If you’re wondering how much does home insurance cost, you’re probably not alone. One in four UK households have no home insurance according to personal finance comparison site, Finder.com, leaving them with no protection for their most important and valuable asset.
Home insurance may seem like just another cost to put up with. But it is a policy you really shouldn’t be without. If your home is burgled or a burst pipe causes a flood, you’ll be glad you paid the premiums. And if something worse happens, like a devastating fire, you could be in real trouble without proper insurance.
With many policies costing less than £150 a year, skipping home insurance can prove to be a false economy. The average claim on home insurance comes in at £3,690, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). This is money that most people won’t have to spare.
Let alone the £32,000 average cost of a flood claim. And by shopping around, you can get a good deal, as long as you understand what you’re buying.
The term home insurance actually covers two different types of cover, though you can often buy them together.
First, buildings insurance covers the bricks and mortar in your home, including floors, ceilings and permanent fittings, such as fitted kitchens and bathroom suites. It usually also covers ‘outbuildings’ like your garage, shed and greenhouse. This policy pays out if, for example, your roof is damaged during a storm.
By contrast, home contents insurance covers your personal possessions. This is basically everything you’d take with you if you moved, including furniture, electronics, and personal items such as jewellery, ornaments and clothes.
Both types of insurance are intended to cover the cost of repairing or replacing items if they’re damaged, destroyed or stolen, by events including fire, flooding or burglary.
Image credit: Future Plc/Colin Poole
You’re probably wondering do I need home insurance? There is no legal requirement to have buildings or contents insurance – it’s usually your choice. Although if you have a mortgage on your home, the lender may make taking out adequate buildings cover a condition of your loan.
Even if that isn’t the case, or if you’ve paid off your mortgage, buildings insurance makes sense. Could you fund the cost of repairing major damage from your own savings?
However, if you’re renting, you don’t need buildings insurance. This is because your landlord will be responsible for protecting the property they own.
Are you wondering what is contents insurance? It’s always optional so you don’t need to get it. But again, think about the cost of replacing your possessions. Research from the ABI shows the average three bedroom home has £55,000 worth of stuff. You might cope with a burglary in which you lose £300 worth of items, but what if everything you own is destroyed in a fire?
The cost of home insurance depends on the size of your property, the value of your possessions, where you live and the cover you need.
You can buy building and contents insurance separately. The average cost of a buildings policy is £110 a year according to price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com, against £56 for contents. If you need both, you can often save money buying combined cover, which costs an average of £141.
Don’t assume the cheapest policy is the best for you. Above all, make sure you have sufficient cover or you could still be out of pocket in the event of a claim. With contents policies, most insurers offer ‘block’ levels of cover – up to £50,000 or £75,000, say.
Some, including LV=, the AA and Swinton have ‘contents calculators’ on their website with dropdown menus for each room. These can help you work out the replacement value of big items along with bedding, curtains, TVs, free standing kitchen appliances and personal items.
With buildings cover, it’s not the potential sale price of your property you need to insure for It’s the rebuilding cost, which should be lower. Insurers will usually calculate this cost for you as part of the quotation process. But you can do this for yourself with the ABI’s free rebuilding tool.
Don’t be tempted to skimp on cover levels. Even if you make a small claim, you can still lose out. If your insurer thinks your possessions are worth £100,000, say, but you’re only insured for £50,000, it might try to downgrade claims in the same proportion. It might only settle £500 of a £1,000 claim, for example.
Image credit: Future Plc/Dominic Blackmore
In addition to your basic cover, most insurers offer optional extras. These are worth considering, but may not be essential.
‘Accidental damage and personal possessions are the primary additional covers that people need,’ says Nicola McCheyne, head of personal lines technical underwriting at Zurich UK. Accidental damage covers you if you have an accident and break something in the property. For example, if you knock a TV off a stand and smash the screen.
‘Most home policies do give an element of accidental damage within the standard policy, like fixing glass, sanitary ware or underground pipes or cables on buildings. Also on contents, for glass in furniture, mirrors, TVs or audio/electrical equipment,’ McCheyne explains.
