| Founded | 1845 — South Africa’s oldest financial institution |
| Insurance Division | Old Mutual Insure Limited — FSCA-licensed short-term insurer with 180+ years of operating history |
| Home Product Brand | allsure — an all-in-one policy covering buildings, contents, car, personal liability & all risks |
| Cover Types | Buildings (Full Cover / Limited Cover), Home Contents, All Risks, Personal Liability, Retrenchment Cover |
| Emergency Assistance | SwiftCare — 24/7 roadside, home, and medical assistance throughout South Africa |
| Best For | Existing Old Mutual clients; families wanting buildings, contents & car cover under a single policy |
| Hellopeter TrustIndex | 9.4/10 (Old Mutual Insure); note: consumer review sentiment mixed on claims complexity |
| Pricing Tier | Mid-range — competitive when bundling car and home; costlier as standalone home-only cover |
| Overall Rating | 7 / 10 |
Old Mutual is one of the most recognised names in South African financial services — and that trust has been built over nearly two centuries. But brand longevity is not the same as product excellence, and in a competitive home insurance market, reputation alone is not enough reason to sign up. This review examines exactly what Old Mutual home insurance offers, what it costs, where it excels, and where it falls short — so you can decide whether it’s the right fit for your home and your wallet.
What Is Old Mutual Home Insurance?
Old Mutual home insurance is delivered through Old Mutual Insure Limited, the short-term insurance arm of the Old Mutual Group — one of Africa’s largest financial services conglomerates. Old Mutual Insure traces its operating history back more than 180 years, making it one of the longest-established non-life insurers on the continent. It is regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and operates across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.
The home insurance product is marketed under the brand name allsure — a policy architecture that bundles buildings, home contents, car, personal liability, and all-risks cover under a single policy with a single premium and renewal date. This bundled approach is Old Mutual’s primary differentiator in the home insurance space: instead of managing multiple policies across multiple insurers, allsure consolidates everything into one relationship.
Is Old Mutual home insurance worth it? For existing Old Mutual customers — particularly those with a life policy, bond, or investment account — the convenience and bundling discounts tip the balance in its favour. For homeowners starting fresh with no existing Old Mutual relationship and primarily shopping on price, the best home insurance providers in South Africa include more competitively priced alternatives.
What Old Mutual allsure Home Insurance Covers
The allsure product covers the full spectrum of residential insurance needs. Here is what each component delivers:
Covers the physical structure of your private home and all permanent improvements — main dwelling, outhouses, driveways, walls, gates, carports, garages, service lines (water pipes, electrical connections, sewage). Covers fire, explosion, acts of nature (lightning, hail, storm, fallen trees), theft, subsidence, and owner’s liability.
Protects the movable contents of your home — furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing, curtains, carpets, even the food in your freezer. Extends to motorcycles, caravans, trailers, and boats. Insures at replacement value. Legal liability cover is automatically included.
Covers items you carry outside your home — cellphones, laptops, jewellery, bicycles, spectacles, cameras, sporting equipment. Items are covered both inside and outside the home, and can be insured on a specified or unspecified basis depending on value.
Covers you and your family against legal liability for accidental death, injury, or illness to third parties, or accidental damage to their property. This is included automatically in the allsure policy and is a critical protection that standalone home policies sometimes omit.
Buildings Cover: Full vs Limited — Understanding the Difference
Old Mutual offers homeowners a choice between two buildings cover configurations — a nuance that is easy to miss at sign-up but significant at claim time:
The Limited Cover option — which excludes theft — is a genuinely useful lower-cost entry point for homeowners in security estates or gated complexes who believe their physical security reduces their theft risk meaningfully. However, do not choose Limited Cover without honestly assessing your actual theft exposure. In South Africa’s residential crime environment, most homeowners are better served by Full Cover.
Standout Features of Old Mutual allsure
Buildings, contents, car, personal liability, and all-risks insurance under one policy, one premium, one renewal date, and one insurer. This simplicity is the product’s most consistently praised feature — policyholders deal with Old Mutual Insure for everything, which eliminates the coordination problem when a single event (like a hailstorm) damages both your vehicle and your home simultaneously.
