Home emergency cover - why so much cheaper with home insurance?

scarletjim

Just been looking at home emergency cover options. For the most basic policies, covering just the boiler, companies like British Gas, Homeserve, Corgi etc all have policies roughly as follows:
Policy = £100, each call-out = £100
or
Policy = £200, no charge for call-outs
(...or something similar)

Yet when I go online and try to add basic home emergency cover to my home insurance (11 months left to run), it only costs £36 !!!
T&Cs look similar - possible better actually, as some dedicated policies don't cover boilers over a certain age, whereas my home insurance says there is no age restriction.

Am I missing something here?

Sandtree

Lets say you go to an aggregator like Confused.com to compare those home emergency policies and go on to buy it then the insurer has to pay the aggregator probably somewhere in the region of £40-£80. Those marketing costs have to be covered by the premiums they charge... but they will do it on a blended rate so whilst it may be cheaper if you click via a Google Ad you have to factor in all those that click the ad and dont buy.

Adding it to an existing policy adds no additional marketing costs.

Secondly, people who buy packed products make less claims than those who go out there way to buy a standalone product... maybe they forget they have it, maybe they have it more than once as some bank accounts used to give free home emergency etc. Whereas if you have gone out, researched product and see £100 a year leaving your account either you have a better idea you have a problem and a claim will be following or are simply more inclined to remember its there and make a claim.

scarletjim

Wow - so nothing there to discourage me from taking up that option. I've always thought separate Home Emergency Cover was expensive for what it was, and hence have just kept money aside for emergencies, but at £36 for 11 months of cover, and with winter coming and working from home all the time (so a real uncomfortable pain if the heating dies), I think I'll go for it. Cheers.