repairs or replacements.

The average cost of home insurance (combined) was £139 from October to December 2018. The cost of home insurance for your buildings and contents will be influenced by your location, house value and contents value, risk (including flood and burglary) and other factors.

Home insurance typically covers against damage to your home caused by fire, flood and other natural occurrences. It can also cover your personal belongings like furniture and electronics if they are damaged or stolen.

What is covered by home insurance will vary by insurer, so you should always check the policy details. Some home insurance policies may also include personal liability, which covers any injury or damage claims made against you by a third party, for example.

If you want to spread the cost of your home insurance over 12 months, the insurer will run a credit check to make sure you’re able to afford the monthly instalments. They do this because technically it’s a credit agreement: you’re borrowing the cost of the annual policy and repaying it over 12 months.

As with any credit check, a record of this search will remain on your file – and your credit rating will affect the amount of APR that you’re charged. If you have a poor credit rating, you may be charged up to 20% APR. And if you’ve struggled to pay credit in the past, or if you have a CCJ to your name, then you may be denied the option to pay monthly.

If you choose to pay for your home insurance annually, you won’t be subject to a credit check. If you think there will be issues with your credit rating, you can read our guide on improving your credit score

Accidental damage insurance will cover you in case something is damaged or broken by accident. For example, if you knocked over your TV, spilt red wine on a new carpet or dropped a laptop, you might be able to claim for a repair or replacement on your contents insurance.

Accidental damage can also cover your property, not just the items within in it. For example, if someone needed to get to the pipes under your home and your property was damaged, you may be able to claim for the cost of repairs.

We aim to show you home insurance quotes from as many insurance companies as possible, so that you can find the right policy for you.

Unfortunately, we can’t promise to show quotes from every insurance provider, because not all companies want to be included on comparison websites.

We won’t offer you advice or make a recommendation, but we will provide you with all the information you need to help you decide which is the right policy for you.

You can find out more about how we work here.

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But you might have other questions. Do we provide access to all the companies operating in a given market? Do we have commercial relationships or ownership ties that might make us feature one company above another?

We commit to providing you with clear and informative answers on all points such as this, so we have gathered the relevant information on this page.