€900 difference in house cover options

Houseowners are being urged to shop around for their house cover, with one provider suggesting consumers could be paying as much as €900 per year more than is necessary.

According to insuremyhouse.ie — the newest player in the Irish home insurance market and one of the trading names of Dublin-based City Financial Marketing Group, which also owns the Insure My Van brand — consumers are far less likely to hunt out best value offerings for home insurance than they are on vehicle cover, and are paying over the odds as a result.

According to company head Jonathan Hehir, only about one in five homeowners have actually shopped around for their house insurance in the past. He said that “people are less likely to shop around for this product — which unfortunately means that often they are not getting the best value on the market”.

Insure My House offered a glimpse of differing charges in its cost-price analysis. Between 10 home insurance providers, it found huge price differences for the same level of cover.

For instance, a three-bedroom bungalow in Monaghan can range in price from between €225 to €596 for the same cover; on a two-bedroom bungalow in Longford the price difference range was nearly €100; and insurance on a four-bed house in Terenure could cost between €233 and €500.