For those due to renew their home insurance soon or for those without it, National Home Security Week (19 October 2009 to 25 October 2009) is a good reminder of why no home should be without it. It is a perfect time to start shopping around for the best deals.

These days, price comparison websites are used by some consumers to compare the costs of different insurance providers. When doing so, it’s possible for consumers to be engrossed in the cost, searching away for the cheapest deals and forgetting about other things that should be considered when taking out insurance. Consumers should check out which items or situations the insurance specifically covers and whether it offers the ability to pay in manageable instalments. This is worth noting because policy features can be just as important as cost.

Press release: http://www.nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_this.asp?ID=1471

Nationwide Building Society is, from Friday 16 October 2009, launching a number of initiatives, and rate cuts of up to 0.84%, which could make it easier for homebuyers to access mortgages and remortgages. The Society is also making further improvements to its outstanding range of options available to existing customers coming to the end of their deal.

Real help for first time buyers
Nationwide is offering first time buyers two new options designed to make it easier and cheaper for them to borrow by reducing the amount they pay upfront to secure a deal. First time buyers can choose between:

* a bigger discount on the reservation fee, changing from £250 to £500, or;
* a £250 reservation fee discount plus free legal fees.*

As an example, this reduces the reservation fee on a three year fixed rate mortgage at 4.44% (60% LTV) to just £396.The Society is also extending this offer to cover two additional products, the four and five year fixed rate, therefore allowing these borrowers to choose between fixing their rate over three, four or five years or taking a tracker product over three years. Additionally, they could choose to take the two year fixed or tracker rate with no fee and benefit from the new “no legal fees” offer (see below).

Better value for all home buyers
The Society is also introducing a combined reservation and legal fee* free option which is designed to help those who want to move home but are deterred by the cost of the initial fee. This option will be available on the competitive two year fixed rate available from 4.28% (up to 70% LTV) and on a new two year tracker available from 3.48%1 (up to 70% LTV).

Overall, some nice moves by the Nationwide Building Society, but it remains to be seen whether this helps competition in the mortgage market.

While the selection is not comprehensive, the site has made a lot of effort to trawl the internet for customer feedback on these companies, and especially look at complaints.

The main issues raised seem to boil down to the fact that with cheap home insurance, you get what you pay for in terms of service - but more important, you need to ensure you don’t try and save money by compromising on the level of service required in the first place.

A number of companies come out particularly well, but here’s how Finance Markets lists them:

• Prudential Home Insurance - excellent reputation for claims handling
• Aviva Home Insurance - also very good with claims, but not always so competitive
• Nationwide Home Insurance - Nationwide strikes a good balance between good service with very competitive pricing
• Barclays Home Insurance - good protection and surprising competitive
• Churchill Home Insurance - one of the better service providers among budget insurers
• Columbus Direct Home Insurance - not one of the biggest names, but worth considering
• Direct Line Home Insurance - better on pricing than service
• LV Home Insurance - another provider focused more on cheap pricing

Overall, a fair comment, and especially the pointer that you can often get a cheaper and more accurate quote by going direct to a home insurance company’s website, rather than go through a price comparison site such as GoCompare or Moneysupermarket.

More coverage can be found at Home Insurance News’ coverage of home insurance reviews.

Shame we didn’t see other lenders trying to out compete Nationwide for the loans market, though:

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_this.asp?ID=1467

With effect from Wednesday 7 October 2009, Nationwide will be introducing a new personal loan rate of 7.9% APR typical for loans of between £7,500 and £14,999* for its current account customers.

Over the past two months, Nationwide has been offering a special market leading low rate loan rate exclusively for its current account bank account customers. When the special offer period ends on Wednesday 7 October 2009, Nationwide will continue to reward its current account customers by offering a rate of 7.9% APR typical. This continues to be the lowest rate in the UK and beats the rates set by other high street personal loan providers by offering a sub 8% rate. The same low rate applies whether the loan is taken out through a branch, telephone or the Internet.

With effect from Thursday 6 August 2009, Nationwide will be reducing its personal loan rate to offer a market leading rate of 7.7% typical APR for loans of between £5,000 and £14,999* for its current account customers.

This makes Nationwide Building Society the lender with the lowest loan rate, but note the caveats:

1. You must have a Flexaccount to qualify

2. Loan amounts only over £5,000

3. Upper limit of £15,000

Even with these caveats, it still remains the best loan rate for those who quality, so it’ll be interesting to see whether other lenders will follow suit.