Packaged accounts

brewerdave

Also be very careful with Travel insurance cover provided with bank account. When my travel insurance renewal quote came back last year as a 35% increase,I inquired at my bank (Natwest) re converting to an "added value" account specifically for the travel cover. I was told that existing medical conditions were not covered and couldn't be covered even with an extra premium paid - so no use to me.

IrishGypsy

davidlizard wrote: »

Concerning the breakdown cover, many packaged accounts only offer the very basic cover - that is if you break down they will attempt a repair then tow you to the nearest garage - i.e. not home. This can work out very expensive.

My Brother in Law had a packaged account with Lloyds - he broke down and assumed the car would be recovered to his house. Wrong - they towed him to a rather dodgy garage. They did not attempt the repair for almost a week as they had to wait for the bits, then charged him well over the odds, and to rub salt in charged him £18/day storage.

Phone insurance - many contents insurance policies provide adequate cover.

Will Writing - anything beyond a simple will, for example you want a tax efficient one that leaves things in trust for kids etc - which many charities will do for free anyway - there is a hefty charge.

Re Phone Insurance: My wife broke her IP4 and I had to claim on home insurance as Unspecified Personal Possessions. But I now need to declare this claim for the next 5 years, upping my premiums.

Now that I've upgrdaded my Santander reward to the Premium account (hooray for staff rates!), I no longer need to worry about having to claim off of my home insurance policy anymore if it's lost, damaged or stolen.

Thankfully their breakdown cover is home start with nationwide recovery as standard (even when it changes to RAC in October), so when I get my first car shortly, that's me sorted.

And the will writing is an added bonus too. I've also added my wife onto the account purely so she too can take advantage of the benefits at no additional cost (although she won't be getting a debit card, I'll be making sure of that)!

@OP: As long as you feel that you'll use most of the benefits (and remember they'e mainly 'What If' benefits you might or might not use), then they can be great value. You just need to know what you need, read what you're ACTUALLY covered for (or NEED to be covered for) and THEN compare the accounts/prices.

auto-man

pinkdalek wrote: »

For example if you take alone the Travel Insurance, Mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover. Those three items alone would cost you more than £180 a year if you were to buy them individually.

depends who you get a quote from and where you work of course.

auto-man

IrishGypsy wrote: »

Re Phone Insurance: My wife broke her IP4 and I had to claim on home insurance as Unspecified Personal Possessions. But I now need to declare this claim for the next 5 years, upping my premiums.

Regardless where you claim, as part of any insurance quote you will be asked if you have claimed in the last 3 years and then asked to explain it so you will always be paying, whether you think it or not. The thing is you did lose a phone and yes you did make a claim so in theory at renewal you must inform your insurers and they will adjust your premium because you still claimed which affects your underwriting risk.

Just be careful not to lie and get refused insurance. :cool:

pqrdef

pinkdalek wrote: »

For example if you take alone the Travel Insurance, Mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover. Those three items alone would cost you more than £180 a year if you were to buy them individually.

The nature of these things is that the "normal" price is way over the odds and includes a very hefty margin or commission for whoever sells you the thing. Which usually means that large discounts are available through other channels as well.

I got breakdown insurance for a few quid by taking it with my car insurance. Officially it was still full price but most of that was kicked back as a discount on the car policy.