Excess Insurance

simon3030

Having recently been stung for £250 excess on a home insurance claim, I looked for excess insurance - came across several online,
Protectyourbubble, Insure4excess and goodbyexcess - prices for £500 cover vary between £38 & £49.
Anyone had any experience of this type of policy?
Thanks.

Buzby

Why was the excess a surprise? It should be clearly stated as part of the policy. The rule of thumb is the higher the excess, the lower the premium paid. Of the firms you mention, they all have other gotchas that will work against you - unattended theft, mobile phone bills prior to the theft being reported - the list is as long as your arm!

InsideInsurance

Yes, though have a conflict of interest to promote anyone.

Generally they do what they say on the tin and nothing more or less. One slight caution is if you push your excess up then what happens if you're loss is below your excess. Most policies dont pay out as the excess hasnt been paid, have seen at least one where they do.

*Scarlett

Was the £250 xs for a standard claim or escape of water? Many mainstream insurers impose this xs for eow and it can't be reduced but some don't.

Have a shop around for the best terms for your pocket at renewal time. Some home insurers will discount well for a higher excess, with others it could be a case of a few £s.

You might be able to reduce the xs fee for a standard claim to £50 (roughly same cost as xs protection) which I would imagine is less hassle than taking out another policy.

I don't have any personal experience of these excess protection policies for home insurance and I assume they may be suitable for some people. Everyone will assess their own risk differently - some people have never claimed in 20 years so 1 xs on 1 claim might be ok. If you find you need to claim several times throughout the years then you might feel that the xs fees add up to a substantial sum.

thenudeone

Insuring an excess sounds bonkers to me. If there is ever a claim there will be two sets of companies to fight with.
Why don't you just buy insurance with a very low excess in the first place?

InsideInsurance

thenudeone wrote: »

If there is ever a claim there will be two sets of companies to fight with.

Why? You pay the excess to one and then claim it back from the other.

simon3030

The excess wasn't a surprise, Buzby, as it was an escape of water, but having looked at the comparison sites for other providers, as my policy renewed recently, most insurers impose this excess for this claim type, and then perhaps suggest a voluntary excess of £50 or £100 or even more...yes the premium reduces for a higher excess, but I was unable to find anyone where it balanced out, without a lot of searching.

In the end I went with SAGA, and having spoken to them about the claim, which is coming it's final hours, they were happy to insure me for £100 less than my previous provider, from whom I claimed, and had put the premium up from £268 to £413 for renewal, and wouldn't budge. And SAGA's £250 excess for EoW claims includes the normal £100 excess - my previous insurer's documents say they add them together...

The question about the excess insurance was really to see whether people had experience of claiming, and any hurdles they had to jump. The issue is really about claim values - if the claim is for £300 or £400 worth of damage, it's not worth the hassle if you lose the first £250 - that's really what I object to, and if I can find another way to get that excess back, may be worth doing - 10% (£50 for £500 cover) seems good value to me.

marathonic

simon3030 wrote: »

The issue is really about claim values - if the claim is for £300 or £400 worth of damage, it's not worth the hassle if you lose the first £250 - that's really what I object to, and if I can find another way to get that excess back, may be worth doing - 10% (£50 for £500 cover) seems good value to me.

Seems EXTREMELY poor value to me. You're paying £50 for cover that, should you happen to claim, will also increase the main insurance premiums on your home in future years. There is also likely to be some terms and conditions to the policy that will make it more difficult to claim on that you might imagine.

Using your example of damages under £500, you may decide to not even claim on damages up to £200 given the potential increase in premium in your following (multiple) years main home insurance.

Insurance should only be required for events that cause SEVERE financial strain.

In my opinion, the best excess insurance available on the market today is opening an account with First Direct bank, bagging a £100 welcome bonus if you meet their criteria (the main one is monthly lodgements of £1,000) and setting up a Regular Savings account at 6% interest.

thenudeone

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Why? You pay the excess to one and then claim it back from the other.

That is two claims.
One from the insurer. And another one to the insurer of the excess.

InsideInsurance

thenudeone wrote: »

That is two claims.
One from the insurer. And another one to the insurer of the excess.

Yes two claims but a claim doesnt automatically mean a fight

The only two complaints I've seen around excess insurance is (1) where repairs were below the excess and therefore no cover or (2) where there is an at fault party so the excess must be recovered from them not from the insurance.

For your run of the mill home claim excess there really isnt much that could even trigger a fight