Compare First Direct Home Insurance Quotes Against The Market

first direct is widely famous in the UK for pioneering telephone and digital banking, alongside its legendary, award-winning 24/7 customer service. As a division of HSBC UK Bank plc, they offer a highly competitive suite of financial products, including their popular home insurance.

However, first direct is a bank, not a direct insurance underwriter. When you buy a first direct home insurance policy, the financial risk and the claims infrastructure are entirely provided and underwritten by the UK insurance giant Aviva Insurance Limited. By pairing first direct’s famous customer service approach with Aviva’s massive underwriting power, they offer a highly robust property policy.

You can get independent advice and a personalised quotes comparison of top-tier policies (including how first direct’s cover compares to the rest of the market) from one of our expert advisers below:

What type of home insurance do they provide?

first direct keeps things incredibly simple by offering one highly comprehensive core policy that consistently achieves a maximum 5-Star Rating from Defaqto. You can choose standalone Buildings, standalone Contents, or a joint policy.

Core Buildings & Contents Insurance

Their standard policy removes many of the stressful caps found on budget policies:

• Unlimited Buildings Cover: They completely remove the worry of under-insuring your bricks and mortar by providing unlimited rebuild cover as standard.

• Contents Limits: Provides up to £100,000 of cover for your personal belongings, furniture, and electronics on a new-for-old replacement basis.

• Alternative Accommodation: If a disaster like a fire or major flood makes your home completely uninhabitable, the policy provides a generous allowance for somewhere for you and your pets to stay while repairs are carried out.

• Temporary Removal: Includes standard cover for your contents while you are temporarily away from the home.

Optional Extras

To ensure you only pay for what you need, first direct treats premium coverages as optional add-ons:

• Accidental Damage: You can bolt this on to protect against everyday mishaps, like putting your foot through the ceiling while in the loft or spilling red wine on the living room carpet.

• Home Emergency Cover: Provides up to £1,000 (with no excess to pay) for labour, parts, and materials to deal with sudden emergencies like a burst pipe, a total boiler breakdown, or a pest infestation.

• Legal Expenses: Provides up to £50,000 in legal costs to pursue or defend disputes such as personal injury, employment tribunals, or property issues.

How first direct calculates premiums

Because your policy is backed by Aviva, the premium calculation utilizes Aviva's highly sophisticated property data:

• Risk Profiling: Your price is heavily dictated by standard risk factors, such as the historic crime rate in your postcode, your property's proximity to flood zones, and the age of the building.

• 0% Monthly Interest: This is a massive selling point. Unlike the vast majority of UK insurers who treat monthly Direct Debits like a high-interest loan, first direct allows you to spread your payments over 12 months at no extra cost.

• Voluntary Excess: You can easily manipulate your final premium by choosing to accept a higher voluntary excess (the amount you agree to pay towards a claim before the insurer steps in).

Pros and cons

Here is a quick breakdown of the pros and cons of protecting your property with first direct:

Pros:

• Unlimited Rebuild Cover: Providing unlimited buildings cover takes the anxiety and guesswork out of calculating exactly how much it would cost to rebuild your home.

• No Monthly Fees: Offering 0% APR on monthly Direct Debit payments makes their policies highly accessible and genuinely cheaper over the year compared to rivals who charge up to 30% APR.

• Aviva Backing: You get the peace of mind of having your home protected by one of the largest and most financially secure underwriters in Europe.

• Defaqto 5-Star: The core product is independently verified as being of the highest market quality.

Cons:

• Add-Ons Increase Price: Because Accidental Damage and Home Emergency cover are not included as standard, adding them to fully protect your home will push up the baseline quote.

• Exclusion Zones: Their home insurance is strictly available to properties in the UK, excluding the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

• Brand Separation: While you buy through first direct, your actual claim will be managed directly by Aviva's claims infrastructure, which can sometimes feel slightly disconnected from the first direct banking app.

Customer reviews

first direct is famously dominant in UK customer service polls, primarily for its banking operations.

• Service Reputation: They frequently top tables for customer satisfaction because they use highly trained, UK-based call centres rather than automated phone loops.

• Claims Handling: When the worst happens, you benefit from Aviva’s massive 24/7 UK claims infrastructure. Reviewers generally praise Aviva's rapid response to major weather events, though complex claims requiring loss adjusters can take longer to process.

• Independent Ratings: Aside from their 5-Star Defaqto rating, their banking and insurance products routinely feature highly in Which? customer surveys.

How to get a first direct home insurance quote

You can generate a quote in minutes via the first direct website or by calling their customer service team.

However, even with a product as robust as theirs, it is always a smart idea to compare their quote against the wider market. Another underwriter might offer higher contents limits, or a broker might find a cheaper premium for your specific postcode while offering identical 5-Star cover.

At Money Helpdesk, our property experts can handle the heavy lifting for you. If you are looking to arrange robust cover for your home, get in touch and we will present you with your best options.