The recent flooding in certain areas has caused worry and pay out for some insurance companies with figures expected to reach around £2.5 billion and it is almost certain to boost up the cost of home cover in the near future. With this in the pipeline many homeowners who need a policy or want to renew a policy could be led to panic buying to beat the increase in premiums.

While of course we all want to secure the cheapest premiums for our home cover it is essential to get adequate cover for your particular needs and buying "off the peg" insurance of course will not be tailored to your individual circumstances. By all means shop online for your home cover but avoid the direct insurer websites that flaunt extremely low cost insurance. While you might get a cheap policy it could be useless if it does not include what you need, low cost policies are just that, only very basic. For instance if you live in a high risk area for flooding and have bought insurance without reading the small print or stating you live in a high risk area then you might not be eligible if and when it came to making a claim.

It is essential that you fill in an application thoroughly for your home cover and be totally honest; if you go with a specialist broker for your quotes they will be able to shop around on your behalf and get you the cheapest premiums while at the same time gathering together the key facts of the cover.

The key facts are where you can find the exclusions and what is and is not covered in your home insurance, it is essential that you do compare these along with the cost of the insurance. Insurers will try to wriggle their way out of insurance claims if possible, so it is imperative that you do not give them good reason to begin with.

Direct insurer websites can sometimes lure homeowners with what seems to be attractive premiums for home cover only to discover when they try to make a claim that they have a huge amount of excess to pay before the policy will payout. While we all expect to pay some excess, an additional sum can be added into the policies small print so again it really pays to read it over.

The information you can get from a specialist broker can go a long way to saving you money on your home cover while at the same time making you aware of the many tricks that some insurance companies will pull to get you to sign up for a policy. Cheap insurance can be good providing it is suitable for your circumstances, if it is not then it could cost you thousands in the long run if you have to pay out of your own pocket for repairs because of the exclusions. Never take for granted that your home cover includes all the extras that was listed on the website, this again can be just another way of luring you and almost certainly somewhere on the page will have been small print stating that not all is covered in a basic policy.