worth paying for "legal protection"?

thehound

I daresay this is already covered in the 501 pages but I couldn't get that far!

Is it worth paying extra for legal protection on household or motor insurance? It seems anyone is willing to pursue a claim on one's behalf for free.
When I got a Bike insurance quote recently I got an email giving me free legal cover. Is that as useful or likely to be useless?

Upto £30 on each policy in a household soon adds up!

Many thanks.

Mr_K

Depends on cost of course. Certainly worth it for car insurance if you get hit by an uninsured driver (there's plenty of them about....). I wouldn't bother with other insurances, a lot of the time you're already covered and they're just trying to bump up the premium/profits.

lisyloo

You will get two sets of views on here.
One is that it's a waste of money and you can get "no win no fee".
The other view is that it's worth it's weight in gold.

It seems anyone is willing to pursue a claim on one's behalf for free.

Well not always.
My FIL got £120 excess back when a pedestrian hit his car.
I doubt very much you will get a "no win no fee" lawyer chase £120 excess for you.
So it won't apply in all cases, but probably will in most.

I wouldn't bother with other insurances, a lot of the time you're already covered and they're just trying to bump up the premium/profits.

I would disagree with that.
If you cycle then the legal policy you get with home insurance would probably cover you for cycling and consumer disputes etc.

It's up to you, but personally I would look to see first if you can save £30 elsewhere without compromise e.g. changing gas/electricity or mortgage or phone provider.

Do you have an IFA?
They might be able to provide you with a combined policy for a cheaper price.

I have a combined one for £12 which covers cars, motorbike and household, but you'd need an advisro to get it for you becasue it's not a normal retail product,

tammigirl

My car insurance is 3rd party with no legal cover and was hit by an uninsured driver a couple of weeks ago...my insurance company werent interested but I went to the Motor Insurance Bureau and they have persued the claim on my behalf,...at no cost to me....so in my case it wasnt worth paying the extra on my car insurance

lisyloo

MIB does have some very significant exclusions though.
Good for you though :-)

onejontwo

Several years ago I had my car written off by a spanish lorry driver who at first admitted it was his fault, but after returning back to spain a week later denied he was in the wrong even though my vehicle was stationery, he cut the corner and crushed my front end (ooh painful!!) and pushed my vehicle into the one behind.
Anyway to cut a long story short, because of his nationality and the fact he then returned home I had to pursue the claim through the spanish system and therefore had to employ spanish lawyers and negotiate spanish law. I was informed that this would cost me thousands so there was a sigh of relief when I discovered I had paid for legal protection. Subsequently after 2 years and many letters of correspondance from the insurance company, my claim was settled and I was paid out in full. I can only think that in my case without legal protection, I would have had to employ spanish lawyers, paid up front several thousand pounds, without any guarantee of winning my claim, so in my case it was money well spent and I have always taken out legal protection ever since.

property.advert

Cover can be worth it but not through your insurance. Get a general policy. This is a massive earner for insurance companies.

ernie-money

property.advert wrote: »

Cover can be worth it but not through your insurance. Get a general policy. This is a massive earner for insurance companies.

Do you have any details on this at all? I would like to take out separate cover, as it seems a bit hit & miss what the insurance company charges you, but how do you find a general policy like this please?