The best and worst home insurers

NFU Mutual has been named the nation’s top home insurer in a new study by Which?

Which? members were polled on their experiences with their home insurance provider, covering things like how easy the firm was to deal with and whether they felt they got value for money.

Alongside this, Which? tasked its team of analysts with going through the policies on offer to get a gauge of how good the cover on offer really is.

These various scores were then brought together to provide a total, overall score for each of the insurers.

The best and worst home insurers

Here’s how the insurers line up, with just a selection of their ratings for different aspects. 

The table only covers the insurers that Which? was able to rank for both policies and customer service ‒ there were some names who could only be scored in one or other area.

As you can see, there’s quite the contrast between the scores at the top and bottom end of the table.

NFU Mutual was the strong winner, with a total score of 79%. It actually scored even more strongly just among its customers, racking up an impressive 87%. 

It won praise for all sorts of areas, such as the way it handles queries, the way it treats long-standing customers, and the fact that customers believe they are getting good value for money.

It was also noted by Which? that NFU Mutual is somewhat unusual in that you aren’t charged a fee for cancelling your policy early, nor if you opt to pay for your premiums on a monthly rather than annual basis.

It’s certainly not perfect though ‒ NFU Mutual only insures homes located in certain areas of the UK, so it won’t be an option for everyone.

Saga took second place and won praise for the three-year fixed price promise it offers on its ‘Plus’ policy.

This guarantees that your renewal price won’t change over the next two years, so long as your circumstances don’t change, while it was also one of the only insurers to get four stars for value for money.

At the other end of the scale, More Than was comfortably the lowest scoring provider. In fact, looking just at scores from customers, it managed a paltry 49% ‒ a full 16 percentage points lower than any of its rivals.

Notably, it was one of the worst performers when it comes to value for money, with its customers evidently feeling they aren’t getting what they are paying for.

What makes a good home insurance provider?

There are plenty of different factors that are important for all of us to consider when it comes to selecting a home insurer.

One of the big ones, unsurprisingly, is price.

There’s a reason that value for money is included in the Which? survey - we all want to feel like we are getting a fair deal for our cover.

Importantly, that doesn’t mean that cheap is best, but rather that the insurer delivers a policy that matches the premiums being charged.

The policies, and what is included, are at the heart of how good insurers operate.

When you’re shopping for a policy, it’s so important not to focus simply on the price, but also pay attention to exactly what’s covered within the policy.

There may be additional features, such as a more generous excess, higher single item limits and cover outside the home that set a policy apart, even if it does cost a little more.

And then there is the customer service, and how insurers approach claims.

After all, there’s no point having the perfect home insurance policy if the insurer then drags its heels or is unhelpful when you need to make a claim.

This isn’t something that you’ll find on any price comparison site, but it’s worth doing your own research to get a sense of what may lay in store should you need to make a claim down the line.