Included at no extra cost on allsure policies — covering emergency plumbing, electrical faults, glazing, locksmith services, medical assistance, and roadside assistance. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout South Africa. This is a genuinely practical benefit that most homeowners will use multiple times over the life of their policy, particularly for geyser failures and plumbing emergencies.
Old Mutual offers specific pricing incentives for customers who insure both their vehicle and their home under allsure. The multi-policy discount can be meaningful — especially when combined with loyalty benefits for existing Old Mutual financial services clients. The bundled premium is typically more competitive than what you’d pay for the same cover across two separate providers.
An unusual and valuable add-on: Old Mutual will pay your allsure premiums for up to six months if you are retrenched. In South Africa’s challenging employment environment, this provides real financial protection during a period when most households face immediate cash-flow pressure. Available on monthly policies only and subject to terms.
Allsure covers reasonable legal costs associated with identity theft — defending suits from creditors, removing wrongful civil judgements, and challenging inaccurate credit bureau entries. As identity theft and credit fraud become more prevalent in South Africa, this is an increasingly relevant inclusion.
Old Mutual provides a free online tool to help policyholders estimate the replacement value of their contents. This directly addresses South Africa’s underinsurance problem — industry data suggests most households underestimate their contents value by 30–50%. Using this tool at policy inception (and annually thereafter) is one of the most practical steps any homeowner can take.
How Much Does Old Mutual Home Insurance Cost?
Old Mutual does not publish a fixed premium schedule — all allsure premiums are personalised based on your specific risk profile. As a mid-range institutional insurer, Old Mutual is generally competitive when you bundle car and home cover, and less compelling as a standalone home-only product. The following indicative ranges are based on market benchmarks for 2026–2027:
The factors that most meaningfully impact your allsure premium include your suburb’s crime and weather risk profile, your property’s construction type (thatch roofs attract a significant loading), the security features on your property (alarm, electric fence, armed response), your claims history, and your chosen excess. Importantly, Old Mutual also offers usage-based discounts of up to 30% for policyholders who drive less — relevant when allsure includes your vehicle cover.
Old Mutual’s premium structure rewards bundling. Customers who insure both their home and their vehicle under allsure consistently report better total-cost outcomes than those taking home-only cover. If you’re already an Old Mutual life or investment client, the group loyalty benefits can provide additional premium reductions. For pure home-only cover without any existing Old Mutual relationship, consider benchmarking against budget-focused alternatives via our guide to the cheapest home insurance in South Africa.
Old Mutual Home Insurance: Pros and Cons
- 180+ years of operating history — the most established financial institution on this list
- True all-in-one allsure policy — one premium, one renewal for home, car and liability
- SwiftCare 24/7 emergency assistance — plumbing, electrical, locksmith, medical at no extra cost
- Retrenchment cover — six months of premium payments covered if you lose your job
- Identity theft cover — rare in the mainstream SA home insurance market
- Contents value calculator — helps policyholders avoid underinsurance
- Usage-based car discount up to 30% — benefits low-mileage allsure bundle holders
- FSCA-regulated — full policyholder protection under South African law
- Claims complexity complaints — the most recurring criticism across review platforms
- Customer service inconsistency — some policyholders report difficulty reaching responsive agents
- Renovation damage excluded — accidental damage during active building works is not covered
- No cashback or reward system — unlike OUTsurance’s OUTbonus or Momentum’s Multiply
- Not the cheapest standalone option — value is strongest when bundling; home-only premiums can be uncompetitive
- Policy complexity — the breadth of allsure requires careful reading of exclusions and conditions
What Real Customers Say
Old Mutual Insure carries a 9.4 TrustIndex on Hellopeter — a respectable score at institutional scale. The picture from detailed review analysis, however, is more layered than this headline figure suggests. Synthesising patterns from Hellopeter, specialist insurance review sites, and South African consumer finance platforms reveals the following:
The breadth of the allsure product is frequently cited as the primary reason customers chose — and stayed with — Old Mutual. Managing one policy for home, car, and liability under an insurer with 180+ years of history provides a comfort and confidence that newer direct brands cannot match. SwiftCare emergency response is well-regarded for its availability and the reliability of dispatched tradespeople. The brand’s Magical Moments programme — which provides personalised support to policyholders going through traumatic events — generates genuinely positive reviews that reflect a human dimension most insurers ignore. Retrenchment cover is appreciated as a rare and practical feature.
