Halifax House Insurance? WOW!!

gingapete

Just posting this to see if anyone else has elderly parents as I just found out that a local Halifax branch that my parents have had their account with for many years seems to have been taking advantage of them for a while when they went in for advice for house insurance.

They moved their insurance to Halifax due to their normal insurance (Age Concern) closing the branch near by and my parents believe in dealing with people direct and keeping local with banks, building society, shopping etc.

So as they are both nearing 80 and things are getting more and more difficult for them to get out to do this without going online so I have started to move their bills over to DD's on their Halifax account when I notice that there is an entry for Halifax house insurance of £250 in one payment? So I look through their account and for the past few years their insurance has been going up by a fair few quid and on top of that instead of taking this as a monthly DD that they asked for the Halifax have been taking it as one payment each year!

I thought OK that's a bit much so ill check what the building/contents and anything else is covered on this policy only to find found it's a basic buildings insurance, no contents and no accidental damage etc but basic legal! I thought bloody hell that's a bit steep!!

Then the next day the renewal pops in the post and its gone up again to £300 for a basic buildings cover!!!

I check the policy details to see if there's been any claims etc and checked it with my parents who said they both tie up that they haven't had a claim on over 40 years and Halifax had advised them to take this policy out on the first year and they thought it was a monthly DD and as the lady was nice they just leave it to renew.

So I took all their info and details and ran it through online switch and got buildings and content, boiler cover etc I mean a total package with Churchill for £190!! I could've got it cheaper!! Plus they get £30 for switch making it £160!

I could have got just buildings insurance for £80 same cover as Halifax so could have saved £220! Even Halifax building an contents without the extra I added was £120 so £180 saving from the same supplier for buildings and content not just buildings!!

I'm absolutely disgusted that this has happened and they now feel that they have been taken advantage of so I will be checking how long they have had this insurance as someone at the branch must've got a nice little bonus for this and if they did this on one elderly couple then how many have they done it with!!

So this week I will be informing the Halifax that this policy will not be getting renewed and I will be switching their bank account and closing their account that they have had for many a year.

I know you should always shop around and not stay with your supplier/accounts etc unless they work for you BUT my parents are old school and have refused to do any online bills and kept everything that they can local and pay local to (as they keep saying) provide jobs for people and keep business going! Now? Well now they are converted so now I will be looking at all other bills an seeing what I can save them!!

I wish i could get them the previous overcharge back but i think as they never contested it since they had the policy i don think they have a chance but i do think they have been sold the policy at a highly inflated price!!

Right rant over i hope everyone has an amazing weekend!!

csgohan4

Another reason why i handle my parent's insurance and utilities now. They were paying full price virgin media fibre for years amounting to about 40-50 pounds a month, not to mention paying 300+ for home insurance

Who's to blame? you could argue the elderly have capacity and are adults too and not choosing to switch or haggle is not the insurers fault is it?

Only recently have the utility (Gas/eletric) companies have begun to automatically switch to the cheapest tariff but only from the same company, still not that competitive

Good job you noticed now than another 10 years down the line.

Manxman_in_exile

We changed from Halifax some years ago. Our new provider gave better cover at just a little over 50% of what Halifax wanted.

SonOf

s seems to have been taking advantage of them for a while when they went in for advice for house insurance.

Halifax's old in-house policy was a full coverage plan. Accidental with Personal pensions and everything covered. It was replaced multiple times over with new versions.

The problem is that as more and more people moved away from that version, the more expensive it becomes to administer that version of the product a the costs are spread over fewer people. So, the premiums become uncompetitive and eventually very out-of-sync with modern alternatives.

I'm absolutely disgusted that this has happened and they now feel that they have been taken advantage of so I will be checking how long they have had this insurance as someone at the branch must've got a nice little bonus for this and if they did this on one elderly couple then how many have they done it with!!

That is not how branch staff get paid on a product like this.

There is no wrongdoing here and nothing surprising. It just seems that they are late to realising how retail markets work.

dacouch

Try writing an Official Complaint and then if you're still not happy go to the Ombudsman.

There are cases with specific circumstances where the Ombudsman has ruled against the Insurer and required them to refund large portions of the premium

Mp3Corsa

This sounds entirely normal for Halifax. I ditched them this year because they kept hiking the premium - 50% over the last two years alone, although they tried similar most years. I couldn't be bothered with phoning them up every year to contest it (which is I guess what they bank on), so they lost my business after 14 years of loyalty.



twitter.com/Rob_Withey/status/1138857319327027201

worried_jim

Mp3Corsa wrote: »

This sounds entirely normal for Halifax. I ditched them this year because they kept hiking the premium - 50% over the last two years alone, although they tried similar most years. I couldn't be bothered with phoning them up every year to contest it (which is I guess what they bank on), so they lost my business after 14 years of loyalty.

twitter.com/Rob_Withey/status/1138857319327027201

To get the best price on anything you need to shop around every year with out fail. Fortunately there are many services that help you do this and some that will even do it automatically on your behalf.

Mp3Corsa

worried_jim wrote: »

To get the best price on anything you need to shop around every year with out fail. Fortunately there are many services that help you do this and some that will even do it automatically on your behalf.

I've no problem paying a small premium for the convenience of not having to shop around every year, but 50% hike over two years was too much even for me. :rotfl:

worried_jim

Mp3Corsa wrote: »

I've no problem paying a small premium for the convenience of not having to shop around every year, but 50% hike over two years was too much even for me. :rotfl:

I appreciate your convenience, the "small" extra you are happy to pay funds my new customer discount every year. Keep it up dear boy! :rotfl:

Takmon

gingapete wrote: »

I know you should always shop around and not stay with your supplier/accounts etc unless they work for you BUT my parents are old school and have refused to do any online bills and kept everything that they can local and pay local to (as they keep saying) provide jobs for people and keep business going! Now? Well now they are converted so now I will be looking at all other bills an seeing what I can save them!!

The idea of switching insurance companies to get the best price has been around for a very long time. My grandmother has been using brokers to switch insurance etc each year since before i was born. She always gets a very good deal and this is something your parents could have been doing if they had wanted too.

So this isn't to do with your parents age this is just financial laziness which happens with people of all ages. But it's good now they have realised how much money they can save by switching.