Overlapping insurance is costing us a packet

Protecting valuables from the light-fingered is costly

We're wasting £221m a year by being double or triple insured, new research warns. It happens most often with travel insurance, with nearly 15 million of us taking out baggage cover when it is often already protected through our home contents cover.

Bikes, motor breakdown and mobile cover are similar examples, according to NFU Mutual, which commissioned the research from Defaqto.

But the most glaring case of over-insurance is baggage cover within a travel policy, which most people will already have through the personal possessions cover within their home contents insurance. Asking for the cover to be excluded from your travel insurance could save you £20.

A million people could save a further £55 a year by sacrificing some of the features in mobile phone policies, such as speedy handset replacement and unauthorised call cover. Their home insurance may cover them for most of the major risks posed –of loss, theft or damage.

Another common example is car roadside recovery, with nearly 900,000 motorists paying for breakdown cover through a packaged bank account despite already being covered under a comprehensive motor policy.

Lindsay Sinclair, chief executive of NFU Mutual, said: “It's clearly worth taking time to understand the finer detail of any insurance policies you have, with significant savings to be made by avoiding any overlaps.”