Can you believe that it is nearly Christmas? Are you ready for the Christmas period and for the summer holidays?

If you are planning on going away over the summer, is your home ready to part with you? Have you made all the necessary arrangements so that your home will be safe and secure?

Here are some handy hints for your home and your home insurance over the summer:

• Did you know that under our contents insurance cover, Real Insurance offers an additional cover for certain items taken outside your home- if you are going on a holiday for example, you can insure your camera outsie the home.
• If going away for more than a few days, cancel your newspapers and have a neighbour or friend pick up your mail regularly- you do not want your home to look like it is not being lived in
• Remember to pay your bills before you go away!
• Check your home insurance and contents insurance policies before your holiday.
• Ensure your home insurance and contents insurance have an adequate sum insured to fully cover you.
• Remember that you might need to increase your contents insurance sum insured after Christmas- especially if you receieve any really valuable presents!
• Real Insurance offers a convenient service of automatically renewing your insurance for you without you needing to lift a finger- so if your home insurance and contents insurance are up for renewal over Christmas, all you need to do is make sure you have adequate funds in your nominated bank account or credit card.
• If you have a loved garden, you might want to organise someone to water it while you are away, especially if we have another heatwave!
• Remember to turn off non-essential appliances, not only to save power but to avoid a fire risk.
• And of course, make sure the doors and windows are all locked, and the alarm turned on if you have one!

Get an online home insurance quote or contents insurance quote by heading to our homepage at http://www.realinsurance.com.au
You can read more on smh.com.au