Barclays Ripoff!!!!!

novapatch

WE have had barclays building+ contents insurance for 20 plus years we usualy pay around £67 month for 5 bed house including contents but this year the premium has doubled!!!

We have not had a building claim for over 3 years so nothing has realy changed but we had a subsidence claim over 3 years ago and settled for 54k

I rang Barclays to find out why it had doubled infact i have rung 3 times speaking to different people each time and given a different reason every time but they would not reduce my premium but if i go on Barclays online it comes up for £69 month only if I donot mention my previouse claim but when speaking to there telesales they say the premium increase is NOT due to my previouse claim.

Problem is because of this claim other insurers are reluctant to take us on because of this claim

What do we do??

xmaslolly76

May be worth checking some more insurers out some ask for no claims in the last 5yrs some only 3yrs the 3 yr ones you would not have to tell them about your previous claim. Just out of interest have you put through a quote on barclays system with the previous claim on it you will probably find they will undercut themselves even with the claim if you start a fresh policy.

dacouch

What has probably happened is that as Barclays have paid a large subsidence claim out in your post code (There are probably others in the area too) they have increased their rates in that post code.

When you obtain quotations from their website it will include new customers discounts which you are not entitled to and will probably not include a loading they have applied for your subsidence claim.

It is best for you to stay with Barclays, as you have found other Insurers are not keen to accept customers with previous subsidence. If you stay with Barclays and then want to sell the house, Barclays will normally allow the new owners to transfer the Insurance to them. If you transfer to a new company you have noo guarantee the new company (If you can find one) will accept the new buyers which will drastically affect the house value.

With a premium the size of yours it would be wise to investigate taking a larger excess, the discount you obtain for say an excess of £250 could well be as much as circa £130 a year so if you do not claim for a couple of years you are making a saving.

Incidently Home Insurance premiums have increased with most Insurers by circa 10% anyway so your premium would have increased to some extent without the subsidence

dacouch

xmaslolly76 wrote: »

May be worth checking some more insurers out some ask for no claims in the last 5yrs some only 3yrs the 3 yr ones you would not have to tell them about your previous claim. Just out of interest have you put through a quote on barclays system with the previous claim on it you will probably find they will undercut themselves even with the claim if you start a fresh policy.

This is not good advice as Insurers ask if you "Has the home ever suffered from subsidence or been under pinned" They do not apply a time limit to how long ago the subsidence claim was although you won't need to actually declare you have a claim after 3 or 5 years depending on the question on claims but will still have to declare the subsidence.

If you do find a company that does not have a well worded question about subsidence (Most do now) then be careful as I know people who transferred to these companies (Saga and Fortis spring to mind). They then realised they had taken on a lot of customers with Subsidence and either did not offer to renew the policy or were not prepared to transfer the cover to the new buyers which has a massive effect on the value of the house. If you transfer away from Barclays and then ask to go back there is no guarantee they will accept you as a client (Most will decline to offer cover in these circumstances)

novapatch

If you have ever had a subsidence claim no insurance company will quote online! Barclays online ask how long no claims you have we put 3 years but in the small prints says if you have ever had subsidence claim ring them!

huckster

Obviously for such a sudden change to your policy premium, the rates have been increased for your postcode area or a loading has been applied due to the claim.

If Barclays have said it has nothing to do with the claim, then you should go back and speak to customers realtions/complaints at Barclays about the premium. If you mention that you have obtained a new business quote from them and want a letter in writing to justify the premium increase on your existing policy, they may have a rethink.

Sometimes it is possible to move your Insurance to another agency, but keep the same Insurance company. Obviously as you had a subsidence claim you would have to retain cover with the same Insurer, but that Insurer may agree to cover you either directly or through another agency. If you know which Insurer dealt with the subs claim, this may be worth a try, but you would need to discuss it with them.

Which Insurer was the actual Insurance underwriter of the claim?

dunstonh

The staff on the telephone often wont know the reasons why a specific premium is set that way. They can have a guess a lot of the time by looking at claims and seeing what risk rating your post code is in but most of the time they wont know if a postcode has moved up (or down) a risk rating or similar.

Problem is because of this claim other insurers are reluctant to take us on because of this claim

You are now how risk. This is one of the unfortunate side effects of suffering a major claim like that. Subsidence can come back or can result in a total loss and insurers look at that risk and either refuse or put the price up significantly. The existing insurer often doesnt like to refuse renewal so will price higher. New insurers, especially your bog standard internet policies dont like anything that is outside their cherry picking criteria.

A specialist broker will have more scope than the internet. You could give them a try.

dogbot

Agree with dunstoh try a specialist broker.

From an insurer perspective, we had been hearing a lot last year and earlier this year in the industry that we would be having a major subsidence "event" this year (lots more subs claims than normal due to the prevailing weather conditions for the last few years and this year - has an effect on the soil and such).

Some insurers may have pushed their rates more than others on subs because of this so you might have got caught slightly worse than if you were elsewhere.

novapatch

They have catagoricly stated over the telephone this rise in premium is nothing to do with the claim. One of there team went to great length to explain to me that for previouse years they had estimated my rebuild costs to be £150k but this has now been upped to £338k thats why the premium hike!!!!!!! To which I replied it states on my schedule rebuild costs up to 500K!!!!!!

huckster

Yes what happens in these cases where you are Insured up to £500k is as follows. The system Barclays uses will calculate a notional sum insured to base the premium on. In the past the notional amount has been wrongly calculated at £150k and therefore Barclays have not charged the correct premium. They have obviously changed the way the notional sum insured is calculated, so this is now £338k and the premium is now based on that amount. For the rebuilding cost to be £338k the home would have to be fairly substantial in size. It may be worth checking the rebuilding cost and seeing if Barclays can change the notional sum insured the premium is based upon.

Don't be afraid to look into moving your Insurance to another agency. You may be able to move your Insurance to another agency using the same underwriter that paid out on the subs claims.

dunstonh

They have catagoricly stated over the telephone this rise in premium is nothing to do with the claim.

You should hear some of the rubbish I get told over the phone by call centre staff. Many of whom or low skilled and on 3 month rolling contracts.

One of there team went to great length to explain to me that for previouse years they had estimated my rebuild costs to be £150k but this has now been upped to £338k thats why the premium hike!!!!!!! To which I replied it states on my schedule rebuild costs up to 500K!!!!!!

If you have an automatic sum insured policy then these are known to cherry pick the simple stuff. That could be the reason why they are pricing you higher now. However, you said you have had this policy for over 20 years. Automatic sum insured plans were very rare 20 years ago. The old type where you gave a sum insured which was indexed were the norm back then. Did you change the policy, although stay with Barclays, at some point? It is also possible (indeed probable) that Barclays still price on the given sum insured but automatically cover upto 500k.

Also, if your policy is over 20 years old then you shouldnt compare it to modern versions just on price. Each version they issue over the years is priced based on what it covers and how it would treat different claimable events and the target market and sales process.