Checking out cover at the check out

While the supermarkets can be consistently good value for savings, particularly large sums, in insurance their performance is more hit and miss.

An example is mortgage payment protection insurance, which is designed to cover mortgage payments if your earnings dry up as a result of illness or unemployment. Sainsbury's Mortgage Payment Sure policy costs£6.01 a month for every £100 of cover, so insuring a regular mortgage payment of £500 would add £30.05 to your monthly outgoings. This compares with a market average of £5.50 per £100 of cover, and is one-and-a- half times as much as the same cover from the new entrant, Marks & Spencer (0800 363 448), which charges £4. An even cheaper alternative is to buy over the internet from www.securityfirst.co.uk, where this sort of insurance costs only £3.75 per £100.

Life cover

Marks & Spencer also undercuts mortgage lenders in the field of life insurance. But although the company still offers cheaper policies than most high-street lenders, it can't quite keep up with the highly competitive premiums from Tesco. According to Moneyfacts Life and Pensions, for a 35-year-old non-smoking man wanting £100,000 of cover over 20 years the £9.74 a month he would pay Tesco (0845 845 1477) is the lowest premium on the market. A non-smoking woman of the same age would pay Tesco £8.82, which is less than the £9.55 Marks & Spencer (0800 363 422) charges but not quite as good as the £8.40 premium on offer from Scottish Widows (0345 678 910). However, in charging a man £18.56 and a woman £14.45, Tesco is not as good value for 35-year-old smokers, who would do better turning to Equitable Life (0870 900 8020), where he and she pay £13.55 and £10.17 respectively.



Home and contents

Sainsbury's doesn't stock life insurance, but in common with Marks & Spencer and Tesco, it does sell both buildings and house contents insurance. It is impossible to say whether they will definitely give a good deal because so much depends on personal circumstances. But the quotes these retailers supplied to Cash - which were compared with figures from independent broker Charcol (0800 939 393) - suggest that it would be worth adding them to your list of companies to contact next time your house insur ance comes up for renewal.

Quotes were based on a policy without accidental damage or all-risks cover for a couple of 40-year-old teachers living in a three-bedroom turn-of-the-century terraced house with a rebuilding cost of £100,000 and contents worth £30,000. Figures were given for three different postcodes and assume the house is fitted with British Standard door and window locks but no burglar alarm.

In all postcodes, Tesco (0845 300 6600) gave the lowest quote for buildings insurance. Sainsbury's (0500 301 030) was cheapest for contents at the medium-risk address but Charcol gave the most competitive contents quotes for the low- and high-risk postcodes.

Marks & Spencer didn't do that well on price but is worth investigating for what it describes as its market-beating unlimited cover. Of most interest is the company's claim that, with the exception of personal money, the policy does not place a maximum on what it will pay out in the event of a claim - on condition that you tell M&S about any single item worth £4,000 or more when you apply for the insurance (0800 389 9988 or go to www.marksandspencer.com).

Car

It's also worth getting a quote from Tesco if it's time to renew your car insurance (0845 300 4400 or go to www.tesco.com/finance). Although it is not always competitive, it did provide some of the lowest premiums for a notional 1998 Ford Mondeo driven by a 40-year-old couple with six claim-free years.

Travel

Asda, Boots, Sainsbury's and Tesco are right to claim that their travel insurance is cheaper than travel agents and tour operators. But they charge maybe twice as much as specialist travel insurers such as Direct Travel (01903 812345 or go to www.direct-travel.co.uk), Options (0870 848 00870), TravelPlan Direct (0800 018 8747) and Worldwide Travel (01892 833 338), all of which featured as best buys in a recent survey by Which? magazine.

The exception to this is the Asda for Travel annual worldwide policy from Asda (08000 646688 or go to www.asdafortravel.com). The prices of £57.95 for a single adult, £74.95 for a single parent, £78.95 for a couple and £91.95 for a family compare favourably with policies from independent insurers. Asda's price is particularly good value if you are over 65. Boots doubles the premium for this age group, while Sainsbury's and Tesco add an age-related loading that depends on individual circumstances. Asda does not charge extra until age 70.

Pets

You buy pet food from supermarkets, so why not pet insurance? If you want this kind of cover (which helps only with unexpected vet's bills, not routine treatment), Tesco's rates, which start at £4 a month for cats and £7 for dogs, cost less than the £6.99 and £8.99 charged by Sainsbury's.

Tesco (0845 300 2200) also gives slightly better cover. An alternative, which costs slightly more than Tesco for cats but less for dogs, is to take out an RSPCA Pet Insurance policy (0870 444 3127 or www.rspca.org.uk). In the first year 5 per cent of the monthly premium is donated to the RSPCA.