Home Insurance Discussion

cazziej

Hello, I know when you take out insurance it usually says you can cancel withn 28 days, but if the insurance has been running since 25th December 2007, would it be possible to cancel now?

Heres the story (bit lengthy, sorry).

We have a mortgage with Halifax and from day one have had the contents and building insurance with them, not bothering to look around and compare through sheer laziness and ignorance. BUT since coming on this site and picking up a few tips I realised there was another way out there! I have a £24,000 approximately, mortgage on a house that is now worth around £120,000:j . We have 2 endowments, one is due up in November 2009 and the other is due up in March 2009 (hooray) the house will be all ours!

Back to the story: After looking on this site last year I toddled off and checked how much my insurance was and it turned out to be £700+. The house is a small to average size 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom. I searched for new insurance and most of them came up around £300. This was around October and I was adamant that when the time for renewal came up (25th December, a clever marketing ploy I think!) I would change insurers. Out of interest, while I was searching, I looked at Halifax (my current insurers) and tried to get an online quote, however "they could not quote me at this time", dead right they obviously recognised my details as an existing customer. So, I changed the number of my house on the details to that of my neighbour who wasn't a customer of theirs and the price was around £300. When my renewal came in in December it was £850:mad: and this was with loyalty discount - I havent had a claim for 15 years.

Being the stupid cow that I am, I let Christmas come and go and the insurance renew automatically, roping me in for another year. My mortgage payments in December were around £305 (including insurance). In December, I received a letter from Halifax saying that the interest rate had gone down from 7.750% to 7.500% per year, and that the payments would be going down to £262.22 as of 28.01.08. I deciced to leave my payments at £300 to pay a little extra. Today, I received another letter from Halifax saying that the interest rate had gone down from 7.500% to 7.250% per year! Great, I thought, even more extra money to throw at the mortgage. Not so, the next line tells me "your new monthly payment from March 2008, will be £301.35. This is due each month, commencing from 28th March 2008".

I promptly phoned Halifax to ask what was going on to be told that the only thing she could see that had happened between the 2 was that the insurance payment had been applied in December 2007. I asked if that could account for such a massive increase, I mean we are talking about £40+ extra per month here. She said she could not deal with this side of things but would put a note on my file and somebody will write to me.

Does this sound right to you? Would I be able to cancel my insurance and get cover with a new insurer now. The insurance premium is added to the mortgage as a lump sum on 25th December each year, would they just make me pay the 2 months payment and then recalculate the monthly payments.

I know this has come about because I have been stupid and lazy but this last letter has made me see RED.

What should I do??? Any advice welcome.

Thanks, Carol.

rogersa

Hi

Which companies provide free Travel Insurance with theire Building and Contents policies? Any suggestions please?

Thanks

bournville_2

I'm new to all this so forgive me if it appears I cant see the wood for the trees

I understand that if I am a new customer wanting to take out Home In surance with Tesco I could get 50% off the quote

My understanding is that if I am a new customer and apply on line for home insurance I will get 50% off. But I find that the Tesco on line service is very misleading

I registered and submitted my details for home insurance. The quote was £276 and change if i pay in installments, but if I pay in full I will only pay £250.95.

There was no indication of a 50% discount, so I called Tesco for assistance. I was informed that the £250.95 was with the 50% discount and if they were not running the promotional discount offer the original cost would have been about £500

Am I wrong in thinking that the 50% of my quote should have been about £126.

Have I got this all wrong?

Magic_Mel

I have always used the same insurer for both. Simply, if you had a problem with an item, insurers can argue whether it comes under contents or buildings. (anyway they can wriggle out they will!).

However, point of this thread is renewal. I have been with the Prudential for umpteen years.. premiums are higher, but when we have claimed, they have been very efficient and payout promptly with very little arguement. This years renewal, I thought was expensive, (especially as I have not claimed for 4 years so went on the internet to their site and got a better quote (£100 cheaper) for being a new customer. This I thought was unfair, especially as I have been with them for many years. I phoned them and complained nicely that they were discriminating towards new customers, and as such were showing no allegiance to exisiting. Result of the phone call, Buildings and contents for the year with £100 knocked off... so check your renewal on line and if its cheaper then phone and complain nicely...

Franck67

Hello everyone,
I have just received my renewal from Norwich Union, surprise surprise, it has gone up....
If I check for the same details on their website as a new customer, it is much cheaper ( and also includes Breakdown Cover which is not included in the renewal quote...).
My question is: Am I "allowed" to refuse their renewal and cancel my policy but then take on the new policy with them pretending that I am a new customer????
Has anyone done it before or should I ring them and try to bargain???

Thanks for looking, Franck.

suzithefloozy

I've just reached my home and contents renewal time. We remortgaged last year through a broker and took out mortgage and insurances through abbey so I thought then that it probably wasn't the best deal to be had.

So anyways, I got the renewal letter informing me it'd cost £550 this year so I followed Martin's advice and used the screenscrapers. I managed to lower it to £260, and then phoned one of my friends who has an insurance firm and he did it for £230. I made sure that the cover was good enough in case I did actually have to claim and then went for that one.

When I phoned up abbey to cancel the old policy, the first thing the man said when I told him I'd found a better quote was, "do you want us to see if we can get you a better price?". This irks me as surely they should give you their best price in the first place???!

Then he tried the tack of "well you've got to make sure your buildings insurance will cover the total cost of rebuild should you need to make a claim. Your existing policy is extremely good as you are covered for an unlimited amount should you need to claim". This also irks me as if your house costs £100k to rebuild, then it will be covered whether you've insured it for only £110k or for an unlimited amount. So effectively abbey are charging extra for the privilege of having an unlimited amount of cover, when in all fairness, most people, unless they have extremely underestimated the cost of rebuild, wouldn't need it anyway. Plus they try and make it sound like it should give you peace of mind!

I'm so glad for this site. Reason being, I probably would've fallen for that in the past, but Martin has installed some good financial common sense into me!
:T

mintymoneysaver

lynsiloo wrote: »

hey been looking at the post office building and contents insurance. Went on the post office website and was quoted £199.94, so looked into the terms it says:

"Your original means of payment will be credited with the cashback amount, no sooner than 60 days after the policy start date and no later than 70 days after the start date. "

So i went on compare the market and got the same policy for £149.94 with the cashback. Just seen you can also get 27.50 with quidco. So in effect i would be saving £77.50. Hoping i have found a good deal as i have been looking at insurance all day!!!

I think the post office seem pretty good. I checked them out first via screenscrapers, just for contents as quite happy with my building renewal.
My renewal quote from liverpool victoria ( cheapest last year) was £155 but post office were coming up as £106. went via quidco direct to their site and now coming up as £93. So took their offer, £25 cashback and £27 from quidco means my contents insurance this year is £41!

Tesco were coming up as a ridiculous price for me though, over £230!!!

sweettirana

Tesco have quoted me £185 with 50% discount! Theives!

Post Office - £48 including £25 cashnack, and I can go through Quidco and get even more cashback!

Even better - AIG quoted me £78... go through Quidco andI get £90 cashback! They are paying me!

It just goes to show there are some benefits to being a first time home owner in the current market living in a flat the equivalent size of a shoebox !:rotfl:

kirsty99

Just a quick one - haven't found the answer yet - apologies if I've missed it!

If I take out separate contents and buildings insurance, both with AIG, in separate transactions, does anyone know if this will be tracked twice on quidco? Although its slightly more expensive to do it separately it would work out cheaper if I get 2x £90 in cashback.

FlameCloud

Yes, in theory. Although bear in mind that it would mean two excesses in the event of a claim.