However, buying additional accidental damage cover extends this. For example, you’ll be able to claim if you knock a tin of paint over your carpet while decorating.
As for personal possessions cover, this is where you need to check whether you are insured for personal items you take outside your home, like your laptop or jewellery you wear.
Most policies set a ‘single article limit’. This is the maximum payout per item, and typically around £1,500. For higher value items, such as technology gadgets or pieces of jewellery, you should give insurers details of each item separately. This may incur an extra fee.
Image credit: Future Plc/David Brittain
While home insurance offers protection from unexpected costs, it’s not blanket cover for every emergency. And keeping your home in a good state of repair is usually a condition of most policies.
‘Insurers can refuse accidental damage claims if the event was caused by poor workmanship or faulty materials,’ warns Ryan Fulthorpe, GoCompare’s Home Insurance Expert. ‘For example tackling jobs you’re not qualified for could invalidate your home insurance, leaving you liable for the cost of repairing any damage caused.’
Shopping around on comparison sites can save you money, although not all providers are listed. Always compare ‘like for like’ cover, as policy terms, along with any excess, can vary between insurers. So while you may find a cheaper premium, if it means a much higher excess in the event of a claim, you need to weigh up if it’s worth the saving.
Avoid setting your policy to ‘auto renew’, as you may miss out on better deals. Also always pay for insurance in one go if you can, rather than splitting payments. Insurers offer the chance to pay monthly, but this can cost up to 40% more. One option, if you can’t afford to pay upfront, is to use a credit card with a 0% deal on ‘new purchases’ and pay it off interest free.
The post How much does home insurance cost? An all-you-need-to-know guide appeared first on Ideal Home.
Wondering how to connect an HP printer to WiFi? If so, you’re in the right place. So much for the paperless office! Life still demands that we use the printed word some of the time. We love digital tickets and QR codes on our phones. But if you’re rushing for a flight or a theatre booking, it can be reassuring to have your ticket on paper, just in case the tech lets you down at the wrong moment.
‘Work sometimes demands reading that’s easier to digest and annotate on the printed page. And schools, whether that’s home learning or permission slips, routinely expect us to be able to print at home,’ says Ideal Home’s Amy Cutmore. ‘Thankfully, the latest printers designed for home use are small and affordable. And they’re easier than ever to set up, too.’
Of course, before you start, it’s worth checking you’re on the best broadband deal, since a poor connection could be the cause of your issues. Plus, no one should be paying more for WiFi than needs be.
We’ve focussed on how to get a new HP printer working because it’s the UK’s best-selling home printer brand. But the advice for setting up other brands, such as Canon, Epson and Brother, is very similar.
‘Wireless printers offer a huge number of benefits, like the ability to print from wherever you are using your smartphone or tablet. They also avoid the need for a messy series of cables,’ says an HP spokesperson.
You can plug your printer directly to your laptop (USB cable) or into your WiFi router (Ethernet cable). But there really is no need these days. Wireless is reliable and printers with built-in WiFi make it easy to print wirelessly over broadband.
Image credit: Dominic Blackmore
Unpack your printer. Remove all the packaging (look out for tape holding things in place), plug in the power cables and follow the setup instructions. This will include inserting the ink cartridges and may also include printing an alignment page.
HP outlines all the various ways to set up wireless printing on its website. We spoke to its experts though, and they said that the best and easiest option is via the app. Just choose an HP printer that’s HP+ enabled.
HP+ is currently only available on the following printer models: HP DeskJet 2000, 4000 series, ENVY 6000 series, OfficeJet Pro 8000, 9000 series and HP LaserJet M200 series. If your printer is brand new, it’s likely to be HP+ enabled. If you’re still unsure, check the product code. Every HP+ printer will have a small letter ‘e’ at the end of the code.
‘Our latest printers are equipped to connect wirelessly to your phone, laptop or PC via the HP Smart app. All you need is an internet connection. The app will then guide you through the simple set-up process,’ says HP.
Download HP Smart from the HP website or your mobile app store. It’s available for PC, Mac, Android or iOS. For iPhones and iPads, go to the iOS app store and search ‘HP Smart’. For Google smartphones and tablets, go to the Play Store and search ‘HP Smart’.
