Moving home is always thought to be one of the most stressful experiences we ever have, and if you have moved home you will probably agree. Furthermore, the average Briton moves home every seven years, so in a lifetime that is ten of those experiences, and in some cases a lot more.

If you move across town, you can probably still keep in touch with friends from your last home. If you move across the county, it’s not so easy. If you move from one end of the country to another you may never see some of those people again. If you move abroad, it can be even worse because you may never see any of them again.

Yet, moving home is something that we all do from time to time. Certainly, some people find a place to settle and stay there for 30 or 40 years, but most of us move for one reason or another. Very often it is because of a job. Your company wants you to move from London to Manchester to take up a new post, or the other way around. You want the job because it’s a promotion and will make you more money, so you take up the offer. However, as with all things, there is a downside in that you have to make new friends and leave the old ones.

Possibly the worst thing is the actual moving day. There is so much to deal with. This is probably why it is so stressful. That’s just moving in the UK. If you move abroad, you may be going to a country where you have to learn a new language and become accustomed to a completely different way of life.

Wherever you are going, there is also the problem of moving all your belongings. First you have to decide what you want to take with you and what you don’t. We all – almost without exception – have collected a lot of things over the years that we never use. There is a saying that if you have something you haven’t used for two years you will never use it again. It may very well be true. So one advantage of moving is that you can ditch things that you will never use. That makes a lot of sense. Why pay to move things you will never use again?

Then there is the problem of moving things that you want to keep. Again, especially true if you are moving overseas. You have to hand them over to a shipping company and hope that everything will arrive intact. The same actually applies even if you are only moving a few miles, because accidents can happen. That is why you need moving insurance, and this may not be covered by your contents insurance. If you are moving abroad it almost certainly won’t be.

Some contents insurance policies do cover moving to another home, but others most definitely don’t. This is why you need to look closely at your policy to ensure that goods in transit are covered, and if not, get that cover added to your policy, for the appropriate premium of course. However, that may only be £30 or £40 if you are moving in the UK.

If you are moving abroad, it is a completely different kettle of fish. There are different types and levels of insurance that you can obtain, and which you need will depend on what you want to insure and where you are going, as well as the level of cover that you require.

The good news is that if you are moving abroad, the premiums are not all that exorbitant. Typically, they can range from 0.6% to 4% of the cost of replacement of your possessions, depending on the level of cover that you require.

However, there are different types of cover available and they are at different rates with different companies! This is why, if you are moving abroad, your best bet is to use the services of an insurance broker that specialises in marine insurance. It can be very different from the sort of insurance that you need for your contents in the UK, but a marine insurance broker will be able to help.