Boiler/Central Heating Cover: Get better cover cheaper Discussion Area

Former_MSE_Archna · 2 August 2006 at 5:40PM

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Boiler/Central Heating Cover: Get better cover cheaper

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silverfoxuk · 28 August 2006 at 3:16PM

Re: other option (to insurance or contrcat) is 'pay as you go' as Martin suggested. BG have just started to market this service as an alternative to their HomeCare maintenance contract. It's called 'HomeFix':

British Gas 'HomeFix'
http://www.house.co.uk/cgi-bin/house/house/general/editorial.jsp?BV_SessionID=HHHH0500592444.1156773182HHHH&BV_EngineID=ccchaddijkgmhegcefecfngdfhidfmh.0&channelId=-1610622257&sTopLevelChannel=&_txtName=detail_homefix&intCCNumber=0600homefix&_txtName=detail_homefix&intCCNumber=0600homefix

Although Martin suggests in the article that an alternative to insurance is to 'do nothing', I'd strongly urge people with any gas appliance to get it checked by a CORGI registered engineer on an annual basis. Sadly gas appliances do malfunction and spew out carbon monoxide which only last week killed a couple in Lincolnshire:

Pensioners' deaths 'accidental'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/5259722.stm

The alternative to an annual check is at least to have a carbon monoxide detector in the house - B&Q, Homebase sell them £5 - £20 depending on the type of detector. Place the detector in your hall and/or bedroom and it could save your life, should anything go wrong with your gas appliance.

TheBlueRaja · 29 August 2006 at 1:45PM

Hi All,
First timer here! :hello:

I noticed in the article it stated near the beginning:-

In fact, British Gas is the market leader and also one of the priciest suppliers (no surprise there!), plus it doesn’t consider a lack of hot water as an emergency!

I've just recently signed up to the Homecare 200 package and have been assured that hot water is treated as an Emergence by British Gas so in not sure if there is some sort of miscommunication here or BG are telling me porkies.

Any ideas?

I moved from Direct Line after they refused to come out last year when my hot water out the tap went to a trickle as opposed to what it should be.

They claimed that as i still had Hot Water that it was not an emergency (even though it was only trickling out), needless to say they aint getting any more of my money and i was hoping that BG would be a bit better so any advice you can give on this would be appreciated.

Ickle_Steve · 30 August 2006 at 8:35AM

The Uswitch website won't accept my post code using Firefox but it does using Internet Explorer :mad: It would be OK if the error message gave a clue to this.

Basisboy · 30 August 2006 at 9:31AM

I've looked around the different levels of cover for my boiler... but BritishGas seems to win the day as it covers drains and plumbing.
This is extreamly handy if one of the kids flushed something down the loo, or if the drains collapsed (for any reason) and extreamly expensive....
I've used them (British Gas sub-contract to Dynorod) to fix my toilet a few times, and also fixed my basin when the new fanggled plug got stuck... All would have cost me alot of money to get fixed by a plumber out of the phone book.
If a comparisson service existed and it was cheaper I'd consder switching, but British Gas (Boiler + Drains / Plumbing) can't be beat.
The only thing I don't have is electricity cover cause a) family are electrician b) I don't believe to fix something electricial in the home could jusify the cost.

Hope that is useful.
Regards

dovershark_2 · 30 August 2006 at 12:19PM

I'm with BG, and I have to say that although the premium is higher than most of the others in my area, the cover is quite comprehensive. The main query for me is the cost of the annual service/inspection - how much would one of those cost? Add on the stuff that others don't cover and you start to approach the BG price again....

KathrynPenguin · 30 August 2006 at 2:10PM

I'm also with BG and was unable to do a comparison. I have the HomeCare 400 plan with an extra appliance of a water heater included. This gives me plumbing, drains and electrics. The only call out I've never made is for electrics, in fact since having the contract I've made a call out every year! Including the following

Toilet leaking at 11pm - Dynorod sent within 30 mins to stop the leak - problem fixed within the next 24 hours by BG and they also added a stop valve so I can turn the water off to the toilet only.
Boiler not working - fixed
Water heater not working - fixed
Radiators (numberous times - fixed)
Theromostat not working (Replaced)

It is expensive at 398 per year but I couldn't seem to do a direct comparison for all this cover. Maybe the self insure is a good idea but as a single mother living alone with a toddler who knows nothing about DIY I think this could be a risky option. In fact before I took out the cover I had a boiler problem and phoned around and couldn't get anyone in for a week - in the height of winter! BG were the only ones that would come within 24 hours (without a policy) and as I asked to sign up to homecare at the same time, the bloke did the repair for "a drink" and put it down on the paperwork as pilot light out.

koru · 30 August 2006 at 3:49PM

I agree with Dovershark: Martin's £80 "saving" seems to arise largely because he isn't comparing like with like.

BG Homecare 200 is £192, but that's because it includes an annual service. Martin's comparison of £112 does not include a service, so of course it is cheaper. The contracts that include an annual service/inspection are all very close to BG's price. (I'm not a big BG fan, so I'm kind of surprised to find that they are in fact quite competitive in this respect.)

In fact, BG is probably the cheapest, at least for the first year, because HomeCare 200 is £15 per month (=£180 pa) for the first year, if you buy it on the BG website, plus you get £23 cashback if you sign with them via Quidco. Net cost = £157 for the first year.

As Martin says, you should not skip the annual service, so unless you can buy a separate annual service for significantly less than £80 (which I doubt), I don't really see any significant money saving opportunity. (That is, unless you want to self-insure. I suspect Martin is right that this would be cheaper in the long run. But it depends what value you put on peace of mind.)

The uSwitch site does, however, give a good summary of the cover, so you can easily spot differences. eg, BG won't pay to replace boilers over 7 years old, if they cannot be repaired "economically". Other policies cover this for longer, I think, so once my boiler gets a bit older I may switch to another company.

hollydays · 30 August 2006 at 5:24PM

I pay just £6.25 amonth for the annual service.

janh_2 · 30 August 2006 at 6:30PM

We've had BGas service cover since it started - our boiler is over 20 years old now (it's a Vaillant), has had many major parts replaced as well as the annual service, and several of the local engineers have performed way above and beyond normal standards. We've always had a pretty instant response too. Maybe it depends where you live but I can't praise them highly enough.

Have just switched from BGas for gas supplies but have no intention of switching service plans - I can't imagine anyone else would take on a 23-yr-old boiler! However I haven't had to call them out since the switch, maybe their response won't be as whizzy next time

janh_2 · 30 August 2006 at 6:38PM

Incidentally our cover is £17.50 a month but only for 10/12 months - less than 50p a day. Oh, and some of our radiators and pipework are 40 years old! So it seems like good value to me.

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