Are you insured while you are away?

You are about to head off for your summer holiday and the last thing on your mind is how safe your possessions will be while you're away. Empty homes are a prime target for burglars. What should you do to make sure your place is safe? Buy a home insurance policy which both protects your belongings from theft and covers other disasters such as fire, flood and accidental damage.

Most of us will risk leaving the contents of our homes uninsured, but do we really have enough cover in place and does our policy offer good value for money? Getting the right cover under a home insurance policy can be tricky. Just working out how much cover you actually need is not as easy as it sounds.

The average home has contents estimated to be worth a massive £40,000. Research shows that 27% of people put the value at less than £20,000, which means their homes are pretty under-insured. In the event of a claim you will find your insurer is only willing to foot half the bill because you have seriously under-estimated the cost of replacing your belongings. So how do you make sure you have enough cover?

One way is to use an online home insurance calculator which you can find on the internet, which will help you tot up the combined total of items from every room in your house. That way you'll make sure you don't miss anything out. Remember to include the cost of replacing expensive items such as jewelry, TV or computer, but what about the contents of your wardrobe or bits and pieces in your garage or attic which may have been long forgotten but are still valuable?

Another way to make sure you've got all the protection you need is to buy a policy which provides unlimited cover. With this type of policy you don't need to worry that your guesstimate on the value of your home contents has fallen seriously short of the mark. However, this doesn't come cheap. Premiums can be as much as double what you would pay for a policy with a specified level of cover. But you will have complete peace of mind. Don't forget, even if you have a policy with unlimited cover, you'll still need to calculate the replacement value of single high risk items such as jewelry or antiques.