Pay monthly boiler & central heating cover - worth it?

mr_fishbulb

Is it worth paying ~£10/month for something such as the British Gas boiler & heating cover?

This sort of thing - http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/maintenance-and-repair/boilers-and-heating/boiler-and-heating-cover.html

Or would you be better off paying for any repairs when they happen?

I'm not sure how much average costs are for repairing boilers.

misspoppy

Hi

My first house the boiler was 15+ years old and the first winter died, almost unrepairable. fortuneatly we had boiler cover so they eventually got it going (not without problems) but we had to buy a new one the next year.

Advantages are you don't have to find money from nowhere when it goes,
they come out quickly
you don't have to find someone
it can usually be sorted there and then
anual service is usually included in the price
With british gas they used to give you a discount on a new boiler if you were on a plan with them and needed a new boiler

disadvantages
it costs and might not be worth it if its a new boiler
it seems a lot untill you need it

pennyjar56

I would definately have it - for the simple reason that they come very quickly and charge nothing for parts or labour. You mostly use your boiler during the winter months and if it goes down it can be very uncomfortable living without heating and hot water until you can find a very busy plumber to come round and fix it, not to mention the £50 call out fee just as you need extra cash for xmas!

The other way of looking at it is this - how old is your boiler? in my old house it was around 15 years old, British gas came at least twice a year to fix broken pumps, broken thermostats, timers etc. I know that I was much better off with the boiler insurance and would have paid out more to a private plumber without it. Obviously a new boiler would need far less attention.

I just felt that with a young child it was important to know that if the boiler went wrong it was going to be fixed within two days. Hope that helps!

bitsandpieces

One downside is that you're tied to a single company, regardless of how good/bad their service is. I've known people who've had the engineer not show up when promised, had to wait for an appointment to become free, etc. Also, meeting engineers from a large company often means you have to stay in all day - or at least all morning or afternoon - as they can't fix an appointment time. BG tend to prioritise 'vulnerable' people for repairs, if I remember rightly: a reasonable thing for them to do, but if you don't fall into this category you may be waiting longer.

I'm lucky enough that there's a local plumber who can make an appointment for a particular time and shows up when they say they will. Some plumbers aren't reliable, but paying for any work directly means I just don't use them a 2nd time. Avoiding the inconvenience of dealing with some large companies is worth a bit of money to me.

asharon

or go with someone like British Gas becasue you dont have an all day wait depending upon the service you choose it is within a 2 hour timeframe.

jamesperrett

The companies are obviously going to make a profit on this sort of thing. If you have a reasonably recent boiler then I wouldn't bother. In our last house we had two boiler breakdowns in 7 years. The first cost around 150 to fix while the second was around 300. The annual service was around 60 quid which makes a total of 870 pounds or an annual cost of just over 120 per year. If I remember correctly, the monthly service charge would have been 180 per year so we saved 60 pounds per year by using local heating engineers.

Of course, you need to weigh up whether the comfort of having a service contract is worth the extra money to you.

Cheers

James.

1echidna

My philosophy with insurance is that it is for risks that would be unmanageable if they occurred eg house fire, bad car accident. Otherwise if one insures everything and anything one inevitably finds one is just dishing out money with very little coming back. Insurance companies are in it for the profit, not as large as a bookmaker, no doubt, but the principle is the same, and to my mind it is as silly as betting on horses.

Emmzi

I went with Britisdh Gas because they do Saturday appointments so I wouldn't have to take a day off work. I've found them very reliable & it saves hassle finding someone to do the annual service. Plus if an individual engineer was bad they'd have enough bodies to send someone else if I complained (not that I have)

(I do not work for, know anyone that works for, or receive cash from, British Gas!(

besonders1

its a really interesting question, the only downside is that they don't replace your boiler for you if it goes unrepairable, I have heard they give a discount but as BG charge inflated prices for new boiler installations anyhow, there is still no point in insuring an old boiler. I think you would pay for your boiler repairs twice with these cover schemes a bit like extended guarantees on washing machines.