Boiler covers - are they worth it?

LiveOnce

Hi all,

What are your experiences with boiling and heating covers? Are they worth it?

I've been Googling them and there is mixed response on whether they are worth it or not.

It can be a big hassle (not forgetting expensive) to fix boilers if there are issues.

Have you had a boiler cover? If so, was it worth it? What was your experiences and would you recommend it?

Thanks

mikegahan

I have had British Gas for many years but my boiler is about 12 years now, and their maintenance contracts are expensive, but good quality. I have heard of alternative suppliers but personal recommendation from friends says the quality is often poor... they are cheaper but you get what you pay off.

Carrot007

On the whole being all MSE, they are probably not worth it.

However it may be a better idea to have one if you do not have the means or discipline to keep savings to cover issues as they pop up. Because otherwise you could get into trouble when you need to pay out.

penrhyn

I think Boiler Covers would lead to overheating of your boiler, best avoided. Better to have Hot Water Tank covers.

sk240

If you can cover the cost of a local engineer if and when a proplem occurs then a service plan is a waste of time.
If you cannot then a service plan is a wiser choice.

[Deleted User]

The answer is the same as for any type of insurance: the purpose is to protect you from a loss that you can't afford as a single lump sum, and not to save money over the long run.

The mean cost if you don't insure is the price of the loss multiplied by the probability of incurring the loss, this is known as the expectation. The cost if you do insure is the premium. The expectation always has to be less than the premium, otherwise the insurance company will go bust.

Most people can't find the cost of a house out of small change if it burns down, so they insure it. But can you not afford a boiler repair? Taking a whole houseful of appliances over a lifetime, you will have many more breakdowns than house fires, so the cost will be the average expectation for all those events, and as we've seen, that must be less than the premiums. Some appliances will be unreliable and cost more than the insurance would have been, but they will be paid for out of the premiums you save on all the reliable ones that don't break down. Some years there will be a lot of appliances that fail, but they will be paid for in the years when nothing goes wrong.

The more frequent and probable the losses are, the more likely the cost will work in favour of those who self insure. It's like hedging your investments in more than one companys shares: it's less likely that they will all go bust together. To make insurance "pay", most appliances would have to break down most of the time, and they just don't.

ollski

It's not necessarily the full story though, a pump that would cost an independent guy 60 / 70 quid for I know had a cost to a maintenance provider of 14 quid. I would imagine that probably goes across the board so lots of faults that would be covered and fixed under a contract would be, or could be, an uneconomical repair for a local guy.
Also bear in mind that if you have an intermittent or hard to diagnose fault your local guy cannot take a chance on a part as it cannot be refunded to him and it usually follows not to you either and often on more troublesome boilers it is frequently very tricky to actually find someone with any skill to come and have a look at it at all.

LiveOnce

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies. I am still a bit confused on whether it's worth it or not.

I have heard if boilers breakdown it can be expensive to call a plumber and to get it fixed.

I have no idea the quality of work provided by British Gas for example if I join their boiler cover plans.

Any more insights?

buckster

I have had boiler cover with British Gas for years and wouldn't be without it. I have had to use my cover a couple of times and the engineer has been out the next day to fix my boiler. They service the boiler each year also. Each year they usually put the cover up so I tell them I want to leave and then rejoin after a week and get quidco for being a new customer

faineant

ollski wrote: »

It's not necessarily the full story though, a pump that would cost an independent guy 60 / 70 quid for I know had a cost to a maintenance provider of 14 quid. I would imagine that probably goes across the board so lots of faults that would be covered and fixed under a contract would be, or could be, an uneconomical repair for a local guy.
Also bear in mind that if you have an intermittent or hard to diagnose fault your local guy cannot take a chance on a part as it cannot be refunded to him and it usually follows not to you either and often on more troublesome boilers it is frequently very tricky to actually find someone with any skill to come and have a look at it at all.

Very sound advice! I had a local guy like you describe and decent to the point of explaining just what you say. I subsequently contacted the manufacturer on his suggestion and took out one of their Repair and Protect contracts. This is where you already have a fault and they agree a fixed price in advance payable over 12 months and send out an engineer to bring the boiler back up to full working order replacing any parts required and then cover the whole boiler for 12 months. It proved very cost effective for me and although I fully expect the cost to balance out over the next few years clearly as the manufacturer their costs were significantly less than my local guy would have incurred and had to pass onto me.