Switching home insurance is a simple process - but there are seven recurring mistakes that turn up year after year. None of them is fatal, and every one is avoidable with a little care: here is the list, with how to avoid each mistake.
- Most switching mistakes come not from choosing the wrong product, but from getting the order and the paperwork wrong.
- The costliest mistake is a gap in cover: only cancel once the new cover's start is certain.
- Switching is also the ideal moment to put things right: copy the old sums insured across, and you carry the old mistakes across with them.
Mistakes 1-2: the gap, and deciding on price alone
Gap in cover: the old contract ends, the new one is not live yet - and that is exactly when the storm hits. Prevention: the right order - sign the new contract with the precise start date first, then cancel. Deciding on price alone: a lower price often comes with a smaller sum insured or narrower cover behind it. Prevention: a substance comparison using the criteria table.
The typical scenario behind a gap, incidentally, is not carelessness but the order reversed: someone cancels enthusiastically in March, then only starts looking at offers at the end of April. The rule the right way round is simple and safe: sign the new contract with a date, then cancel.
And one more quiet risk: switching every year on price alone can cost you discounts and predictability too - a good switch is a rarer, more thorough exercise.
Mistakes 3-4: old sums insured, the forgotten bank
Copying the old sums insured across: if the old contract was underinsured, the copied figures make the new one underinsured too - just at a new price. Prevention: update the sums insured at the start of the switch (rebuilding value, a home inventory). The forgotten bank: with a mortgage, the clause is left off the new contract, or the bank never receives a certificate. Prevention: the banking steps in switching with a mortgage - following the loan agreement and the bank's information.
Mistakes 5-6: deadline and form
A late or informal cancellation: both the March-window and the renewal-based cancellation have a typical deadline and form, set out under the rules in force in the given year - a verbal "I'll get to it" does not count. Prevention: a written cancellation through the channel set out in the terms, ahead of the deadline, with confirmation; the timeline: the March window timeline. Leaving the old side unsettled: an unpaid last premium, a missing confirmation - small things that turn into a headache months later. Prevention: a close-out following the checklist.
The question of discounts belongs here too: a no-claims or package discount does not always carry over when you switch - it is worth asking about this before deciding, so the price comparison is realistic.
Mistake 7: the unchecked new policy
The last step of switching is the most important one: checking the new policy - sums insured, addresses, optional covers, deductible, clause. Five minutes, and if you find a mistake, it is still easy to have it corrected while it is fresh (the list of signing mistakes). The whole switching process in tickable form: the switching checklist - and if you would like the possible mistakes screened out from the start, let's go through it together.
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