Insuring Children I Don't Have!

Mehitabel

I was about to sign up for home insurance with Swinton (who'd come up as cheapest via USwitch) when I noticed that "Childrens' University Contents" were covered for £5000. I certainly hadn't asked for that, possibly because I have no children. When I rang them, I was told
a) It's standard and there is no option to remove it, and
b) They have to do it, to fund cover for the people who DO have children.

:mad:

Right. Well, I have to pay extra to cover my bicycle away from home.. Perhaps that could be introduced as standard, so all the non-bikers can subsidise ME..? Nope, thought not.

I'm daunted by having to trawl through the small print of all the insurance companies, to find one which doesn't force me to pay for other peoples' children. Does anyone know of one? Or found a way round this?

InsideInsurance

If they are the cheapest why do you care about having an extra cover that you wont use?

Do you want to pay more to another insurer that doesnt offer this cover?

Look at your car insurance, it will provide cover for baby/ child seats too - again no option to remove it.

My car insurance has breakdown included but I already have cover from both my bank and from the car manufacturer. They were the cheapest even with breakdown included and I am certainly not going to pay more to go with an insurer that doesnt include breakdown

Mehitabel

Fair point, II! But raised it with them assuming that the premium would drop if I took the £5000 worth of cover out.

They were only ONE of the cheapest. I just can't get my head round paying for something I don't need or want. Where else would you be expected to do that? Imagine the equivalent in a restaurant, say. And we're not talking about a couple of hundred here.. It's a lot.

InsideInsurance

There is often a case with these sorts of things that the volume of claims they get is tiny and so the cost is minimal/ nothing.

For example, looking at wholesale prices for one of the top breakdown companies the cost for all the bells and whistles UK only cover is identical as the price for the same cover but including the EU.

The reason being is that they get a handful of EU claims a year as 99% of people going on a pan european roadtrip tend to get their car checked out etc before setting off where as for your daily commute etc you obviously dont.

Despite that the consumer price for EU cover is always much higher because of the perceived extra value.

I've known customers say they want the built in/ "free" cover reduced to UK only as they'd never go abroad with their car but they dont understand that it doesnt make an iota of difference to the price.

Likewise things like Personal Accident cover you have with comprehensive cover is almost never claimed on so adds no cost. In fact when I first started working in insurance it was in claims and I asked the regional trainer what we did for someone wanting to claim on the PA cover and she said she didn't know as she'd never heard of anyone ever claiming on it in her 15 years as a trainer.

*Scarlett

Many policies have standard features that you may not need - if you read the whole policy book I'm sure that there are many things covered that may not apply to you.

You might be able to find an insurer that will tailor everything for just what you want and exclude extra benefits but it may not be any cheaper.

However most mainstream insurers have a standard policy and which ever one is the cheapest is the cheapest no matter if you are getting extra cover.

rs65

I would concentrate on whether the policy at least provides what you need and forget about the other bits that you don't need.