Any Recommended House Insurer

fusewire

I am looking at House and Contents insurance and have been checking reviews. I have not found any good reviews, except those on the Insurer's own Websites, any recommendations?

ukmike

Lv= .

dunstonh

Rather than check reviews, which are an unreliable source of info, why not check features and options?

paddyandstumpy

Defaqto will give you a comparison on covers, and something like Which? measures customer satisfaction scores.

I previously would have recommended LV=, as I knew the company and their attitude to being the "best loved" insurer, meaning they were far more lenient/generous than they needed to be more often than not.

However, that attitude changed with the new MD coming in, they are far more focused on numbers and margins now so they are on a massive cost saving drive and this will feed into their attitudes and flexibility.

fusewire

I have general requirements and most of the Top Insurers offer options I require and most are about the same price which is OK. What concerns me are Customer Service, Call Centre Staff, rapid answering of telephones and claims settlements. Most of the reviews regarding insurers are terrible, although I realise that the reviews are mainly from people with a grievance, but are an indicator. There is an interesting FCA website showing claims settlement percentages which is helpful but personal experiences are also helpful

EdGasket

LV used to be good but I notice they introduced loads of get out clauses for subsidence claims that never used to be there. As previous poster says they are probably getting as bad as the others now. Yeah all reviews terrible; at least get an insurer that will answer the phone! Probably LV still gets my vote.

csgohan4

depends if you want to go budget or go premium. Hiscox are premium. If you want a cheap one which has as many Caveats as holes in swiss cheese that is also an option if you want budget

ThinkingOutLoud_2

So, it is quite sad that finding proof of a good or bad insurer is so hard.

Defacto rates the cover as written as stated - its Star Ratings "indicate where a product sits in the market in terms of the features and benefits it offers." BUT it does not asses if a companies claims handlers are hard-nosed or softer.

Reviews tend to be written by those who are happy or not happy. Unsurprisingly, those who have been disappointed write more. And 10 bad reviews for company A vs. 5 bad ones for company B bears no reflection to the possibility Company A has 20 times as many customers in total. Reviewers are more inclined to go public against a larger brand, feeling that public shaming will hurt them vs an unknown.

Ratings scores are also challenging, some companies seeming to only as those who were satisfied to "rate" and so boosting their net scores.

Comparison engines rank by various factors as well as price if you want, but nothing that does more than rank facts rather than quality.

I think the insurance regulator / ombudsman provide some comfort and option of redress - but who wants to go through that to get a claims settled fairly.

So where does that leave you? I think with a balance that says as csgohans's signature suggests, if you buy the cheapest - expect the least. If you want more, look at the benefits and terms as dunstonh says and then try to form a view of what all the information above and marketing claims tell you on balance.

Those who trade heavily off their reputation like Hiscox are going to be more forgiving, BUT they will cost more. Then you have brands who think your trust for them will allow you to trust their insurance (often provided by white labelled insurers with them taking commission / demanding service for their customers) - like John Lewis or M&S or even the Banks or supermarkets. Then you have direct insurers who may have more money left after marketing perhaps to put towards service / claims - e.g. Aviva.

dacouch

ThinkingOutLoud wrote: »

Reviews tend to be written by those who are happy or not happy. Unsurprisingly, those who have been disappointed write more. And 10 bad reviews for company A vs. 5 bad ones for company B bears no reflection to the possibility Company A has 20 times as many customers in total. Reviewers are more inclined to go public against a larger brand, feeling that public shaming will hurt them vs an unknown.

Also bear in mind that most review sites make their money by charging businesses to "Manage their reviews"

Managing their reviews means they will often contact the placers of bad reviews asking them to provide proof of purchase which many people won't bother to do. They also will remove reviews that they feel are unfair (Read that as a bad review).

You also have companies who automatically email everyone who purchases a policy from them as soon as they have purchased a policy. The effect this has on insurance purchases is that people tend to be pleased by the saving they have made and / or the nice person in quotes they spoke to so leave a 5 star review.

Here are Holiday Safe's reviews on Trust Pilot, note all the 5 star reviews from people who have just purchased. If you delve a bit deeper you'll find bad reviews from people who have made a claim.

Click "Filter by stars" and hit one star for the bad reviews.

When you understand this, it's easier to decide how much faith to place into an Insurers reviews and whether or not they pay to "Manage their reviews"

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/holidaysafe.co.uk


Not all companies pay the review sites so some will have good and bad reviews.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

dacouch wrote: »

You also have companies who automatically email everyone who purchases a policy from them as soon as they have purchased a policy.

Dacouch is right. It is worse though, as I noted, Not all ask all new clients, some pop up a single question e.g. "were you satisfied with us" and ONLY if you say yes do you get asked to fill in a fuller review.

So. amazingly, those who were satisfied give broadly very positive reviews.

I agree adopting the technique of filtering to read the less favourable reviews is worthwhile. Although on Amazon and others, I tend to find reading the 4, 3 and 2 star reviews yields more quality insight of the issues other had and less rambling rants or dubious loving praise (that often tells you nothing).

Hedgehog99

I noticed a change with LV's call centre staff - they went from sounding professional to "people chatting down the pub" in an "alright, mate?" kind of way.

Maybe that coincided with the MD change.