How much do you pay for Buildings and contents insurance?

Markie11

I'm going through the process of getting quotes and was surprised to find such big differences the cost for similar or same cover. I spoke to my father-in-law the other day who lives in the same area and a similar size house and he quoted he paid £150 per year. I was astonished as no quote was near that amount.

My quotes have been based on buildings cover for £200k min on 4-bed semi detached, £20k contents with excess of £50/£100. Also includes £2k personal possessions and home care (not sure whether I really need this). Quotes range from £27 with e-sure and about £32 with L&G and AXA.

So, just wondering what you guys pay and what you think of your insurer.

- Size of property
- Who is your insurer?
- How much do you pay each month or yearly premium?
- How they have dealt with any claims?
- Would you recommend them?

InsideInsurance

Home insurance can vary massively between providers, even if the headline information appears to be the same. For example with DL you must specify everything over £2,000 for cover where as with Axa Direct you only have to specify items over £10,000. If you had a small fire or accident that destroyed half of your now discontinued kitchen cupboards Axa Direct would only replace those that were damaged with the nearest match that could be found were as Hiscox would pay for all of them to be replaced if a match couldnt be found.

From memory, currently insured 2 bed flat with £50,000 of contents with full AD, legal expenses and £12,000 of PP cover with Axa Direct for £210 - no buildings

ashamim

I'm in the process of buying a 4 Bed End of Terrace and have been doing the sums on B&C insurance. The best deal I've had so far is via AXA at £190 (annual premium). Using Quidco they say I'll get upto a further £32 in cashback, bring it down to £158.

Cover type:Buildings and contents
Sums insured:Buildings £500,000.00 (rebuild on my house is 200K as per survey, but believe AXA do blacket to 500K)
Contents £65,000.00
Personal possesions:£0.00
Policy excess:£150.00

Price include:
£500 for digital items
£2,500 cover for items in outbuildings
Accommodation in case of floods
Garden cover
Legal expenses

Others I've had quotes with seem to be well over the £200 mark. So curious to see what people think of AXA and would anyone recommend them.

Maybe I'm a bit naive, but I've put in a high value for contents to the sum of £65K.. Want to know if that’s too much as I played with the quote and saw there was no difference in putting in 50K through 65K as it did not affect the end premium. Now reading some thread on this forum I see it maybe better to drop my contents cover to a say 40K (realistic) even if I don't think I have that if I total up all my items in the house.

loracan1

It's going to be affected by postcode (you can be in the same area with a different one) whether you have children, window locks etc.

As an aside, £20k seems low for contents cover. Would it only cost that to replace EVERYTHING in the event of a fire? Think from cushions, curtains, cds, to the contents of your bathroom cabinet.

kingstreet

I have a blanket £300k/£40k B&C with Paymentshield. I do it myself, so I pay the premium and receive the commission back.

4 bed detached in ST18.

It has full accidental damage cover for both buildings and contents and a standard excess of £60 for both. There's also Home Emergency cover included. The premium is £40 per month.

Made a claim back in 2009. Our neighbour's house was struck by lightning and we had the following items "toasted" by a static charge down the phoneline;-

TV
Sky receiver
Router
Fax/printer
Laptop
ADSL filters.

Our claim was settled quickly and was around £1,200 in value.

ACG

The prices your being quoted seems about right. Those are the premiums i tend to be getting when doing something similar for my clients. Ive even seen upto £40 a month - but their renewal was £65 - so it was still a saving.

Things like no claims will also be taken into account.
Are you checking you are getting like for like cover? Does he have legal cover, accidental damage, emergency service etc? Those tend to cost a bit extra each month.