Direct Line home insurance review

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Direct Line home insurance overview Does Direct Line offer the best home insurance? Direct Line’s Home insurance policy: is it good or bad? Does Direct Line offer different levels of home insurance cover?

How did customers rate Direct line's home insurance? What is Direct Line's claims number? Get top money-saving tips from Which?

Direct Line home insurance overview

Established in April 1985, Direct Line has grown significantly over the years and now has over 10 million customers across the UK. It offers a wide range of financial products including home insurance, car insurance, and pet insurance.

Direct Line Insurance belongs to the Direct Line Group which also owns Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag, and its home insurance is underwritten by U K Insurance Ltd.

Read our reviews of all the insurers who took part in our home insurance analysis

Does Direct Line offer the best home insurance?

Here's how Direct Line scored in our latest home insurance survey:

Home And Mobile Insurance

Direct Line review

Overall Which? score

Our total score score combines both the Which? Customer Score, ratings from real customers of the provider, and our expert analysis of the provider's policies. The total score is made up of 50% of the Customer Score and 25% each of Buildings and Contents policy scores.

Which? Customer Score

Which?'s rating for customer satisfaction, based on feedback from real customers. The score is made up of a customer's overall satisfaction with the brand, and how likely they are to recommend that brand.

Buildings policy score

Which?'s rating of the quality this company's buildings insurance policy. We analysed 48 features of its cover to calculate the policy score.

Contents policy score

Which?'s rating of the quality this company's contents insurance policy. We analysed 67 features of its cover to calculate the policy score.

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To help you find the best home insurance policy, Which? goes the extra mile to sort the best from the worst.

How we analyse home insurance

We analyse and rate 48 key elements of standard buildings home insurance policies to come up with the buildings policy score and 67 key elements of standard contents home insurance policies to come up with the contents policy score. We assess how important each individual element is to consumers when choosing and using a home insurance policy, and weight it accordingly when calculating our policy scores.

Initially, we score all of the product elements out of five, reflecting how competitive each provider is in this area compared with other insurers. Weightings are then applied to the higher and lower element scores to enhance / reduce their impact in the overall product score.

Direct Line’s Home insurance policy: is it good or bad?

We've rated hundreds of policy details and picked out the best and worst elements of this cover.

Members can log in to read our full policy analysis. If you're not already a member, join Which? and get full access to these results and all our reviews.

In detail: every part of Direct Line's Home insurance rated

Weighting	Policy element	Details	Rating
Most important	Maximum sum insured (£)
Most important	Alternative accommodation (£)
Most important	Owner's / Occupier's liability (£)
Most important	Repairs guarantee
Other	Unoccupancy period
Most important	Trace and access (£)
Most important	Burst pipes - included?
Most important	Blockage of sewer pipe - included?
Secondary	Gradual build-up of groundwater - included?
Secondary	Subsidence - included?
Secondary	Damage to underground services - included?
Secondary	Flood and storm damage - included?
Secondary	Flood and storm damage to outbuildings - included?
Secondary	Storm damage to fences - included?
Other	Theft of keys - included?
Secondary	Theft of keys (£)
Other	Loss of keys - included?
Secondary	Loss of keys (£)

Weighting	Policy element	Details	Rating
Most important	Maximum sum insured (£)
Most important	Alternative accommodation (£)
Most important	Owner's / Occupier's liability (£)
Other	Unoccupancy period
Other	Matching sets cover - included?
Other	Damage by domestic pets covered?
Most important	Single item limit for valuables - max limit (£)
Most important	Contents in the open - within home boundary i.e. garden (£)
Most important	Contents in outbuildings - including garages (£)
Most important	Theft from outbuildings (£)
Secondary	Gradual build-up of groundwater - included?
Other	Garden cover - included?
Other	Garden contents cover - plants (£)
Secondary	Money in the home (£)
Secondary	Money away from the home (£)
Secondary	Credit cards in the home (£)
Secondary	Credit cards away from the home (£)
Secondary	Digital information in the home (£)
Secondary	Items temporarily removed from home (£)
Other	Business / Office equipment (£)
Other	Freezer contents (£)
Other	Guests belongings (£)
Other	Student contents (£)
Other	Nursing home contents (£)
Other	Moving house cover - included?
Other	Theft of keys - included?
Secondary	Theft of keys (£)
Other	Loss of keys - included?
Secondary	Loss of keys (£)