Your device – whether it’s a PC, Mac, tablet or phone – needs to be on the home WiFi network that you want to connect the printer to. And you’ll need to know your router’s Wi-Fi password.
To find the default password, check the sticker on the router box. It’s usually on the back of the box and contains the wireless network name (SSID) and the password (WEP, WPA or WPA2).
If you changed your WiFi password but can’t remember it, you can reset it. To do this, look for a small ‘reset’ button on the router. Most likely, it will be located at the back and will be recessed so you can’t press it accidentally. Our tips on how to change your WiFi password might also be useful here.
Using the end of a paperclip, press the reset button for around 10 seconds. Once you release it, the router should reset to its default settings and you will be able to use the password provided on the back of the router.
Use the HP Smart app to find your printer and then select your home WiFi network and type in the password for it. This will connect the printer directly to WiFi. If you’re home’s WiFi is unreliable, this can be improved with some of the best WiFi extenders on the market.
It really is that simple. You can now print directly from the HP Smart app. But also the printer is on your home WiFi network, so other devices connected to the network should be able to see it too. For example, children should find that it appears as a printer on their devices so you no longer need to be the homework print shop.
A spokesperson from HP outlines how to print from the app: ‘Tap either the Print Photos or Print Documents tile, depending on the content you would like to print from your device. It’s that easy! The HP Smart app also gives users the ability to scan and print physical documents, all from their mobile device.’
Using the app, you can then print to your HP+ home printer from anywhere, even when you’re away from home. Sensitive documents? There is also a clever feature called Private Pickup which ensures documents aren’t printed until you’re physically near the printer.
Alternatively, your printer may have been supplied with Auto Wireless Connect software. This means you can connect your printer to a wireless network automatically without connecting any cables or entering your wireless network settings (network name and password). Many newer HP printers will have this capability during the standard software installation process.
To use Auto Wireless Connect, follow these steps:
If your computer or network configuration is not compatible with Auto Wireless Connect, you will be offered an alternative wireless set-up method.
The Wireless Setup Wizard runs from the printer’s control panel. Follow these steps:
If you are unable to connect after following these steps, your printer will give you the opportunity to print a Wireless Network Test report. This should help you find out what is wrong.
If your HP printer does not have a touch display screen, you can use a USB cable during your printer software installation. Do not plug the USB cable in until the software instructs you to do so. Follow these steps:
Many people may wonder how to connect an HP printer to WiFi. And even when following these simple steps, problems still might need troubleshooting. We asked HP’s experts and they said the most common issue is the printer and device not being connected to the same WiFi network.
If you regularly struggle, one of the ways to boost a WiFi signal is to try moving your printer nearer to the router for a better connection. Or add a WiFi extender to improve the signal in your home.
‘If you’re experiencing connection issues, it’s important to remember that the computer and printer need to be connected to the same network for them to work together. If connection is lost, there are several things the user can do to get their wireless printer re-connected.’
Image credit: Future Plc
If you changed your password and can’t remember it, you’ll need to go through the reset process detailed below and enter your new password.
There are three different methods for resetting the printer’s network settings, according to HP:
It’s a classic that all gadget-lovers swear by: ‘turning it off and on again’. It worked for The IT Crowd and it should work for you.
‘With the printer on, disconnect the power cord from the printer and the wall socket,’ HP explains. Once disconnected, leave the printer for 30 seconds and then plug it back in. The lights should then come back on. Press and hold the ‘resume’ button for 10-20 seconds and then release it.
‘For printers without a touch display, simply press and hold the ‘wireless’ and ‘cancel’ buttons together for 5 seconds – that’s it! The network settings will be reset successfully and you can reconnect your network via the HP Smart app.’
‘If your device has a touch display, in the wireless or network settings menu find and select ‘Restore Network Defaults’ or ‘Restore Network Settings’. Some devices will have a dedicated wireless button. In which case you can simply press and hold the button until the network resets,’ says HP.
The post How to connect an HP printer to WiFi – a step-by-step guide appeared first on Ideal Home.