Claims complexity is the most persistent criticism. Some policyholders report surprise at exclusions that were not apparent during policy sign-up — most notably that accidental damage during home renovations is excluded, and that certain weather-related events in high-risk areas carry specific conditions. Customer service response times at the Old Mutual Insure division (as distinct from the broader Old Mutual group) receive lower ratings, with some policyholders describing difficulty reaching a dedicated handler during active claims. On Hellopeter, the Old Mutual Insure division scores lower than the broader group — an important distinction for prospective home insurance buyers to make.
For context, these friction points are not unique to Old Mutual — similar claims complexity complaints appear across large-volume institutional insurers including Santam. The critical lesson: always read your policy schedule in full before assuming you are covered, and document every communication with your insurer throughout a claim.
How to Claim with Old Mutual Home Insurance
Old Mutual offers three channels to initiate a claim, which provides genuine flexibility:
Old Mutual vs. The Competition
To understand where Old Mutual sits in the SA home insurance market, here is a direct comparison against the key alternatives:
Old Mutual is better than the competition for: The breadth and depth of the allsure bundle — no other SA home insurer includes retrenchment cover and identity theft cover as standard options within the same policy framework. For families who want all their short-term insurance consolidated under a single relationship with an institution that has operated continuously for nearly two centuries, Old Mutual’s offering is uniquely coherent.
Competitors edge ahead for: Cashback rewards — OUTsurance’s OUTbonus and MiWay’s MiCashback deliver tangible returns for claim-free policyholders that allsure does not. Digital experience — MiWay’s online-first model and Hellopeter 10/10 score indicate a smoother digital experience. Claims service reputation — OUTsurance’s fixed-premium and flat-excess model eliminates most claims surprises. Budget-conscious homeowners should also read our guide to the cheapest home insurance in South Africa before making a final decision.
Who Should Use Old Mutual Home Insurance?
If you already have a life policy, investment account, or banking product with Old Mutual, the allsure bundle delivers genuine value — group loyalty discounts, consolidated statements, and one relationship for your entire financial household.
Allsure’s true bundle model means a household managing car, home, contents, portable possessions, and personal liability under one policy genuinely simplifies administration. One renewal date, one excess structure, one claims contact.
In South Africa’s high-retrenchment environment, the six-month premium cover on retrenchment is a meaningful differentiator that directly reduces the risk of losing your home insurance cover — and bond compliance — during a period of financial stress.
If your only criterion is the lowest possible monthly premium for home cover alone, Old Mutual will not win that comparison. Budget-focused alternatives consistently quote lower for standalone buildings or contents cover.
If you want tangible premium returns for claim-free performance — like OUTbonus, MiCashback, or Momentum’s Multiply cashback — allsure’s current product architecture does not deliver an equivalent benefit.
Is Old Mutual Home Insurance Worth It?
Yes — for the right customer, specifically. Old Mutual allsure earns its 7/10 through institutional credibility, product breadth that genuinely goes beyond most competitors (retrenchment cover, identity theft, true all-in-one bundling), and an emergency assistance service that delivers real value in everyday South African homeownership. Nearly two centuries of continuous operation is not just a marketing claim — it represents a depth of underwriting experience and financial stability that newer insurers cannot replicate.
The honest caveats are equally important: claims complexity is the most documented pain point, and the customer service experience at the Insure division is not uniformly positive. The product rewards those who bundle, those who read their policy schedule carefully, and those who manage their relationship actively — it does not suit set-and-forget policyholders who expect the process to be effortless.
Before committing, get at least three quotes. If you’re an existing Old Mutual client, allsure’s bundle pricing is likely your best option. If you’re starting fresh, compare it directly against OUTsurance, Santam, and MiWay before making a decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
MiWay Home Insurance Review (2026–2027): Benefits, Costs, Cover Options And Is It Worth It
Is MiWay Home Insurance a smart and affordable choice in 2026–2027? This detailed review breaks down cover options, pricing, claims experience, and real benefits to help you decide.
- ✔ Covers both buildings and home contents in one flexible policy
- ✔ Protection against fire, theft, storms, floods, and burst pipes
- ✔ Low flat excess options and affordable premiums
- ✔ 24/7 emergency home assistance (MiHelp support)
