Boiler cover- dont know where to even start.

supremo_2

I just bought a house the other day. I have the keys and I am planning on moving in in the next week. I have arranged my gas and elctric direct debit with Scottish Gas and it is only costing me £30 for electric and £35 for Gas per month which seems reasonable.
They offered me boiler cover, plumbing etc for an additional £27 per month. I accepted this but I have 7 days to change my mind.

Does anyone have any advice on who else offers cover? how much I should be paying. I thought £27 p/m was quite expensive.

DVardysShadow

I would not take it. I prefer to do my own plumbing and get someone in for gas as needed.

scotslad

Scottish gas provide excellent boiler cover. I have been with them for years and everytime I have had heating problems Scottish Gas were there within 24 hours and had it fixed. They also give your boiler the once over every 12 months all for £17 a month

ic

What is the boiler? How old is it? Has it previously been regularly serviced. £27 saved monthly (£324 annually) will soon build a good emergency fund should it be needed (even to the point it'd be enough to pay for a replacement boiler. Are your drains shared? Water companies took over responsibility for shared drains last year - so vastly reducing the likelihood of you having to sort them out should something go wrong.

Your gas and electric sounds on the cheap side to me, for the first few months keep providing meter readings and ensure your payments are sufficient for your usage. Last thing you want is a huge bill in a years time because you haven't paid enough.

giraffe69

I have an agreement to service/repair the boiler. I accept that it might not work out cheapest but, for me, it reduces the aggravation factor if things go wrong.

I think £27 is quite high and you can do better. There are those that offer cover for the boiler/radiators etc and tend to charge around £23 per month. You can, however, switch, to an insurance based policy, pay the first £50 of any call out and pay less(about £15) British Gas do both of these. I have the cheaper and even if I called them out each year I would be ahead.

macman

You simply don't need this cover. Get an independent local RGI to service your boiler annually for about £75, and put the rest of your £324 in the savings account.

foreversummer

I always take the Home Emergency Cover offered with by home buildings and contents insurance. Gives not only boiler cover, but emergency help with electrics, drains, plumbing, door locks etc. Usually costs in the region of £60 for the year. Very useful.

ihateyes

ic wrote: »

What is the boiler? How old is it? Has it previously been regularly serviced. £27 saved monthly (£324 annually) will soon build a good emergency fund should it be needed (even to the point it'd be enough to pay for a replacement boiler. Are your drains shared? Water companies took over responsibility for shared drains last year - so vastly reducing the likelihood of you having to sort them out should something go wrong.

Your gas and electric sounds on the cheap side to me, for the first few months keep providing meter readings and ensure your payments are sufficient for your usage. Last thing you want is a huge bill in a years time because you haven't paid enough.

couple of points:

1) as it is a new property for OP, they may not know breakdown history so for 1year this agreement may be beneficial.

2) Water companies only took over drains in england/wales.... not in Scotland - as the OP says Scottish Gas, i assume they are in Scotland!

Richie-from-the-Boro

ihateyes wrote: »

couple of points:

1) as it is a new property for OP, they may not know breakdown history so for 1year this agreement may be beneficial.

2) Water companies only took over drains in england/wales.... not in Scotland - as the OP says Scottish Gas, i assume they are in Scotland!

Scottish Gas is British Gas and their cover is advertised for a tenner

ihateyes

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Scottish Gas is British Gas and their cover is advertised for a tenner

all branding in england/wales is British Gas
all branding in Scotland in Scottish Gas

the fact the OP says Scottish Gas implies they are in Scotland.

They do many covers, depends which one is appropriate for OP

pigeonpie

a quick 5p's worth. We have a service contract with British Gas because we have a Powermax boiler. I rang around before taking it out (years ago) and none of the cheaper local then-CORGI firms serviced Powermax, so it was a straight choice between BG and Baxi who make them. Baxi were more than BG and BG promised a next day engineer service. We've had to use that 4 times and an annual service is included.

If you have a modern, bog standard boiler that everyone services, then your options are more varied and should be cheaper. I always ask who would come at short notice if it's the middle of winter or a holiday period and there's no hot water or heat. Sometimes a small one man band co won't do that.