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Dean is an award-winning personal finance writer who’s spent over 15 years helping consumers navigate the tangled and fascinating world of insurance.
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We rated 177 elements of each policy, covering buildings, contents and admin points such as fees.
We asked 3,419 home insurance customers who made a claim within the past two years to score their insurer.
In this article
We've reviewed three of Hastings Direct's home insurance policies – Home, Essential and Premier. These can be bought direct from Hastings Direct or via price comparison websites.
We've also surveyed 94 customers who've recently made a home insurance claim with Hastings Direct.
Hastings Direct also offers car insurance and motorbike insurance.
Please note that this article is for information purposes only and doesn't constitute advice. Please refer to the insurer's T&Cs before committing to any financial products.
Hastings’ policies ranked among the lower 40% of those we scored.
69%
Policies
out of 21 home insurers with a customer score
See how this compares with the best home insurance, or read more about how we rate home insurance.
We've reviewed three Hastings Direct policies. Select a policy from our table to see what it offers and what we scored it.
| Buildings - Alternative accommodation | £200,000 | |
| Buildings - Burst pipes | Included | |
| Buildings - Escape of water excess | £500-£750 | |
| Home emergency cover limit | £500 | |
| Home emergency - central heating/boiler repair | £500 | |
| Buildings - Groundwater flooding | Not covered | 0 out of 5 |
| Subsidence excess | £1,000 | |
| Contents - Valuables unspecified single item limit | £1,500 | |
| Contents - Alternative accommodation | £15,000 | |
| Contents - Accidental damage | Optional extra | |
| Contents - Guests' belongings | £1,000 | |
| Contents - Theft of contents in the open | £1,000 | |
| Contents - Damage to contents in the open | £1,000 | |
| Contents - Theft from outbuilding | £2,000 | |
| Contents - Damage to contents in an outbuilding | £5,000 | |
| Contents - Personal possessions cover single item limit | £1,500 |
Table last updated in September 2026. Next update in September 2027. We recommend checking policies before buying.
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Dean Sobers, Which? home insurance expert, says:
Despite its name, Hastings Direct’s Premier policy can only really be described as average - and that's being generous. Its buildings score was 70% (vs an average of 71%) and its contents score was 63% (vs 67%).
It covers most of the basics, such as floods, storms and subsidence, and contents within your home, garden and outbuildings.
However, the policy wasn't as generous as those of other insurers. For example, valuables (when not specified) are covered up to £1,500 per item. Most policies cover £2,000 or more. And its unoccupancy period (the length of time you can stay away from your home before your insurance begins to turn off) is 30 days. It’s more typically two months or more.
During holidays, religious festivals and special events such as weddings, Hastings Direct automatically increases your contents cover by £7,500 to allow for higher-cost items, such as gifts, that you may temporarily keep in your home.
Hastings Direct’s mid-range Home policy had the same overall scores as its Premier cover – 70% and 63%. The policies themselves aren't identical, though. Home cover comes with £10,000 alternative accommodation cover for contents, which pays for temporarily living and storing possessions away from home during a claim. Its Premier policy extends this to £15,000.
Hastings Direct’s stripped-back Essential policy earned a similar score for buildings cover – 69%. But its contents cover scored just 58% and was in the bottom fifth of our table.
We asked Hastings Direct customers who have recently made a claim how they felt about their home insurance.
Hastings Direct got a customer score of 69% – 20th in our table of 21 providers.
It also scored 68% when we asked people to rate its claims handling, placing it 21st out of 22 brands compared. See the full list of results here.
When we asked more about the ratings that customers gave Hastings Direct, one claimant told us: 'It took a while to file my claim and I never got told why I didn't get the full amount.'
Another less-than-satisfied customer said they felt that the insurer 'just sends you round in circles rather than helps you.'
| How comprehensive the policies are | |
| How affordable the policies are | |
| Clarity of policy | |
| Dealing with queries | |
| Dealing with complaints | |
| Value for money | |
| Fair treatment of long-standing customers | n/a |
Table last updated in September 2026. Next update in September 2027.
'n/a' represents where we have insufficient sample size (less than 40) to generate a star rating.
Hastings Direct sample size: Customer score, 94: Claims score, 107
To check to see if you're getting a good deal, Hastings Direct home insurance can be bought from the following price comparison websites:
You can also get a quote online or by calling Hastings Direct. For all three policies, a discount may be applied if you take out both buildings and contents cover.
Want to pay monthly? Hastings Direct charges interest at 22.8% APR, so you might be better off paying annually on an interest-free credit card.
Above information correct as of August 2026. For more ways to save money when buying insurance, see our guide.
With a customer score of 69%, Hastings sits in 20th place overall in our satisfaction table, coming just below Halifax (71%).
Its standard Home buildings policy scored 70% – the same as the standard policy from Churchill – and ranks joint 18th in our standard buildings cover table.
As for contents insurance, its Home policy scored 63% and sits in joint-23rd place out of the standard policies we rated. A standard policy from The AA also scored 63%.
If you need to make a claim with Hastings Direct, who you contact depends on which company underwrites your policy:
Visit the Hastings Direct website to find out more about making a claim online.
Find out more: Is it worth claiming on your home insurance?
Probably not, given that Hastings Direct's policies failed to impress in our analysis.
Not everyone will be after the highest levels of cover, but it is important that the insurer delivers on what its policies promise. Hastings Direct's low claims score doesn't inspire confidence in this respect.
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