Sheila's Wheels...are they bonza?

lowis

Looking at getting some home insurance with them. They have a 5 star Defaqto rating and seem to get some good reviews at Review Centre - anyone here have any feedback about them?

Thanks!

dunstonh

They have little experience on that particular brand in the home insurance market. So i doubt you will find much info on whether they are good or not. They are part of a larger group that does though.

I would take any ratings from the internet with a pinch of salt. Defaqto ratings are so easy to manipulate its not worth putting much faith in them.

dacouch

I would agree with a what Dunstoh says although would add they are fairly good company (They are part of the esure group) so please bear in mind you are contributing towards Michael Winner's upkeep! lol

I have looked at their policy wording which is not bad but if defaqto give it a 5 star rating have they introduced a new 7 star rating for companies like Chubb and Hiscox for their home insurance.

What I would point out is make sure you select an amount of contents cover that is sufficient and really make sure you have enough cover under the "High "Risk" section as I have never seen a policy that classes so many items as high risk. (You normally select a contents sum insured and then they give you a percentage of this amount normally around a third).

Their website quotes with a voluntray excess of £100 for buildings and £50 for contents HOWEVER this is in addition to their compulsort excesses which are £100 for each section so if you go with their default quote you would have to pay in the event of a claim £200 for buildings and £150 for contents which is a lot. If you go back into the quote and delete the voluntary excesses it will reduce your excess to £100 and only add about 10% to the premium.

I would avoid their Protected No Claims bonus as this does not seem to offer value.

Their quote assumes a low amount of contents cover (In my quote based on a semi) it was only £19100 which is much lower than is recommended especially bearing in mind what they class as high risk.

THEIR HIGH RISK ITEMS ARE AS FOLLOWS

High risk items
Items that are particularly exposed to the risk of theft, which belong to your
household or which any member of your household is legally responsible for
and are kept in the home, including but not limited to:
• antiques
• articles of gold, silver or other precious metals
• audio equipment
• camping equipment
• compact discs
• computer equipment
• credit, debit, charge, cheque or cash cards
• curios
• digital versatile/video discs
• DVD players/recorders
• furs
• guns and firearms
• high definition DVD/Blu-Ray
• jewellery
• media players
• mobile phones
• money
• pedal cycles
• paintings
• photographic equipment
• portable electronic games
• portable musical instruments
• portable sports equipment
• stamp, coin and medal collections
• televisions
• video and audio equipment
• watches.

dunstonh

For reference, I wasnt saying they were bad. Indeed, my wife has shiela's wheels as her car insurance and strangely enough I nearly did on mine. Just the ratings systems used on these sites leaves a lot to be desired.

dacouch

dunstonh I was not implying you said they were bad, you did not say either way so I gave the poster the benefit of "My opinion" on Sheilas wheels as her was asking whether anyone had any experience.

I totally agree with you on the defaqto ratings now days

lowis

Thanks...so yes, I just noticed the exhaustive list of high risk items, I could not see anywhere whether there was a limit on how much they would pay for these high risk items, say if I got burgled. For example, I would well exceed £10k in total for items from that list - but no one item is worth more than about £800.

dacouch

The high risk sum insured is typically between 25% and 35% of the totak amount of contents cover you select. Its normally very easy to find in an Insurers Policy Booklet or Summary of Cover but not with Sheilas wheels! I'm guessing it will show when you click "buy".

The best thing would to be to ring them and ask what the limit is on your quote (Make a note of the persons who you speak to name, time and date in case there is ever any dispute)

lowis

Just spoke to them and their High Risk limit is a third of the contents amount.

So fairly standard I assume?

dacouch

It is standard so not to bad, just make sure if you have £10000 of their high risk items you have selected at least £33000 total contents to cover any future purchases / you under estiimating and keep an eye on it.

If / When you change companies you will find most companies do not include a lot of the items they class as high risk in this section so it will not be so much of a problem

lowis

thanks dacouch and dunston...well, i hope they are indeed bonza, i just bought a policy!