Home Insurance and Your Voluntary Excess

When you're searching for home insurance quotes, one of the things you need to consider is the compulsory excess level. This amount is the sum you pay in the event of any claim. For example, if you wanted to make a claim on your home insurance for £1000, and you had a £200 excess, you would pay the first £200 of the claim and your home insurance company would pay the remaining £800 (assuming your claim was valid).

What about a voluntary excess though? Well, this can be added to your home insurance policy as a way of keeping your monthly premiums down.

As an example, you may never have claimed on your home insurance policy before so feel confident you're unlikely to in the next 12 months. A voluntary excess is an additional sum you agree to pay yourself in the event of a claim. Using the figures from the example above, you may want to make a claim of £1000, have a £200 compulsory excess and a £300 voluntary excess. This would mean you and your home insurance provider would each pay £500 or 50% of the claim.

Having a voluntary excess on your home insurance policy is all well and good if you don't claim, as it can save you money. However, if you do have to make a claim, it can hit you hard in the pocket.

Below is a quick guide to some of the things you may want to consider when it comes to adding a voluntary excess to your home insurance policy.

" Will you still be able to afford it in a few months?

Household financial circumstances can change quickly due to things like redundancy. It may seem like a good idea to add a voluntary excess to your home insurance at the moment, but will you still feel the same six months down the line?

" How much is your voluntary excess actually saving you on your home insurance?

It pays to weigh up how much your voluntary excess is going to save you on your home insurance with how much extra it could cost you when you want to make a claim.

" Will it prevent you from making smaller claims?

Sometimes you might want to make a home insurance claim for a relatively small amount. If you've got a high excess on your policy, for example £500, this could prevent you from making lower level claims. If you just had a compulsory excess of around £200 on your home insurance, you could then make claims for anything over £200 rather than £500.

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The Co-operative Insurance provides competitive quotes online and offline for home insurance and discounts for combined buildings and contents insurance policies.

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