Your home insurance excess explained.

Trying to understand your home insurance excess can be a bit daunting. You might not be sure what it means, why it’s there, or how much you’ll need to pay if you make a claim.

In this guide, we go over:

We explain how your excess works with Tesco Home Insurance, so there’s no surprises if you need to make a claim.

Your home insurance excess is the amount you pay towards the cost of a claim.

That’s the same, whether it’s your contents insurance or buildings insurance excess.

If you make a claim with Tesco Home Insurance, you only pay the excess when your claim’s been approved. We’ll deduct it from the final amount we pay you when we settle your claim.

Example:

If your excess is £100 and repairs cost £1,000, we’ll pay £900 and you’ll pay £100.

Your compulsory excess is an amount set by us - or your home insurance provider, if it’s not us.

Your voluntary excess is an amount chosen by you.

A compulsory excess is sometimes known as a fixed or standard excess.

A voluntary excess is the extra amount you decide to pay towards a claim to reduce your premium.

How much voluntary excess you should pay on home insurance depends on your own personal circumstances. If you choose a higher voluntary excess, it can help to lower your premiums. But it means you’ll pay more if you make a claim.

Your compulsory and voluntary excesses both count towards your total excess.

When you make a claim, you pay both excesses. Your home insurance provider adds them together to get your total excess.

Some claims involve more than one type of cover - for example, both buildings and contents insurance. Your policy schedule explains what happens for these types of claims.

Example:

Total excess = compulsory excess + voluntary excess.

We’ll deduct the total excess from the amount we pay you when we settle your claim.

Your compulsory excess can vary for different types of claim. That’s because insurers use these excesses to help manage their costs. In doing so, it helps to keep the price of cover fair and affordable for everyone.

If you have Tesco Home Insurance, you should check your policy documents to see which claims have a higher excess.

Remember, your total excess will also depend on the amount of voluntary excess you go for.

Here’s how your home insurance excess works, step by step:

1. You report your claim.

2. We review the details.

3. If your claim’s approved, we’ll work out the repair or replacement cost.

4. We’ll take your total excess off the amount we pay you when we settle your claim.

Example:

If repairs cost £2,000 and your excess is £300, we pay you £1,700 if your claim’s approved.

If the cost of repair is less than your excess, it might not be worth claiming.

Damage to your home can sometimes be caused by someone else. For example, water damage caused by a neighbour’s leaking pipe.

If that’s the case:

You can see your excess when you buy Tesco Home Insurance online - on the ‘Your cover summary’ screens.

You’ll also see it in:

You can learn more about your policy renewal in our guide - Your home insurance renewal explained.

You can sign in to check your excess in Your Insurance Account. It’s also where you can manage your Tesco Home Insurance and Tesco Car Insurance policies online.

Here are some of the benefits:

If you have any questions about your cover, or need to make a claim, we’re here to help.

If you have a disability, or need to do things differently, tell us how we can help.

Tesco Home Insurance is arranged and administered by Tesco Insurance and is underwritten by Tesco Underwriting Ltd.

You'll find complete details of the cover, monetary limits, exclusions, excesses and terms in our policy documents.