Yes we provide discounts on your policy. Up to a maximum of 35% discount is available on your main private dwelling for:

• Smoke Alarm and/or neighbourhood watch - 5% discount
• Over 60 years of age - 12.5% discount (lower discounts available for younger ages)
• Centrally Monitored Burglar Alarm - 15% discount (lower discounts available for other alarm types)
• Voluntary Excess of €350 - 2.5% discount

In the context of insurance, the term "buildings" includes your home, fixtures and fittings (kitchen units, radiators, bath, light fittings etc), garages, sheds, conservatories, patios, terraces, footpaths, drives, walls, fences and gates.

You can insure against loss or damage to your buildings due to:

• Fire and lightning
• Storm and flooding, or burst pipes
• Burglary and malicious damage
• Subsidence
• Accidental damage

We also include property owner's liability cover up to €3,000,000 as standard.

If you do need to rebuild your home and you've underestimated the cost of your insurance, you'll end up having to pay the balance.

So it's important to get it right. Insure your home for a figure based not on how much your house is worth, but on how much it will cost to rebuild.

An easy method is to multiply the width by the length of each floor to get the square feet. Then, multiply this figure by a rebuilding cost per square foot.

You should also allow for kitchen fittings, wardrobes, garages, domestic outbuildings and other fixtures.

Remember, too, that the type of material you use, the cost of clearing the site and removing the debris, the location of your house, and any special architectural features might affect your rebuilding cost.

Read a guide on how to calculate the rebuilding cost on the Chartered Surveyors website, www.scs.ie¹.

1. Bank of Ireland does not warrant the accuracy or content of this site.

It covers the contents of your home, including anything you would take with you if you were moving house.

Carpets, curtains and furniture are contents. So are things like the vacuum cleaner, the television and the stereo. Other items such as jewellery, CDs and clothes can also be covered by contents insurance.

Like buildings, your contents can be insured against loss or damage due to:

• Fire and lightning
• Storm and flooding, or burst pipes
• Burglary and malicious damage
• Subsidence
• Accidental damage
• Liability

Remember that prices change, and more often than not they rise. So your insurance should cover the cost of replacing them at current prices rather than the prices you bought them at.

Simply make a list of everything in your home that you want to cover and add up the cost of buying them today. Write it down and update it every so often.

You're always getting new things that you might need to cover. Any single items worth more than 10% of the contents sums insured such as jewellery or antiques, should have the value noted on your policy.

To see how to calculate how much you should cover your contents for, the following is an example of contents you are likely to have in your living room.

Living Room

To calculate how much you should cover your contents for, make a list like this one for every room in the house, and for any garage or domestic outbuilding you might have.

But remember that this is only a guide - everybody's list is going to be different. You might also have other items in your home that you should cover.

And you can always update your contents insurance figure over the phone simply by calling our Customer Care Helpline on 1890 608 608 (option 2) between 9am and 5.30pm, weekdays. Calls may be recorded

This information is intended as a guide only. If you're unsure about any of the topics covered here or have any questions, we recommend that you seek professional advice.

That's fine. At Christmas or if you've got a wedding in your household, you are likely to have extra items in your home. So for these times we automatically increase your contents cover by 10% at no extra charge.

If you wish, you can pay for your cover in one go. Or pay for it in monthly instalments by direct debit at no extra cost to you. Some insurance providers can charge up to 18.9% APR for this facility.

The maximum period is 45 days at any one time.

Please contact us on 1890 608 608 if your property is going to be unoccupied for more than 45 days.

This is the first part of a claim which you have to pay for yourself. Our standard excess for a main private dwelling is €250 and €350 for a tenanted property or holiday home. For all other excesses please see your policy booklet.

Subsidence is the downward movement of a building's foundation caused by the loss of support of the ground beneath it. Its main causes are:

• A significant variation in the normal water content of the subsoil on which the foundation rests (particularly clay), due mainly to the effect of trees planted too close to buildings.
• The consolidation of made up ground, reclaimed land or peat
• Poor design or construction of a house or its foundations either generally or for the soil conditions.
• The situation of the site (eg on a steep slope)

With our Emergency Helpline at 1850 213 111 there's always someone on hand to assist. It is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and gives you access to a wide range of qualified and approved tradesmen and tradeswomen.

For instance, if pipes burst, or slates fall off your roof, or a window gets broken, our Helpline people can give you contact information for a qualified tradesperson in your area.

Making a claim is very quick and simple:

• Contact our Claims Department on 1890 608 608 (option 1 followed by option 3) , Fax (01) 2901662. Calls may be recorded
• Or write to us at: Bank of Ireland Insurance Services Claims Unit at RSA, RSA House, Dundrum Town Centre, Sandyford Road, Dublin 16

Our advisers will help you assess the loss or damage and answer all your questions.