Mortgage holders take the easy option with home insurance

A total of 17% of mortgage holders take out home insurance through their mortgage provider, with 44% admitting it’s the easiest option.

A number of mortgage holders take out home insurance with the same provider because it’s the easiest option, a comparethemarket.com poll suggests.

Of the mortgage holders polled 17% took out home insurance with the same provider, with 44% admitting they did so because they saw it as the easiest option.

A further 11% felt pressured to take out home insurance with the same provider to secure the mortgage.

Gemma Sonfield, head of home insurance at comparethemarket.com, said: “When you consider the huge outlay required when buying a house, it is very easy to ignore the potential savings from shopping around for a home insurance policy.

“However, as the statistics show, almost £90m is being overpaid unnecessarily by taking the default option of home insurance via their bank.

“Perhaps the most concerning finding in our research is that more than one in ten people felt pressured to take the home insurance policy in order to secure the mortgage and that the same number didn’t even know that shopping around was a possibility.

“If some people feel forced to take what can be a more expensive policy, banks need to evaluate how they communicate with their customers.”

The comparison website estimated that the 17% could save £66 per person by shopping around.