help me help mum-domestic appliance insurance

marc3

Hopefully on the right forum-and whilst a regular poster on the property forums-i don't normally venture down here.

No doubt this is covered extensively-but don't quite know where to look.

My mum wants to cover her washing machine for peace of mind-i stick clear of these insurance covers but she is determined to purchase insurance cover-and you don't argue with your 88 year old mum !!

Just want her to get a fair price.
has got 5 year old washer/dryer machine and been quoted by mastercare £66.
I thought that was expensive-and was expecting it to be about £45 but in all honesty -i don't know this market and so am perhaps wildly out.
Done a bit of trawling around and dom and general are more expensive and warr direct seem both more expensive and you need to have two items.

Maybe i am wrong-is £66 a fair price then ?

What do others think would be a fair price and can anyone recommend an alternative company who does domestic appliance insurance.

thank you so much in anticipation

nickj_2

if the machine is already 5 years old then the life expectancy can't be much more than 10 years so the insurance would be higher . why don't you ask you mum to put £66 a year in saving , then if it goes wrong she will have the cash to replace or repair

grizzly1911

I'm with nickj.

Put the money to one side and replace in due course.

If she is anything like my mother use is very light and likelihood failure much lower.

paulmapp8306

Really depends what that £66 covers and for how long.

My cooker was 3 years old, and was offered a rolling plan - so I pay £8/month and can cancel at anytime - that equates to £96/year. On the other hand, I was offered a cover plan for my dishwasher (that was 3 years old as well) that would cost £90, but would give me an extra 5 years cover which works out at a mear £18 or so per year.

Ben84

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

Really depends what that £66 covers and for how long.

My cooker was 3 years old, and was offered a rolling plan - so I pay £8/month and can cancel at anytime - that equates to £96/year. On the other hand, I was offered a cover plan for my dishwasher (that was 3 years old as well) that would cost £90, but would give me an extra 5 years cover which works out at a mear £18 or so per year.

I don't think that £8 p/m is such a good deal, because you can for about that or a little more rent a cooker. Often, appliance insurance is similar cost to renting - except you have to buy the item yourself which adds significantly to the total cost. Also, although it depends a bit, the repair service is sometimes not as prompt or efficient as a rental place which typically will just swap out the appliance if it ever develops a fault and repair the broken one in their shop rather than keep you waiting around for parts or spending time working out what's wrong. Fault prone appliances will tend to get taken out of circulation too, so hopefully you won't get lumbered with some problem appliance long term either. Anyway, if you don't like the one you have you can just ask for another model or rent from somewhere else. I can't see any real advantage to spending about the same money on a service contract and not having all these extra benefits that renting give you.

The other benefit of appliance rental places is that it means you don't need to store lots of money just in case an appliance you own breaks and is found to be beyond economical repair. You can just pick up the phone and have a washing machine or cooker within a couple of days for the next month or two for less than £20 in many cases. Cheap and easy and you'll have time to save some money and go appliance shopping.

marc3

Thanks for replies.

As i originallly posted-i have difficulty here as i never take on these insurance policies-but mum is digging her heels in and wants one-.
(to be fair-she is on her own and i live 200 miles away so she wants peace of mind)
can't overcome that-so now looking for the best value deal -and a few companies who do this stuff.
I know of dom and general and mastercare-but do not know of any others.
any recommendations ?

Maybe £66 is a fair price-it just seems alot to me-but that comes from someone who does not believe in them-so maybe i am being unfair.

If others think £66 is fair-then i'll swallow my pride ,take the offer-and make me mum happy !!

SpikyHedgehog

I'm paying £122 a year to dom & gen for my 9 year old washing machine... £66 looks good to me! Now of to google mastercare.

Hmm... Have a google of mastercare - it doesn't seem to have the best reputation.

I don't have anyone I know who can fix washing machines for beer or biscuits, & I don't have enough savings that I could easily say 'Washing machine gone wrong? I'll call an engineer today & have him fix it or replace it if he can't fix it!' Yes, renting could be a better offer, but my local company starts washing machine rental at £13 a month, which would be £156 a year, more than I'm already paying for the washing machine I still own that still works. (Except at the moment, when it's waiting for an engineer...)

Another thought about your mum is that as she's 88 & your 200 miles away, I'd rather know she was going to have reputable engineers coming out rather than dodgy ones?