13th Nov 07

A GfK NOP survey for Sainsbury's Bank suggests one in four homeowners fail to shop around for their home insurance.

Homeowners could be missing out on great deals by neglecting to shop around for their home contents or buildings policies.

Sainsbury’s Home Insurance has found that 8.55 million people (26% of homeowners) failed to obtain any additional quotes the last time they renewed their cover. A further 16% only bothered to get one extra quote besides that supplied by their current provider.

The new research highlights the true extent of homeowners’ apathy towards shopping around for home insurance cover. The findings also reveal that less than a quarter of homeowners (22%) bothered to obtain three or more additional quotes at the point of renewal.

Steve Johnson, Head of Home Insurance, Sainsbury’s said: “Although it may seem tempting to just stick with your renewal quote or the first quote you get, it really is essential to shop around. Despite the fact that home insurance premiums are reportedly on the rise, products vary dramatically and there are some cracking deals out there if people take the time to evaluate what's on offer. We are currently offering customers 12 months for the price of nine and a further 10% off if they shop online.”

Of those homeowners who sourced no additional quotes the last time they renewed their home insurance cover, 12% said it was because they could not be bothered to obtain any further quotes – with women (16%) more than twice as likely as men (7%) to admit to this. A further 8% blamed a lack of time to shop around and 10% said that they trusted their current provider to give them a good quote.


Steve Johnson added: “Homeowners should be careful not to just compare policies on price, but also look at the level of cover

they provide. Quality cover such as unlimited buildings insurance does not have to be expensive and by shopping around,

people can take advantages of discounts such as ours that don’t compromise on quality.

Findings summary

1% did not believe they could get a cheaper quote
8% did not have time
10% trusted their current provider
12% couldn't be bothered to get any more quotes
45% were happy with the quotes they had from their existing provider

697 people were interviewed by GfK NOP between 12th and 14th October 2007. Interviews were conducted over the phone. The consumer omnibus research conducted by GfK NOP uses a large sample size that reflects the demographic profile of GB. Given this it is possible to extrapolate figures and make projections from the research results within appropriate confidence intervals.