House insurance/mortgage stuff...help!

Boring question but please help. I have to get house stuff sorted as I'm buying a house. Can anyone recommend a good site for house insurance and life insurance (directly or somewhere that would give me a good overall view). Did anyone get a good deal anywhere? My head is wrecked from al the paperwork and red tape so any advice or help would be appreciated.

I've tried 123.ie to get quotes for both. TBH i'm not sure how well covered you are or if you can find out who the insurance is with but they do seem to have good prices

I used the AA - would definitely reccomend shoppping around and not just taking the bank's policies

Hiya, I went with the Bank the first year of my mortgage and they gave me good deal - but then I shopped around when year was up and FBD really gave me a good deal on house insurance, then they gave me an even better deal when I said I would give them my car insurance aswell so if you have a car try and do a deal with both. I hear Quinn Direct are meant to be good aswell - you can get them on the web and do quote on line. Life is with New Ireland and I find them good. Best of luck - its all so head wrecking !!

Thanks a million girls. This gives me somewhere to start looking.

Most of the insurance companies with the banks normally give first time customers discount so we just went with them and then shopped around the year after, it was easier. Be careful with the life assurance as there is huge variation in the cover you can get, especially if pricing on-line as there is no-one to explain it to you. The agent who was selling the house we bought had a mortgage broker attached and he was very good in explaining everything to me and had all the different rates too (I had only called in to put the deposit down but we got talking about the mortgage etc as well) but in the end, the bank was actually cheaper. I know your head is melted but it will be worth it when you get the keys into your hand

I work in this industry and the Financial Regulator does surveys on insurance every year. Check out www.itsyourmoney.ie and you'll see one that's just been done on life insurance - they point out the pitfalls too. I work in a Bank and our Life Assurance is one of the cheapest for non smokers but you'll see this on the survey. Make sure you go for level life cover on the mortgage and not just the decreasing one (i.e. Mortgage Protection). Its better value for money and you will have some personal protection as the loan is paid off or if you need to top up the mortgage again later.