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07 Jul 2023

Direct Line home insurance review

Read Which?'s expert review of Direct Line's home insurance. Find out how we rate its policies against other providers

Dean SobersSenior researcher & writer

In this article

What does Direct Line offer?
Does Direct Line offer the best home insurance?
How good are Direct Line's home insurance policies?
How did customers rate Direct Line's home insurance?
How can you save money on Direct Line home insurance?
How can I claim?

What does Direct Line offer?

Established in April 1985, Direct Line is one of the largest UK insurers – offering home insurance, car insurance, pet insurance, travel insurance, life insurance and more.

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

Direct Line's standard policy ('Home Insurance') comes with burst pipes cover and key cover as standard.

You can add on full accidental damage cover (although a limited measure, covering damage to service pipes and cables, comes as standard under its buildings cover), home emergency cover (including boiler cover), personal possessions cover and legal protection cover.

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Does Direct Line offer the best home insurance?

We've rated dozens of insurers on their policies and, where possible, customer service. Members can log in to read our full reviews.

If you're not already a member, join Which? and get full access to these results and all our reviews.

We analyse and rate 21 aspects of buildings cover, 40 areas of contents cover, and 25 features applicable to both (such as admin fees). We use this data to award each provider policy scores for its buildings and contents cover.

Initially, we score all of the product elements out of five, reflecting how competitive each policy is in this area compared with other insurance products. We also assess how important different policy elements are to consumers when choosing and using their home insurance, and factor this in when calculating our policy scores. More important features (such as alternative accommodation cover) will have more of an effect on the score than some other features (such as cover for the contents of your freezer).

How good are Direct Line's home insurance policies?

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.

How did customers rate Direct Line's home insurance?

We've talked to customers who recently made a claim, so that we can score insurers on their customer and claims service.

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

How can you save money on Direct Line home insurance?

You won't find Direct Line on comparison websites, making it slightly less convenient to compare with insurers that are.

It's still worth checking out what the competition offers on comparison sites, though – including Direct Line's sister brands, Churchill and Privilege. Importantly, though, these brands don't offer identical policies.

Direct Line's policies are typically cheaper online than over the phone – although if you think Direct Line can do better than its online price, it's still worth phoning to see if you can haggle it down. The same stands if you're already with Direct Line and aren't happy with its renewal offer.

If you're with another provider and want to take out a Direct Line policy, it reimburses up to £55 if you incur a cancellation fee for switching ahead of your renewal date.

For other ways to save money on home insurance, see our guide.

Check you're getting a great deal and search for a new home insurance policy using the service provided by Confused.com. Get a quote now