Sainsbury's Home Insurance Review (2023)
Good for
- Robust features
- Replacing keys and locks if your keys are stolen or lost
- Contribution towards replacement boiler if necessary
- Covering mobile phones
Bad for
- Max of £75,000 Contents cover
- Underfloor heating not covered by Home Emergency cover
- High APR for monthly payments
The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
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In This Review
Sainsbury's Home Insurance Review: What You Need to Know
Is Sainsbury's Bank home insurance any good? Their customer ratings are solid, quotes are competitive and both of their products ("Home" and "Home Plus") have top-notch ratings for features—but are they right for you? Here's what you should know before you buy a Sainsbury's home insurance policy.
Sainsbury's Home Insurance Key Facts
- Two plans options: Home and Home Plus
- Up to £1,000,000 for buildings
- Up to £75,000 for contents
- Some accidental damage cover included as standard
- Home Plus includes Home Emergency and Family Legal extras
Quotes are usually competitive to the UK home insurance market, starting at £110. More detail is available in our section on quote comparison.
Paying Monthly is more expensive if you prefer to spread out your payments. In fact, our recent quote comparison discovered that monthly payments were charged an interest rate of 25.5%, which is pretty high. Competitors like M&S charge a 0% APR on monthly payments.
Nectar Points can be earned by those buying a new Sainsbury's Bank Home Insurance policy direct from their website or over the phone. As of this update, the latest deal for Nectar members was a guaranteed discount and 4,000 points when you buy direct from Sainsbury's Bank and use the promotional code HOME20. This is subject to change.
Storm and Flood Damage cover doesn't include damage to hedges, fences, gates or radio/TV/satellite dishes; related damage by frost, subsidence, heave or landslip is also excluded.
Valuables like laptops, mobile phones and jewellery are covered against theft and loss through Contents cover whilst at home, up to £2,000 per item (which you can increase) and £25,000 in total. If you want cover for accidents at home you'll need to buy the optional Accidental Damage for Contents cover. For cover for these types of items away from home you'll need to add the Personal Possessions cover, an amount of your choosing up to £10,000 (this includes mobile phones).
Accidental Damage to the following is included as standard, subject to conditions as with everything else:
- Contents: TV, DVD players, games consoles, Desktop PCs, laptops, Electronic tablets and notebooks
- Buildings: Fixed ceramic hob, sanitary ware, fixed glass, plus services including drains, pipes and cables that connect to your home
Optional Extras
To enhance your home insurance cover, you can add Personal Possessions (i.e., cover for belongings away from home), Accidental Damage, Home Emergency, Family Legal and extended Key and Lock cover.
Home Emergency Cover: 24/7 assistance to help with emergencies such as boiler breakdowns to kitchen floods
Family Legal Protection Cover: Legal fee cover if you have to go to court for a private legal dispute
Personal Possessions Cover: Protects your belongings when you’re out of the house
Key Cover: Protection if you lose your keys
Bike Cover away from home: Cover for your bicycle (bought with Personal Possessions Cover)
Enhanced Accidental Cover for buildings: e.g., putting your foot through the attic floor
Enhanced accidental Cover for contents: e.g., paint spill on a new carpet
Sainsbury's Home Insurance Customer Reviews, Complaints and Ratings
Sainsbury's Bank has earned 4.0 stars out of 5 by customers on Trustpilot, up from 3.8 last year. This rating reflects reviews from around 10,000 customers across all of their finance and insurance products from car to home to pet. We've scoured the reviews looking for comments on their home insurance specifically. Here are some real-life customer comments:
"Refused to renew my home insurance because I’m having home improvements done which is surely not an unusual thing for a homeowner to do in this day and age."
"Home insurance is not a good buy as they do not answer the phone and do not respond to complaints. Avoid them as the service is shambolic. 3 different underwriters in less than a year..."
"Straight forward and a reasonable price for good cover."
"Really simple to apply for Home Insurance and set up. The whole experience probably took no longer than twenty five minutes."
"Placed my home insurance with Sains Bank as they offered £30 worth of points with a Nectar voucher. Entered voucher code but no mention of the points being added. Will keep under review and chase up if they're not added."
"Took out Sainsburys home and contents insurance and needed to cancel the policy within the fourteen day cooling off period before the insurance had even started and before I received any documents, only to be charged £20 for cancellation."
"I took out a home insurance policy and realised I put in the wrong date, tried to call but cannot get through on the phone for hours, the website has hardly any features, so you will be charged for most changes it seems."
"The customer 'service' phone number waiting message tells you to go online to service your policy, yet there's no mechanism online to cancel the policy. The online portal is woeful in terms of what you can actual amend. You have to call, then encounter a long wait before anyone answers."
We should point out that all the reviews we read were related to the sales or customer experience (e.g., reflecting value for money, ease of purchase and ease of contacting customer service), not the claims experience.
Sainsbury's Home Insurance Price Comparison
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We found that Sainsbury's home insurance plans are mid market in price. We gathered pricing data from the Sainsbury's website to give you a general idea of how Sainsbury's home insurance quotes compare to others in the market, using a 35-year-old policyholder living in a mortgaged, 2-bedroom property in the south, who had made no claims in the past 5 years.
Insurance quotes can vary significantly from day to day and according to your individual details, so please just use the following data for educational purposes only; your quotes may reflect a large degree of variation and insurance policies across different companies can be difficult to compare directly.
Sainsbury's Home (Buildings and Contents) Insurance Add-On Costs
Here are estimated costs of add-on extras for a mortgaged, owner-occupied, 3-bed semi when you buy a Sainsbury's buildings & contents home insurance policy. The value of Home Emergency and Family Legal cover—included as standard in Home Plus policies—is £71.49.
| Sainsbury's Home Insurance Extras | |
|---|---|
| Accidental Damage (buildings and contents) | £51.86 |
| Enhanced Key Cover | £17.99 |
| Family Legal | £26.50 |
| Home Emergency Cover | £44.99 |
| Personal Possessions Away From Home (£2k) | £13.72 |
Sainsbury's Home Cover: What's Covered
Sainsbury's Bank home insurance protects against incidents like fire, flood, theft, vandalism, subsidence (depending on cause) and other similar events. They offer two level of cover, with the higher-tier Home Plus plan including Home Emergency and Family Legal as standard.
| Sainsbury's Bank Home Insurance Coverage | Home | Home Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings sum insured | up to £1 million | up to £1 million | |
| Trace and access | Included | Included | |
| Contents sum insured | up to £75,000 | up to £75,000 | |
| Single valuable item limit | up to £2,000 | up to £2,000 | |
| Garden contents | up to £2,000 | up to £2,000 | |
| Bikes (at home) | up to £750 | up to £750 | |
| Bikes (away from home) | Optional as part of Personal Possessions cover | ||
| Mobile phones and gadgets (at home) | Included | Included | |
| Mobile phones and gadgets (away from home) | Optional as part of Personal Possessions cover | ||
| Accidental damage | Included | Included | |
| Alternative accommodation | £50,000 (or £15,000 for contents only insurance) | £50,000 (or £15,000 for contents only insurance) | |
| Home Emergency | Optional | Included | |
| Family Legal | Optional | Included | |
| Personal Possessions (Away from home) | Optional | Optional | |
| Key Cover | Optional | Optional | |
| Extra Accidental Damage Cover | Optional | Optional | |
FAQs
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