Home and contents premium hike

Wysiwyg49

Just had our renewal from Santander for H&C insurance.

We have a pretty average 4-bed semi and no antique furniture or particularly valuable jewellery or anything...premium is increased from £932 per year to £1046 per year.

I note we have unlimited contents insured, with maximums on various categories (single item £2500, money £500 etc.). Don't have legal services or home emergency cover (not even sure what that is TBH).

A session on GoCompare with guessed total contents value of £30000 I think, gives quotes as low as £150 for the year! I can see there are some categories which have limits on where our current one does not, but that's a BIG saving - even the GC higher quotes were about half our current policy.

Is this just cos we have auto-renewed for years or is there going to be a significant difference? Is it worth ringing Sant and saying "come on guys, that's a crazy amount of money?"

We haven't claimed in the last 7 years - last claim was a toilet cistern leak for which we needed some new carpeting and plastering.

Thanks all

Quentin

MSE standard advice is don't simply renew - as there's no loyalty award for doing so.


Use the MSE article on cheap home insurance (link I blue type amongst the quick links directly above your post) for advice on checking the whole market at renewal time.

FutureGirl

If you're in a 4 bed house I think your contents will be more than £30K - don't underinsure yourself as if you do, and it comes to claiming, you won't get paid out in full.

I'm in a 1 bed flat and our contents are at least £15K.

Premiums have gone up generally this year. There are various things that affect your premiums IE a rise in theft claims in your area will affect the premiums of everyone in the area.

Blibble

This reminds me of a claim I dealt with once where a lovely old lady was claiming on her broken washing machine - it broke due to wear and tear (it was nearly 15 years old) so her claim was declined, and she came out with the immortal line "that's not the service I pay £1600 a year for". Turns out she was in her 70s and had auto-renewed with her provider for over 40 years.

The point is this: insurers will keep putting up their prices at renewal in the hope that nobody will notice. I doubt Santander would go as low as £150 if you've been near a grand for the past however many years, so it may be better just to switch.

ripplyuk

I think you should just leave. Maybe do some new quotes on a comparison site and increase the amount covered as I doubt £30,000 is accurate for you. I have a two bed house and £50,000 contents cover, and legal cover. Mine was £110 last year.

I would never let any policy auto-renew without getting quotes from other providers and then asking them to match it. If they won't match it (and the cover is truly like for like), then I'd leave.

Schoolworker

Last month we got our renewal in for our house and contents insurance of £300+. We shopped about and got the same cover for £175 - which is great especially as we have needed to claim so far. Shop about and go elsewhere. We gave our original insurer the chance to match the price but they couldn't.