Weighting	Policy element	Area covered
Most important	Accidental damage cover - included?	Buildings and contents
Most important	Home emergency cover - included?	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Home emergency - limit per call-out (£)	Buildings and contents
Other	Home emergency - emergency accommodation	Buildings and contents
Most important	Boiler cover - included?	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Boiler repair (£)	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Boiler replacement (£)	Buildings and contents
Other	Boiler covered if not annually serviced?	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Legal expenses cover - included?	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Legal expenses cover (£)	Buildings and contents
Most important	Personal possessions cover - included?	Contents
Most important	Personal possessions cover - maximum sum insured (£)	Contents
Most important	Personal possessions away from home - single item limit (£)	Contents
Most important	Personal Possessions limit within a car (£)	Contents
Most important	Mobile phones (away from home) - included?	Contents
Secondary	Mobile phones away from home (£)	Contents
Other	Unspecified bicycles away from home - included?	Contents
Other	Specified bicycle away from home (£)	Contents

Weighting	Policy element	Area covered
Most important	Standard level of excess	Buildings
Most important	Standard level of excess	Contents
Most important	Escape of Water excess	Buildings
Most important	Escape of Water excess	Contents
Secondary	Subsidence excess	Buildings
Secondary	Personal possessions excess	Contents
Secondary	Replacement locks and keys excess	Buildings and contents
Most important	Is NCD offered?	Buildings and contents
Other	NCD protection - included?	Buildings and contents
Other	NCD protection claims (number per year)	Buildings and contents

Weighting	Policy element	Area covered
Most important	Interest charged on payment by instalments (APR)	Buildings and contents
Most important	Renewal Fee	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Adjustment Fee	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Duplicate Documents Fee	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Cancellation fee within cooling off period	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Cancellation fee after cooling off period	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Payment Default Fee	Buildings and contents
Other	Emergency helpline	Buildings and contents
Other	Claims helpline	Buildings and contents
Other	Legal advice helpline	Buildings and contents
Other	Discount for buying buildings and contents insurance?	Buildings and contents
Secondary	Insurer pays switching fees	Buildings and contents
Other	Notice if insurer cancels	Buildings and contents

Table last updated in March 2020. Next update in February 2021.

Does Direct Line offer different levels of home insurance cover?

Direct Line also offers Home Plus home insurance, which features a higher level of cover, generally for a higher premium.

To see how Direct Line's home insurance compares to other policies check out our guide on the best and worst home insurance.

How did customers rate Direct line's home insurance?

As well as looking at how Direct Line's home insurance policy stacks up against others, we've also analysed how customers who have recently made a claim feel about it too.

Members can log in to see our range of customer service star ratings and read about individual customers' experiences. If you're not already a member, join Which? and get full access to these results and all our reviews.

How Direct Line's home insurance scored for seven elements of customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction element	Which? customer rating
Application process	-
Clarity of policy	4 out of 5
Dealing with queries	4 out of 5
Ease of managing your policy online	4 out of 5
Treatment of longstanding customers	3 out of 5
Dealing with complaints	4 out of 5
Value for money	4 out of 5

Table last updated in March 2020. Next update in February 2021.

"-' represents where we have insufficient sample size (less than 30) to generate a star rating

What is Direct Line's claims number?

If you need to make a claim with Direct Line home insurance call 0345 303 1686 or you can make a claim online.

According to Direct Line, you'll be able asked to provide personal details, such as your address, as well as a description of what happened, where the incident took place and how much you are claiming for.

Find out more about claiming successfully in our guide to making a home insurance claim.