Halifax contents insurance cold call.

tomstickland

I've just had Halifax home and contents insurance on the phone. The call has taken a very long time - about 30 minutes.
After a lot of very tedious disclaimers, info, questions etc I finally got a quote at the 20 minute point. Essentially, for unlimited contents insurance and £1500 of bike insurance and a few other things they want £20 per month. ie: £240 per year. This compares to £160 (minus £50 cashback) from the Post Office or £110 from Norwich Union via Clarke Roxborough brokers.

When I explained that maybe the deal was a good one for those who needed a lot of cover then the seller agreed that maybe that was the case. But he continued to blather on, quite pleasantly, about being 5 star rated company and how he'd never heard of Clarke Roxborough. I explained that I'd do my research. He continued to talk on and on and said "with respect we're Halifax and Norwich Union aren't, we've got a 5 star rating and they've got a 2 star rating" etc. He couldn't seem to take the hint that I was going to look at other options and this was maybe a "premium" product whereas I wanted a cheap and cheerful product. I'm feeling very tired after a long day at work, so in the end I said "many thanks for taking 30 minutes to explain this to me, but you're wasting my time now" . Ouch, that hurt! He was quite irate about that, going almost nasty and saying "it's great to spend this time explaining this and then be insulted". Anyway, being a true professional he read out the quote number and phone numbers before putting the phone down as quickly as possible.

The way I see it, I didn't ask to be called and it was starting to bore me, he couldn't take a hint that maybe I could get a cheaper service that might suit me better.

Meanwhile, what is the opinion of their insurance?

cattie

Excellent insurance from the Halifax. I've had buildings & contents with them for years & always found them the cheapest for the best cover.

One tip, if you apply online there is a discount of 20%.

MortgageMamma

Its a good policy and its underwritten by St andrews insurance who are good, BUT, if you go to paymentshield, you can get exactly the same policy for much less, and also get the first three months for free. Paymentshield is also underwritten by St Andrews insurance.

HTH, and, for info, if someone cold calls me about anything I say "sorry I don't take sales calls" and put down the telephone. firmly believe that if people want something they will approach a lender themselves and find a good deal through another sales medium, cold calling is a big bugbear with me and drives me mad!

full-time-mum

MortgageMamma wrote:

Its a good policy and its underwritten by St andrews insurance who are good, BUT, if you go to paymentshield, you can get exactly the same policy for much less, and also get the first three months for free. Paymentshield is also underwritten by St Andrews insurance.

Just found these on the web but I'm a bit confused. Site seems to be aimed at intermediaries - where do I go to get a quote?

Just had our 1st renewal from Halifax and it has gone up by 23% despite no-claims last year. :eek:

tomstickland

I've got a letter from paymentshield somewhere round here. How much cheaper are they?

MortgageMamma

difficult to say you'd have to get a quote tom. The site is aimed at intermediaries but if you phone them up they will quote for you over the phone but they WILL NOT ADVISE YOU which policy is best.

Lisa

tomstickland

I had a letter saying that they'd been trying to contact me. I'll phone up L&C tomorrow and see if I can get some gen.
Then again, the Clarke-Roxborough deal via Norwich Onion will probably do for me.

dunstonh

Paymentshield have some good initial offers but personally I find The Source to be cheapest "source" of providers when looking at no free period of cover. Like paymentshield, they quote to intermediaries only.