Buying home contents insurance online can be both a time and cost saving exercise for the savvy homeowner. Certainly, using the internet to shop around for your cover is a lot easier than ringing around various insurers or wearing out your shoe leather traipsing up and down the High Street in order to find the best home insurance deal.

And, using an online specialist broker can make the whole process simple, as they can shop around for you, on your behalf, often accessing internet only deals that are not available on the High Street.

Of course, buying your home contents insurance online is one way to get a good deal on the cost of your protection, but there are things that you can do too yourself, in order to bring the premiums down too. The following tips should be borne in mind for when your house insurance is next up for renewal:

• Offer to pay a voluntary excess on top of the standard excess;

• Make your home more secure with approved alarm systems, movement sensitive outdoor lighting, high fencing to deter burglars, window locks, etc;

• Join a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme if there is one in your area – some insurers will offer a discount if you belong to such a group;

• Take out only the amount of house contents cover you need – or go to an insurer were you have unlimited cover on your home contents;

• Don’t be ‘claim happy’. If you regularly claim on your home insurance, your premiums will go up;

•Home contents insurance to protect both the contents and the structure of the property can often be found at a discounted price with some insurers if you take them together as a package;

• Before you buy your insurance, see whether you will be penalised for paying by monthly direct debit. Some insurers will add a small fee on top of the cost of the home contents insurance if you opt to pay for your cover monthly;

• Don’t be complacent when it comes to policy renewal time. Never just accept your current insurer’s quote without first shopping around as you may well find a cheaper deal elsewhere.

Don’t forget, either, when you are shopping around for the cover and looking for home contents insurance online, always compare the policies on a like-for-like basis. What comes as standard cover with one provider may be an additional option with another, which you have to pay for. So, do check the policy features and benefits of each one carefully to get a true picture of what policy offers the cover you require at the right price.

This is especially true when looking at any policy exclusions. For example, these could usually exclude cover for jewellery, or artwork or if you have collections that are worth a lot of money. Usually these would have to be covered individually if they are over a certain value.

The terms and conditions might be boring but you do have to take your time to look them over. If not then you could be under the impression you have cover for something when you do not and would not be eligible to claim. This can easily be done when buying home contents insurance online, as your broker can always provide help if needed.