Home Insurance - Depressed

Road_Hog

It's time to renew my B&C insurance and I've been with IF/Halifax for 10 years now, just kept letting it auto renew.

Got the quote through (it hasn't gone up that much this year, just expensive) and it's £556.50. Which seems expensive for a three bed semi, two adults no kids, includes accidental damage, legal, home emergency but personal belongings (away from home).

That's with 10 years no claims and no adverse conditions, plus it's a village, so it's a low crime area. Only thing I ever tried to claim for is when the fence was blown down and they refused that, so I can't see the point in having expensive cover.

Having read back through the home insurance thread, I was hoping to find some pointers as to some positive insurance stories, but there doesn't seem to be any, only bad news. There seems to be plenty of companies (well known ones) charging around half of what I currently pay but not any positive stories.

mikey72

Road_Hog wrote: »

It's time to renew my B&C insurance and I've been with IF/Halifax for 10 years now, just kept letting it auto renew.

Got the quote through (it hasn't gone up that much this year, just expensive) and it's £556.50. Which seems expensive for a three bed semi, two adults no kids, includes accidental damage, legal, home emergency but personal belongings (away from home).

That's with 10 years no claims and no adverse conditions, plus it's a village, so it's a low crime area. Only thing I ever tried to claim for is when the fence was blown down and they refused that, so I can't see the point in having expensive cover.

Having read back through the home insurance thread, I was hoping to find some pointers as to some positive insurance stories, but there doesn't seem to be any, only bad news. There seems to be plenty of companies (well known ones) charging around half of what I currently pay but not any positive stories.

Shop around.
Sainsbury's have a good policy booklet, but I've never needed to claim off them.

dwsjarcmcd

As has been said, shop around. Historically banks have sold expensive Buildings and contents to people when they bought their mortgage. This payment tends to get taken at the same time as the mortgage payment so it gets overlooked. These banks and building societys rely on customer intransigence and it just rolls on and on and they take big fat commissions.

Bet you reduce your premiums by about 30% or more by shopping around

McKneff

Try CIS, Cooperative Ins. Society. I pay just over £200 for exactly what you have.

RIAS (if you are over 50)

Aegis is also competitive.

I dont think any of the above are on comparison sites. But well worth a look

InsideInsurance

Home insurance varies massively between policies, much more than motor, so make sure you know what you're buying. Well beyond the headline things like Accidental Damage cover you have things like are matched pairs covered, budget/ standard policies will only pay for the item thats lost/ damaged and not any others in the set (eg kitchen cabinets, tiles, bathroom suit, sofas) where as premium/ MNW policies will pay to replace the set even though only one part is lost/ damaged. You need to decide if these sorts of things are worth paying for or not to you.

dwsjarcmcd

McKneff wrote: »

Try CIS, Cooperative Ins. Society. I pay just over £200 for exactly what you have.

RIAS (if you are over 50)

Aegis is also competitive.

I dont think any of the above are on comparison sites. But well worth a look

Pretty sure they are all on one comparison site or another. Ageas doesn't sell under that brand but many brands such as American Express, Kwik Fit, Cover Direct and RIAS amonst others

hcb42

just renewed mine with full AD cover, 51K contents insurance, accidental damage and pedal cycles etc for £314 with Direct Line. Pleased with that, again low risk village area. Just use comparison sites (and dont buy the cheapest!) but get a quote from DL separately. Their admin fees are something like £15 for changes, which is much better than some of the horror stories

scooby75

have you tried looking at separate quotes for B&C? You may find that one is costing far more than the other which will indicate why you are being quoted higher charges.